Niels Schnecker, Antena 3 anchor and business expert, has turned down the offer made by Ovidiu Silaghi, Minister of Transportation for him to become Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Romanian Railroad Company (CFR), according to Jurnalul.ro.

Schnecker’s office as CFR Chairman was initially confirmed on December 13 in an announcement of the CFR General Shareholders Meeting about the election of a new Board of Directors with a four year mandate.

The appointment was to be made under the Management Privat la Stat (Private Management for the State) project, which aims to select private managers for state-owned companies. In July this year, the Ministry of Transportation appointed associates PwC-D&B David and Baias-George Butunoiu to recruit the top management, general managers and Boards of Directors, of companies that are under the Ministry’s authority and have a turnover of more than EUR 7.3 million.

The Private Management for the State Project is financed by the European Social Fund via the Operational Programme Developing the Administrative Capacity 2007-2013 (PODCA) and it is co-financed by the Romanian state through the budget of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Schnecker holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the National Center for Business Studies in Washington DC USA, a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris at the Sorbonne and several corporate finance certifications. He worked as counsel within the Ministry of Transport, a Managing Senior Partner with SCHNECKER VAN WYK & PEARSON, and he also acted as Special Counsel in the Reagan Administration, at the White House.

End of November, CFR SA, a company entirely owned by the Romanian State,  received a EUR 174 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BERD) intended to allow the company’s management to regain its  financial  balance by paying its outstanding debts.

Ioana Jelea, ioana.jelea@romania-insider.com