Romanian woman ranks among 50 most powerful women in the world

Romanian Mariana Gheorghe, the CEO of oil and gas company OMV Petrom, Romania's largest company, is the only Romanian woman included in the most recent Fortune 50 International Most Powerful Women ranking.

Gheorghe (in picture) was included in the global ranking - there is also a separate US ranking- and shares the stage with the likes of Maria das Graças Foster from Petrobras, Marina Berlusconi from Fininvest, Maureen Chiquet from Chanel, just to name a few of the Global 50 list.

The 56-year old Romanian became the CEO of OMV Petrom in 2006, two years after the company was privatized with Austrian OMV. Mariana Gheorghe comes after Françoise Gri, of Manpower Group. The Romanian is one of the 13 global newcomers to the ranking. “Under her watch the company has grown by every metric, delivering stellar results: Sales of USD 5.6 billion were up 27 profits in 2011 and profits jumped almost 80 profits to USD 1.2 billion. This year she hammered a deal with ExxonMobil for deep-sea exploration of hydrocarbons in the Romanian share of the Black Sea,” according to Fortune, which issued a special edition with the most powerful women in business ranking. The magazine issue was out today, October 8. OMV Petrom is the largest company in Romania by turnover and reported record profits and turnover in 2011. The company runs refining activities, extraction, as well as marketing and distribution via the OMV Petrom network of gas stations. See the Fortune 50 International Most Powerful Women ranking. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: OMV Petrom)