“I haven’t made a decision yet, but I know who the candidates are. Next week at the latest I will have an answer as to who will run airline Tarom. The main objective of the future management is to make the company profitable, so the candidate has to have experience in this regard,” he told ZF at the launch event of a new company on the local market.
Ten foreign candidates are still in the race for general manager of Tarom, having been selected based on their professional expertise. For the board of directors there are seven posts and 24 candidates on the shortlist. Interviews for selecting the members of Tarom’s board of directors started over a week ago.
So far appointments to the company’s management have been exclusively political. The new management of Tarom will have to deal with overall losses of almost EUR200 million, accumulated during 2008-2011. If the implementation of private management is finalized, Tarom could become the first state-run company with private management.
The general manager of Air Canada earns $4.8 million per year.
Contacted by ZF, headhunter George Butunoiu said interviews for private management at Tarom are over and it remains for the Transport Ministry to choose the manager from among the candidates.
“The decision is now entirely in the hands of the minister. I can’t say how much Tarom’s general manager will earn, but at Air Canada, the general manager, who is a Romanian, earns around $4.8 million per year,” Butunoiu said.
He, consultancy PwC and law firm David & Baias were tasked by the Transport Ministry, in a EUR200,000 contract, to recruit managers for ten state-run companies subordinated to the Transport Ministry, which include railway companies CFR SA and CFR Calatori, national airline Tarom, roads authority CNADNR and subway operator Metrorex.
Silaghi also says after private management takes over, the procedure to sell a 20% stake will kick off.
“We have had talks with representatives of several European companies, and now I want to propose this to representatives of the Emirates company (officials of the company were present at the event of launching airline flydubai, a division of the company),” he said.
Ghaith al Ghaith, representative of flydubai and of Emirates company, did not answer ZF’s request.
At present the general manager of Tarom is Sorin Georgescu (the company’s former marketing and sales manager), appointed to run the state-held company in August, replacing Gabriela Bordea.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)