Former Romtelecom and A&D Pharma CFO becomes GM for Romania's railway company CFR

The president of real estate developer Impact, Dimitrios Sophocleous, who previously served as manager with companies such as Romtelecom or A&D Pharma, was recently named general manager of state-owned Romanian company CFR. His naming is part of the program to place private managers at state companies. This came after business expert and TV anchor Niels Schnecker turned down the GM position, but he is now one of the members of the board with CFR. Other new members of the board are Lucian Isar, former minister for the Business Environment, Enache Jiru, who is state secretary with the Ministry of Finance, Cristian Ghibu and Sandu Danut. The board is led by Florin Kubinschi, executive vice-president of Nextebank. Sophocleous is of Cypriot nationality and came to Romania in 2001. The 47-year old worked with Cosmorom as Chief Financial Officer (former name of Cosmote, part of OTE group), then moved to Romtelecom – part of the same Greek group, to be CFO. In 2008, he moved to the same position at pharmaceutical company A&D Pharma, and since 2010 he has been a partner in a company called CDI Corporate Development and Investment. He is a chartered accountant, and holds a degree from the Athens School of Economics and Business Science. He speaks Romanian, English, Spanish, French and Greek – his mother tongue. The association PwC-D&B David and Baias-George Butunoiu won in July 2012 the bid to place private managers at Romanian state companies under the Transport Ministry, and which have a turnover above EUR 7.3 million. At the end of November, CFR SA, a company entirely owned by the Romanian State, received an EUR 174 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) intended to allow the company’s management to regain its financial balance by paying its outstanding debts. editor@romania-insider.com