People

Mr. Stanescu is an Romanian citizen, Educated at the Academy for Economic Studies in Bucharest, Mr. Stanescu graduated magna cum laudae in 1988.
Mr. Stanescu further improved his education by getting his Ph.D. degree in 1998 and by attending a variety of courses and internships with the World Bank, the Bank of England, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Chase Manhattan Bank, Merrill Lynch.
Mr. Stanescu served as Capital Markets Advisor to the Governor of the National Bank of Romania. Mr. Stanescu is an U.S. S.E.C. Series 65 Investment Advisor with Danzell Investment Management, an investment advisory firm in the United States of America and headed for the last 19 years the CEE operations of King’s Place Advisors, an investment banking boutique, active in M&A and Project Financing.

Mr. Alexa is a Romanian citizen, born in Bacau.
Educated at the Titu Maiorescu University in Bucharest, major in Finance & Banking.
Mr. Alexa further improved his education by getting an MBA degree at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa in Canada.
Project management for medical and commercial applications on both client and provider side, business processes mapping and design for integration with various IT business automation systems with a focus on seamless integration of features and functionalities. Software systems ergonomics and visual design team coordinator in order to meet disruptive business and user requirements while maintaining user acceptance, productivity and non-interference with operational work-flows, data and workflow consistency, strict external and legal regulations compliance.
His professional experience provides for extensive financial controlling and operations management skills, business start-up and project financing, planning and forecasting, business analysis & control, credit Risk Management, financial management, project financing, business planning & documentation, due diligence process assistance.
Mr. Alexa prior employment includes: La Dorna, Intersnack Romania, Romastru Trading and CFO of Amethyst Radiotherapy Romania, Anima.

Robert Becsenescu is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Economy and Development Studies from UC Berkeley in 2017, where he was a member of Blockchain at Berkeley.
In 2018 he founded Populus, a tokenized venture capital fund designed to bridge the average investor with Blockchain innovation. He has built a portfolio of active investments in over 10 tech companies set to disrupt multiple industries (TaTaTu, Celsius Network, Hedera Hashgraph, Phunware etc.). He holds distinctions from Harvard, Yale, Wharton and UCLA Anderson and is a Romanian Banking Institute Scholar.

Robert Gealapu is a seasoned technology executive with over 5 years of experience leading technical teams and driving innovation. Currently serving as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Katastic, Robert Gealapu is responsible for overseeing the company’s technological strategy and ensuring that it aligns with the organization’s overall goals and objectives.
Throughout Robert’s career, they have demonstrated a deep understanding of the technology landscape, leveraging emerging technologies to drive business growth and improve operational efficiencies. He is passionate about creating and leading high-performing teams and has a track record of delivering successful projects and products.
Prior to Katastic, Robert Gealapu held various leadership positions at WTZ Technologies, where he developed a strong reputation as a thought leader in the industry.

Chairman, co-owner of Mega Company an U.S. company with presence in Romania, Corea and the Middle East, Mrs. Turkmani is also the current co-chairman of Alianza, an U.S. NGO dedicated to the promotion of the Romanian business in the U.S. and a board member of AMRO, the most important association of U.S. and Romanian businesses, gathering most prominent companies in both countries).

Currently the CEO of Intesa San Paolo Bank Romania, Mr. Sandu has a long investment banking career, previously being an executive vice-president of Volksbank Romania and starting his career as a central banker at the National Bank of Romania.

ALCOM Corporate Finance has been established in 2003 and since then it provides advisory services in the fields of business disposals and acquisitions and cross-border market development to its clients. Main project expertise of ACF includes manufacturing (food and beverage, construction and household chemicals), trading (distribution of spare parts for cars) and services (wide range of technical facility management, electronic media, water and wastewater management). ACF boasts country expertise with regards to Poland, Romania, Germany and Hungary.

Before establishing ALCOM Corporate Finance in 2003, Albert Lewicki gained professional experience at Polish and international brokerage houses acting on equity and debt markets as licensed stock broker, and was a partner at a Polish m&a boutique in Warsaw. Albert boasts 24-year professional experience on capital markets in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe, incl. 18-year experience in international m&a transactions. Albert worked on projects and assignments in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Serbia and Moldavia. Albert completed with distinction a joint MBA program of University of Antwerp and Warsaw University, before that he completed post-graduate management studies at the Warsaw School of Economics, and the German literature studies. Albert holds a stock broker license.

Presently the Romanian partner of Pinebridge, Mrs. Popescu developed a more than 20 years carreer in investment banking and private equity investment, managing for a number of years the Romanian office of A.I.G. New Europe Fund.

Over 20 years of experience in the capital market as shareholder and director of SSIF Goldring SA make Virgil  one of the persons that you would want your idea to be assessed by. With multiple businesses in various niches, such as renewable energy, agriculture, supply chain management and production, Virgil is prepared to offer his expertise to great future entrepreneurs that come though 0-Day Capital’s funnel.

Currently the General Manager ARA Software Group, Mrs. Lazar-Rapisca is a Romanian citizen, born in Bucharest.
She is a graduate of technical studies (automatics and computers) and holds a master’s degree in Business Management and Engineering.
She is public private partnership expert certified since 2014.

She joined the ARA team 15 years ago, and is the company’s general manager since 2007. She holds vast experience in business strategy and project management, and she has been directly involved, from the very beginning, in the public administration project management.

Dragos is perhaps one of the top digital media and ad-tech pioneer in Central and Eastern Europe. He is the founder of ICEEfest (Interactive Central and Eastern Europe Festival) – an event that attracts thousands of marketers, media personalities and global players to Bucharest each year.

He is a stockholder and managing partner (for Romania) of ThinkDigital, the official reseller of TripAdvisor, InMobi, Vice and other global brands.

He had a deep involvement in the development of Project Agora – the first programmatic advertising marketplace in the region (launched in 2012).

Dragos holds an MBA in media management (Scandinavian International Management Institute – SIMI, Denmark). Today, he invests some of his time as a startup advisor and seed money investor.

Currently Founder & CEO of Majoritas, leading political technology and communication consortium of companies, and Managing Partner of Kondiment, international digital agency, Lucian Despoiu is a serial entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in the digital marketing industry and over 25 digital political campaigns all around the world.
A result driven specialist, Lucian is one of the key innovators of the Political and Institutional Communication industries, with a vision of making research, data, technology and paid media work together for politicians and Governments all around the world. Under his leadership Majoritas Global has been influencing elections in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.
To the group of companies in Majoritas Global, Lucian has added Majoritas Insights, a real-time research company, and Majoritas Academy, an educational initiative, and is currently working on developing a solution addressed to citizens willing to get involved in how decisions are being made in their society.

Lucian Despoiu handled more than 25 national campaigns, having worked for 5 presidents, 9 prime ministers and state persons on 4 continents: Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, developed a number of companies (strong entrepreneurial skills) and founded one of the most influential NGOs in the youth/ student environment.

Banker and investor with 20+ years of experience in corporate finance, investment management, private equity and corporate & investment banking in Romania, CEE, USA and the UK. An MBA of Tulane University – A.B. Freeman School of Business. Ciprian Paltineanu work experience included managerial position with solid international financial institutions such as ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Lehamn Brothers, Credit Suisse, UniCredit Bank. He also serves as a Board member of the Romanian Fintech Association and a member of TechAngels.