Romanian budget minister Liviu Voinea to leave cabinet for an executive position in the central bank’s board

Romania’s budget minister Liviu Voinea was elected by the Parliament for one of the deputy governor positions in Romania’s National Bank (BNR) board, following vote on Monday, June 16. He will have to leave office in October this year when the new BNR board begins its mandate. Voinea will replace current BNR deputy governor Cristian Popa, who is in charge of the monetary policy. Voinea, who turns 39 at the end of this month, has been serving as budget minister in the Victor Ponta Government since December 2012. Before that he was economy professor and macroeconomic analyst. He graduated the Bucharest Economic Studies Academy (ASE) and holds a PhD in Economics from the same university. The other BNR executives were reelected. Mugur Isarescu got another five year mandate as Governor of the central bank. Florin Georgescu was also reelected as first deputy governor. Bogdan Olteanu was also confirmed for another mandate as deputy governor. Florin Georgescu, 60, has been first deputy governor of the BNR since 2004. Previously he was finance minister, from 1992 to 1996, and deputy in the Romanian Parliament for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), 1996-2004. He also had a brief mandate as finance minister in the Ponta Government, May to December 2012. Bogdan Olteanu, 42, has been serving as deputy governor of the BNR since October 2009. Previously, he was deputy in the Romanian Parliament on behalf of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and he was even president of the Chamber of Deputies, 2006 to 2008. Another new member of the BNR board is Gheorghe Gherghina, who is currently secretary of state in the Finance Ministry. Gherghina, 58, has been working in the Finance Ministry since 1987, first as economist, then as director in charge of elaborating the state budget and then as secretary of state. He had a four year break, 2005 to 2008 when he was adviser for the BNR. Gherghina worked on most of Romania’s state budget projects after 1990 which is why he is sometimes referred to in the local media as “father of the budget”. Another new member of the BNR board is former finance minister Daniel Daianu, who has been serving as first vice president of the Financial Supervision Authority (ASF) since May 2013. Bothe Daianu and Gherghina will have non-executive member positions in the BNR board. The other three members are Agnes Nagy, Marin Dinu and Virgil Stoenescu. Nicolae Danila, former general manager of Romania’s largest bank BCR before privatization, lost his member seat in the BNR board. Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com