Personal Information
Date of birth: March 14, 1964, Hunedoara, Hunedoara County.
Marital status: married, 1 child.
Occupation: engineer certified in electronics and telecommunications, economist with a degree in finance and insurance.
Career
December 2007 – present: Member of the European Parliament (UDMR EPP), member of the Committee on International Trade (INTA), Vice President of INTA since July 2014; substitute member of the Committee on Regional Development (REGI); substitute member in the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis (CRIS) between 2009 and 2011;
2007: Communications Minister, Government of Romania, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology;
2007: Secretary of State, Head of Foreign Trade Dept., Government of Romania, Ministry for SMEs, Trade, Tourism and Liberal Professions;
2005 – 2007: Vice Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Financing, Guarantees and Insurance, EximBank Romania;
2004 – 2007: Minister-Delegate for Trade, Head of Foreign Trade Dept., Ministry of Economy and Commerce, Government of Romania;
2000 – 2004: Deputy for the Hunedoara County in the Romanian Parliament, Chamber of Deputies, Member of the Committee on Budget, Finance and Banking, secretary of the Committee in 2004, member of the European Integration Committee between 2003 and 2004;
1999 – 2000: Prefect, Prefecture of Hunedoara, the Romanian Government;
1996 – 1999: Councilor elected on the UDMR list in the Hunedoara County Council, Member of the Committee on studies, forecasts, budget and finance and of the Committee for urban organization and development and public works;
1992 – 1999: Representative for the Private Property Fund I “Banat – Crisana”; “Prestarea” Cooperative, Hunedoara; Director for development, “Remontin” Hunedoara;
1988 – 1992: Engineer, I.A.M.S.A.T Bucharest, Hunedoara Branch; from 1990 the metrology Coordinator of the branch.
University studies
2001: Degree in finance and insurance, University of Petroșani, Faculty of Science;
1988: Degree in telecommunications, Polytechnic Institute “Traian Vuia” Timişoara, Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
Postgraduate studies
2003 – Ministry of National Defense, National Defense College, XII Cohort;
1998 – Assembly of European Regions, Erfurt, Germany, summer school;
1998 – Szombathely Business Center, Hungary, Postgraduate Course in Regional Marketing;
1997 – Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers Belfort, Franche-Comte, France, Training Program in Entrepreneurship;
1997 – Deva Environmental University, Postgraduate Course in Marketing Management and International Business;
1995 – International Republican Institute, U.S.A. (Timisoara), Civic and Political Action Programme.
Political career
I am a member of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania since 1991. As of 1994 I have successively held senior positions in the Hunedoara Municipal Organization, and from 1996, in the County Organization. In 2001 I became President of the UDMR Hunedoara County Organization. Since 2000 I am a member of the Council of Union Representatives (CRU), and as of 2003 I am the leader of the CRU Diaspora Group. Since 2007 I have successively held membership terms in the UDMR Permanent Council.
I am a founding member of SME Europe, the European People’s Party (EPP) lobby organization for the SME sector. In October 2015, during the organization’s board meeting on the sidelines of the EPP Congress in Madrid, I was elected Fist Vice President of SME Europe.
Papers published
I have published several papers on economic issues, macroeconomic, financial and fiscal analyses in specialized magazines in Romanian, Hungarian and English (Piața Financiară, Közgazdász Fórum, The Entrepreneur, etc.). I have further held communiques and exposes on economic subjects at various seminars and conferences organized in over 30 countries.
Languages
I am bilingual in Hungarian, my mother tongue, and Romanian; I speak English at an advanced level, intermediate-level French and basic-level German.