Entering the ALD Automotive Romania office in Bucharest, the general manager’s office greets you in the middle of the space: a large room with glass windows from where the GM leads his team. And Shane Dowling, the general manager of ALD Automotive Romania, likes to be in the middle of things.

He was not always like this. As a shy, Irish kid, he wanted to be a train driver. He was, as he recalls, “the smallest one in the class”. But grew up to be the GM of one of the largest operational leasing companies in Romania, boasting a turnover of over EUR 30 million in 2014.

His first ever paid job was in a pub in Ireland, when he was around 14. “I’ve started working in a pub, they gave me 1 pound per hour, very little money, and that was my very first exposure to clients, to opening up a personality,” he recalls.

But this was how he managed to pay for his studies, through school and then university. He worked in pubs and bars, and once he graduated, he got into the business of cars and operational leasing.

Shane began as sales and marketing executive for Mitsubishi Motors in Ireland around 1995 and stayed there for three years. After that, he joined an Irish private family-owned business in Ireland, where he started as corporate sales manager. Three years later, when he was 31, Shane Dowling was named general manager.

In 2006, he decided to leave his home country and move to France, where he started to work for ALD International as international sales manager. Fast forward five years, and there he was fresh in Romania, to lead the local subsidiary as GM.

“I came here on a 3-year contract which expired in 2014; we extended it for one more year until 2015 and now I’m on my fifth year of contract. I keep asking to extend it for another year because I particularly like Romania. I love it here, really love it here,” he confesses.

“We have a joke in the expat community: “You cry when you come in, but you also cry when you leave” and it’s very relevant,” he adds.

Shane Dowling describes himself as a huge fan of Romania, a big ambassador of the country, the one who always encourages other people to come here. He found that Romanians are the closest he’s seen to Irish people. They like to have fun, know how to enjoy themselves and are very open-minded.

The Irish GM likes the Romanian food, especially the sarmale, as well as the Romanian wine which, he says, should be better promoted abroad. He does have some criticism in store for Romania as well: one is about the infrastructure, which curbs the pleasure of visiting Romania.

“If you want to go to the northern part of Romania it takes nearly a whole day to get up there, while in Western Europe, if you want to go somewhere, you jump on the motorway and you’re there in 2 or 3 hours. But apart from that, it’s well worth it when you get there.”

The other flaw is that Romanian authorities don’t do enough to promote the country abroad, to encourage people to visit. This is a pity, the ALD Automotive Romania manager believes. “The more you dig deep and explore Romania, the more the fondness when you see it,” Dowling says.

He visited many parts of Romania as well and fell in love with the Danube Delta while on a 3-day teambuilding there. He also visited the north-eastern part of the country, some of the mountains and did some skiing in Poiana Brasov and Sinaia. Skiing is one of his passions, after golfing. Unfortunately, to play golf he has to go to neighboring Bulgaria, as there aren’t any golf courses in Romania to really cater to the needs of golfers, says Shane Dowling.

From a business point of view, Romania brings both good and bad to the table. It is a good place to operate, but the unpredictability of legislation, and changes in governmental decision that have an enormous impact on the business often prevent enterprises from growing.

But the workforce quality is a plus: he finds Romanians to be very educated, with amazing language skills, as they speak really good English. ALD Automotive's local employees are all Romanian, and working with them is really easy, as they are hard-working people, says the GM. “I also enjoy meeting people, I enjoy networking, so I always try to encourage people here to include me in as many meetings as they can. I join in for meetings, of course I let them take over, but I really enjoy meeting. I am involved in every aspect of the business.”

A leader should run the business with honesty and integrity and try to encourage people in the company to apply the same values. “I think that if you really push those core values, you create a very stable relationship with clients and that’s what a business is all about, is all about our customers,” Dowling believes.

ALD Automotive has been active in Romania since 2005. In 2014, the company started the year with 7,280 vehicles and finished it with nearly 8,400 vehicles, a 15% growth. The operational leasing market grew at a similar pace of 14%. In 2015, the company wants to exceed 9,000 vehicles.

The company maintained its market share of 17% in 2014, while increasing its client portfolio to 270. Its turnover amounted to just over EUR 30 million last year and hopes to exceed EUR 32 million in 2015, according to the company’s management accounting report.

ALD Automotive Romania's biggest clients are in the pharma, FMCG, telecommunication and banking industries, which represent 60-70% of the company’s portfolio.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com