Ulrik Rasmussen: "I knew I would get exposure to more opportunities here than in Western Europe, where most things have been done"

When Danish Ulrik Rasmussen first came to Romania 15 years ago, on a backpacking tour of the region, he knew he wanted to return and live here. Six years later, he did that. In the past, he had been playing football, studying and working in Belgium for the European Parliament. He is now a well known head hunter in Romania, partner with executive search firm Pedersen & Partners. The 15-year path was quite filled with changes. By Corina Saceanu “It has been a bit of a fairytale, ending up sitting in this position. […] If you asked me five or ten years ago if I though I would end up in the position I am today, I would have said <absolutely not>”, Rasmussen confesses. He came to Romania after working for several years in Brussels with a Member of the European Parliament. When he had the opportunity to come and work in Romania for a firm which was selling medical equipments and technologies, he took the opportunity. Six months into the job in Romania, in 2002, he met another Danish - Poul Pedersen. After a ten-minute conversation in which Pedersen told him he was in the wrong industry and that he should try executive search instead, he accepted to join with Pedersen & Partners, which was just starting an office in Romania. Rasmussen was the second team member in Bucharest. Soon after he had joined, the other team member, Minerva Cernea, left for Canada. So pretty early on the job, Rasmussen was already sitting in interviews and directly participating in the recruitment process, which is not how the process usually goes nowadays. Had he stayed in Denmark or anywhere else in Western Europe, perhaps he would have still been a researcher, he says. The opportunities here were among the reasons which led him to Romania in the first place.

“I knew I would get exposure to many opportunities, more than I would have got if I stayed in Western Europe, where most of the things have already been done,” he says. “It didn't make much sense financially to come here but I had a feeling this was the right choice for my life and for my career,” says Rasmussen.