Two decades leading multi-country businesses across Central & Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine for one of the world's leading food groups — as General Manager, and at European leadership-committee level.
Trained as a physicist, I moved through Henkel and Campofrio before joining Danone in 2004, rising from Regional Sales Manager to General Manager, Danone Central & Eastern Europe — a mandate spanning nine countries and three business categories, across fifteen markets in CEE, Russia and Ukraine.
Along the way: the first Romanian on Danone Romania's leadership committee, the first Romanian to run a Danone General Manager region, and a seat at European leadership-committee level, where regional strategy is set rather than executed.
I work where governments, industry bodies and boards meet business — and where the deciding factor is rarely the plan itself, but whether the organisation is aligned and capable enough to carry it.
Each engagement typically begins with a short introductory call. Select a topic to open a pre-written message.
Independent board and investment-committee perspective on multi-market strategy, regional risk, and consumer-sector dynamics — plus board-readiness preparation for first-time non-executives.
Request an introductionEntering, consolidating or scaling across several countries at once: category strategy, regional operating models, and the discipline of translating one global strategy into fifteen local realities.
Request an introductionBuilding the bench: developing general managers, succession planning, and creating cultures where senior teams stay decisive under pressure rather than waiting for certainty.
Request an introductionCounsel for leadership teams facing geopolitical disruption, supply-chain shocks or restructuring — drawn from running businesses through some of Europe's most demanding operating conditions.
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First principles. Physics training, applied to organisations: inertia explains why change meets resistance, entropy explains why an unattended system drifts.
Multi-market fluency. Western process discipline on one side; real understanding of local context across CEE, Russia and Ukraine on the other. Neither works alone.
Questions before verdicts. A deliberately non-dogmatic style — resisting black-and-white judgements, and holding teams to ambitious standards rather than comfortable ones.
Multi-market strategic leadershipFifteen markets, three categories, one regional strategy — repeatedly inherited regions and grew them across Romania/SEE, Russia and Ukraine/CEE.
Strategy set, not just executedContributed at European leadership-committee level, where regional priorities and resource allocation are decided.
Builds leaders, not just numbersA record of developing general managers and senior teams — and of holding organisations together when conditions are hardest.
Tested, not theoreticalTwo decades of operating through inflation, geopolitical volatility and disruption, with continuity and growth maintained.
Earned internally, never laterallyEvery step across twenty years came through promotion — credibility built inside organisations, not imported into them.
Most engagements begin with a short, confidential introductory call.