Another private manager leaves state-owned company: Badescu resigns from helm of Romania Post's express delivery division Prioripost

After only six months, Romanian entrepreneur Octavian Badescu (in picture)has quit Romania’s state-owned Post express delivery division, becoming yet another private manager frustrated with the State’s resistance to change. With 12 years of experience in the parcel services business, Badescu was appointed in April to manage the postal service’s Prioripost division.

The founder of company Sameday Courie, Badescu was brought in to save the company from a potential insolvency and ready it for privatization.

However, like other manages from the private sector given top positions in Romania’s public companies, Badescu said he encountered a mismatch between the state’s interests and the interests of the company and a private manager. Badescu criticised the state's failure to give managers the necessary independence to run the company. He also cited his inability to implement his management plan despite it being approved by the board as another reason behind the resignation. While at the helm of Prioripost, Badescu started several projects to change the company's structure and improve its services, as well as partnerships to cover more segments, such as international deliveries together with the French firm DPD. He is one of the several private managers named at the helm of state-owned companies who have left their posts shortly after being named, with most citing the lack of support from the company's board to enforce changes. At state owned airline Tarom, private managers have changed twice. Christian Heinzmann left in June after taking the helm in November 2012 while the first manager, Heinrich Vystoupil, gave up on the position shortly after starting. At the state-owned railway freight company CFR Marfa, the chairman of the board Mustafa Aysun resigned in April 2013, two months after taking on the role. The company was later privatized on the second attempt. Sister company CFR followed a similar story. Cypriot Dimitris Sophocleous resigned as a general manager of CFR following the dismissal of his management plan by the company’s board earlier in spring of 2013. editor@romania-insider.com