Meet our speakers

Adina Păun is a midwife, she graduated the Faculty of Midwives and Medical Assistance from the Carol Davila Medical and Pharmacy University in Bucharest, she is a before and after birth educator and a lactation consultant with an international certification(IBCLC). She is a pro-midwives activist and she is working in vulnerable communities with organizations such as Salvați Copiii, E-Romnja or Centrul Filia, where she is sharing women information about contraception, pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. 

Alina Kasprovschi founded and has been managing, for 7 years, Fundația Comunitară București, an organization that supports people with initiative in Bucharest. Before working in non-profit, she has gained experience in communication and marketing for 10 years. Alina thinks that the future belongs tot the alive communities, that organize and solve their problems. She supports Toma, her son, to become an emotionally intelligent adult, who sails through life lead by his passions. In her spare time, she rides the scooter and saves cats.

 Ana-Maria has built a solid experience of almost 19 years in corporate PR and reputation management. At the beginning of 2018 Ana-Maria took the path of entrepreneurship and launched Brain 4 Strategy, a consultancy agency for reputation management, crisis communication and corporate communication. Ana-Maria has a CIPR diploma obtained in London and is the first professional in Romanian PR certified by AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication). In 2018 she launched the Romanian branch of the Global Women in PR association. 

In Nov 1998 after several sales and marketing roles in FMCG sector,  Angela joined AVON ROMANIA as sales manager. In 2002 she took over the Sales Leadership and later Country Manager role in Serbia & Montenegro. By 2005, Angela returned as General Manager of Avon Romania and later on her role expanded to Vice-President SEE & Romania, leading a group of 10 countries. In Jan 2009 she moved to New York Avon Headquarter, as Global Vice-President of Business Model Innovation with responsibility for integrating web-enabled technologies into all components of the business-to-business and business-to-consumer operations, including online brochure functionality as well as online customer acquisition, representative digital activation and social media strategies.  In March 2011 Angela Cretu was appointed to the position of Group Vice-President Avon Eastern Europe and GM Russia and she and her team embarked on a breakthrough multi-faceted program of strategic change, now well underway and delivering performance benefits and competitive gains. In February 2014 she moved in Istanbul and she is currently having the role of Group Vice-President Avon Turkey, Africa and Middle East.  As October 1st 2016, Angela takes the role of Group Vice-President Avon Central Europe, repatriating after almost a decade, home.

On September 21, 2015, Hans Klemm assumed the duties of U.S. Ambassador to Romania. Previously, Ambassador Klemm was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Human Resources, and served as Acting Director General of the Foreign Service and Acting Director of Personnel of the Department of State from July 2013 through December 2014. In 2012, Ambassador Klemm was the U.S. Senior Official to APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and from 2010 led all U.S. civilian and military rule of law programs in Afghanistan. Beginning in 2007, Mr. Klemm served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. He previously served as Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and held director-level positions in the bureaus of Human Resources, and Economic and Business Affairs in the Department of State. Overseas, in addition to multiple tours in Japan, Mr. Klemm worked at U.S. embassies in Bonn, Seoul and Port of Spain. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service and a graduate of Indiana University (B.A) and Stanford University (A.M.), Ambassador Klemm has professional fluency in Japanese and German. He is married to Mari Kano.

A former UK police officer, Ian Tilling is a social entrepreneur with 28 years’ experience of working with vulnerable groups in Romania. He founded the Casa Ioana Association in 1995 and opened the country’s first night shelter for people facing homelessness in Bucharest in 1997.  Presently, Casa Ioana works with women and children experiencing domestic abuse and family homelessness by offering temporary accommodation and comprehensive psychosocial support through two Centres in Bucharest. Ian has a broad knowledge of homelessness across Europe and is the president of the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA).

Irén Arsene Máté is the founder of Curtea Veche Publishing, she is a writer and he has a background in sports and informatics. Curtea Veche Publishing is now one of the main players on the book market in Romania, with a portfolio that includes books on financial education, psychology, poems, science fictions or books for children. Iren founded Asociatia Curtea Veche in 2014 in order to develop and implement a reading program at a national level that would prepare the next generations and they reached almost 80.000 children in over 250 cities and villages. She published her first book in 2018, Es Mal Pas, an auto-fiction about a woman that finds her strength in fragility. She was awarded by the Romanian Royal Family with the King Mihai I Medal for Loyalty in 2012 and the Romanian Crown Order in 2014.

Lucia Costea is Managing Partner and co-founder of Secom®, an ambitious Romanian company, with 15 years of experience in importing, promoting and commercializing natural products for health and beauty and also in naturopath consultancy. She played a decisive role in the development of Secom®, which is now a leader in integrative medical solutions. Together with her husband, Andrei, Lucia founded Secom when she was 20 years old, when they were still students, as they had a strong belief that health means balance and vitality and that through the most advanced natural products we can improve life quality.

