Leadership Team

The Foundation CEED Romania has been registered in 2006 as a Romanian legal entity, with SEAF Washington as a sole founder.

The Board of Directors is the managing and decision-making body of the Foundation and it is composed of three physical persons, appointed by the Founder for a three-year mandate.
The first Board of Directors is composed of:

• Thomas James Drum, SEAF, Director– Global Business Development;  
• Peter Andrew Righi, SEAF, Business Development Coordinator
• Cristina Mănescu, CEED Romania, Executive Director.

The Advisory Board is composed of 3-9 members, appointed by the Board of Directors from the members of honor of the Foundation or from important personalities of the social, political, economical and scientific life or from other fields, from Romania or abroad, who agree to support the activity of the Foundation.
The Advisory Board has the role to:

• support the Foundation in fulfilling its purpose and objectives;
• analyze and guide the activities of the Foundation so that it can fulfill its objectives;
• provide pertinent information about the economic and social trends, the evolution of SMEs and to suggest methods through which the activities of the Foundation would permanently adapt to the new development needs of SMEs;
• facilitate the communication and the cooperation of the Foundation with the administrative authorities, with the public services, with educational and financial-banking  institutions, with other non-governmental organizations, as well as with international organizations and interested economic entities in order to support the SMEs and NGOs.

The composition of the first Advisory Board was the following:

• Mr. Benjamin Rockwell, Economic officer, US Embassy
• Ms. Debra Mosel, Mission Director, USAID / Romania
• Mr. Aurelian Dochia, General Director, BRD GSG
• Mr. Cezar Scarlat, Professor University Politehnica Bucuresti, Director of the Center for Business Excellence
• Mr. Dominic de Prochnow, Head of International Business, Enterprise Plc, UK.

Cristina Manescu, Executive Director

Cristina Manescu took the leadership role of CEED Romania in 2006 and brought extensive knowledge and experience to this position.
She has started business training and consulting activities in 1991, with the first programme for promotion of SMEs established in Romania by UNDP.
Since then, she gained a wide experience in various areas of SME development, both in Romania and abroad. She provided business consulting, prepared busines plans, feasibility studies and documentation to obtain financing, trained hundreds of entrepreneurs, consultants, NGO members, designed, raised funds for, and implemented various SME development projects both in Romania and abroad, contributed to establishment of new SME support organizations and launching of new financing schemes for SME.
She also trained a variety of types of clients in areas related to Project design & Project Management and EU Structural Funds.
Cristina worked as a national and international consultant for UNDP, UNIDO, UNOPS, ITC in 10 countries from Central and Eastern Europe, Caspian Sea area and Central Asia, and in various projects funded by UNDP, World Bank, USAID and EU.
She has served as the Task Manager of the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest, in charge with SMEs and the business environment, coordinating the whole portfolio of ongoing and pipeline projects for SMEs.
Cristina is a member of TEAM EUROPE, a network of independent trainers and speakers established by Delegation of the European Commission.
Cristina Manescu holds an University degree from the Cybernetics Faculty of the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, a Master of Business Administration from Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers - CNAM Paris, and a Master degree from The National Institute for Economic Development, Bucharest.
E-mail: Cristina.Manescu@seafweb.org


Popescu Mihaela, Deputy Director

Mihaela Popescu joined CEED Romania in 2008 and as part of her role in CEED, she wishes to share her wide experience in the areas of small business development, management training, Project management, public relations and human resources, thus helping to develop the SMEs sector in Romania. She has worked for many years at USAID Romania, United States Peace Corps, National Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs and National Agency for Privatisation of Romania.
In her professional career, she developed and conducted management training programs for over 300 entrepreneurs, managed over $15 million SME development programs, created a national network of business consultancy centers with EU-PHARE, British Know How Fund, and USAID financing, prepared various surveys related to the SME sector, including entrepreneurs need assessments, created a network of pilot telecenters which provide access to a complete set of IT and communication services in economically deprived areas of Romania as a model to Universal Service policy  implementation, supported over 20  business organizations develop advocacy skills, improve quality of services, and increase membership.
She assisted business associations in the areas of ITC, tourism, and micro-lending create nation wide coalitions able to lobby for related  industries’ benefits and also assisted creation of Express Finance, a profitable, self-sustainable micro-finance institution under the USAID Enterprise Development and Strengthening program.
Mihaela Popescu holds a University degree in Psychology, a PHD in Economy from the Romanian Academy and a Professional Certification in Project Management issued by US Learning Tree International, Washington DC.
     
E-mail: mpopescu@seafweb.org