Sophocleous resigns after 3 months at helm of Romanian CFR, blames political motives for rejecting management plan

Just three months after being named at the helm of Romania's state – owned railways company CFR SA, general manager Dimitris Sophocleous resigned after the company's board rejected the revised management plan the leadership team had drafted. He cites political reasons for the rejection, as finances had improved. Sophocleous was one of the first private managers appointed at the helm of state – owned companies, as the country had agreed with its financier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

CFR SA's board was made of representatives of the Transport Ministry and the Finance Ministry. “We believe this sudden change is not based on economic reasons, as the company's situation improved in the last couple of months, but rather by a political despair and fear of losing influence over the resources of a state company and of its European funding,” wrote the management in an official statement. Romania pledged to appoint private management, but this recent development may cast shadows over the agreements with financial institutions. “We believe Romania's pledges to international financial institutions are endangered, together with the credibility of the Government representatives in this case,” said Sophocleous. The private management team had found a series of irregularities in the first control at the Iasi regional headquarters in acquisition contracts. Among its accomplishments in the first three months of activity, the management also highlighted the drop in the debt to the state budget, from RON 620 million (or some EUR 138 million) to RON 540 million – some EUR 120 million, as well as the full payment of social contributions for employees, as well as an extra RON 1.3 million a year after renegotiating rents. The president of the company's board, Lucian Isar and the GM Dimitris Sophocleous both expressed worries about the lack of transparency surrounding the company's development process, which was interrupted, and which should have yielded positive results. 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. editor@romania-insider.com