H.E. Michele Ramis has graduated from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and she has a diploma and a master degree in Criminal Sciences and Criminology, and she started her career in 1980, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, occupying various positions in the central administration and also abroad. She worked abroad, especially in Latin America (as a diplomat at the Embassy of France in Bogota, Mexico City and as the Ambassador of France in Guatemala) and she also occupied various position in the security field (Vice Permanent representative of France at the United Nations, in Viena and then at Geneva). In 2011, she started working at the cabinet of the Defense Minister, Gérard Longuet, as a diplomatic counselor and then she became an Ambassador in charge with transnational criminal threats, from 2013 until 2017. She became the Ambassador of France in Romania in 2017. She is a member of ”Women and Diplomacy” Association and she has been involved in promoting gender equality both through the projects she developed while occupying different positions and also through supporting professional equality at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 Marta Ușurelu is the journalist who has had the power to takeover the Biz magazine during the crisis of 2009 and hit the road in spite of the hardships encountered by a print and content business both at a local and international level. With each project, Marta imposed herself among the market players as the action man behind the brand. While numerous publications were closing down, Marta succeeded together with her team and a great deal of courage to make Biz a Romanian entrepreneurial brand that has developed around the business magazine a complex platform of unique events and unique projects in the Romanian landscape. In 10 years of entrepreneurship, she built alongside Biz one of the most powerful business communities and organized business events in 9 cities across the country and in 8 capitals of the world, on 3 continents.
Marta is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy and has 20 years of experience in written media. She is also a creator of premium content for both editorials and events.

At the end of her university studies, Monica started her professional career with a first entrepreneurial experience, conducted in parallel with an academic activity within the University Transilvania Brasov. She joined Pentalog in 2003, as a trainee in order to get a DESS (Diploma of Higher Specialized Studies) in Marketing and Production, and she decided to stay in this dynamic and ambitious team. In 2004 she became head of the Pentalog production agency in Bucharest, with a focus on commercial development in the local market. In 2005, Monica entered the Pentalog group shareholding. In 2009, she went to Hanoi, to supervise the creation and start-up of Pentalog’s first production facility in Asia, which allowed her to have a very good international experience, after 2 years of coordinating the production activities of Eastern Europe as COO. In 2011, she became Deputy CEO at the Pentalog Group, with major objectives around production management, development and coordination of strategic partnerships. Currently, Monica is a member of the board of the Pentalog France group and a director of Pentalog Romania. Between August 2015 and October 2018, she was General Manager of the Pentalog Software Factory, which brings together on the Pentalog platform the production of IT solutions, IT consulting and cloud solutions, in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Vietnam, Uruguay and Mexico. Since October 2019 she has taken the position of Chief Customer Success Officer Pentalog Europe & Asia.

Oana Craioveanu is the CEO and Co-founder of Impact Hub Bucharest, the first coworking space opened in Romania, in 2012. Impact Hub Bucharest is the organization that supports the development of entrepreneurial initiatives with a positive impact through a coworking area, growth and incubation programs, conferences and events and a crowdfunding platform. Oana has more than 18 years of experience in Project Management, is a mentor for startups supported by Impact Hub and is the co-creator of the international conference Innoteque. She is also one of the participants of the renowned program Aspen Young Leaders 2012.

 Roxana Tanase is an HR professional with almost 20 years of experience in the multinational environment. Her professional career includes companies like Arthur Andersen, ING Bank, Vodafone, and for the past 5 years, Microsoft. She joined Microsoft in November 2013 as HR Director for Romania, and starting 2017 she leads the company’s global graduate program. In her current role, Roxana is responsible for the strategy, design and implementation of a 2 year development program for approximately 2000 graduates spanning over 60 different countries worldwide. In her work she spends a lot of time advocating diversity and inclusion in a global environment. Roxana is also the proud mother of a boy and a girl, an avid learner and a strong believer in seeking and appreciating the uniqueness of each individual. 

 Sandra Gătejanu Gheorghe is a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Currently she is the Deputy Director of the Planning and Protocol Directorate within the Romanian Presidency Preparatory Unit at the EU Council. Between 2008 and 2018 she was the protocol manager of the Royal House of Romania. In that capacity, she coordinated the public visits of the Romanian Royal Family abroad, but also the Royal Trips made in Romania by the members of the Foreign Royal Families, at the invitation of the Romanian Crown Custodian and Prince Radu, she kept in touch with the Royal European Houses, organized the presence of the members of the Royal Romanian Family at public events around the country, managed the connection with the diplomatic missions accredited in Bucharest, but also with the missions of Romania from abroad, organized the events of the Royal Family, whether it was Jubilee or Evenings of Elisabeth Palace, Dinners, Decoration Ceremonies. Sandra Gătejeanu Gheorghe is also a teacher of the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest. Since 2011, she is a lecturer of the Romanian Diplomatic Institute, holding lectures on the Royal Protocol and Ceremony in the courses organized by this institution. Sandra Gătejeanu graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest and also from the Faculty of Political Science within the same University. 

Mihai Zânt is an entrepreneur catalyst, trainer, coach and education contributor. Having over 10 years of experience in leading teams and communities he concentrated his work in building learning organisations. He is now building custom corporate learning journeys using experiences and practice systems. He is also mentoring several entrepreneurial projects being concentrated on sustainable and systemic impact. He is a board member in AVE, an NGO who aims to bring Romanian Education system amongst first 10 in EU by 2035. 90% of the School Leaders in our Academy are women. He believes in stakeholder value, long life learning, return on character, social impact entrepreneurship and gender equality.

Victor is an event organizer, facilitator and host, with a natural ability to improve the participants’ mood, as well as to tell the story of each event in a manner connected to the values and context of each event or client. He brings high energy and manages to raise the tempo of any event; he emphasizes the concept behind each event through the unique interactions with the public, facilitating discussions and asking tough questions when necessary. He helps participants build learning and collaboration spaces and facilitates better interaction between individuals and the celebration of important moments inside every group. Victor creates an environment that invites participants to be open and curious and to practice learning, trust and fun, thus providing a high quality inspiration and motivation source for all participants in the audience.