ABSL has elected the new Board of Directors

The Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL) has re-elected Ciprian Dan, Location Head-Timisoara at Wipro Technologies, as its President. The ABSL Board has also welcomed two new representatives – Nicoleta Apetrei, Chief of Staff of the CEO and Deputy CEO for Societe Generale Global Solution Centre, and Anca Fotache, General Manager of Booking Holdings Center of Excellence Romania.

According to the statute, elections are held every two years in the ABSL General Assembly.

Ciprian Dan has been leading ABSL as President of the Board of Directors for three years and has received a new mandate for 2023-2025. He has been working in the business services industry for about 20 years and currently leads Wipro Technologies Timișoara, having a team of approximately 500 employees.

During this mandate, the main operational directions are related to promoting Romania and the business opportunities offered by the industry, collaborating with local and central authorities to  enhance this sector, and developing educational programs.

Nicoleta Apetrei holds the position of Chief of Staff of the CEO and Deputy CEO for for  Societe Generale Global Solution Centre (India, Romania, and Morocco) and has over 15 years of experience in the business services industry. In her current role,  Nicoleta is responsible for setting and implementing the company’s strategy, maintaining and improving relations with its partners, monitoring business performance, and acting as a “global sponsor” for various strategic programs.

As ABSL Vice-President, Nicoleta Apetrei, will be involved in investor relations, and her mission, together with that of the other board members, will be related to promoting Romania as a destination for business services, supporting those who want to invest here or want to bring new lines of business or projects.

Anca Fotache, General Manager of Booking Holdings Center of Excellence Romania, has over 20 years of experience in operations, customer relations, project and portfolio management, but also in coordinating strategic programs.

As ABSL Vice-President, Anca Fotache will develop, together with the operational team and her colleagues from the management team, initiatives related to education and training of young professionals who are at the beginning of the road and want a career in this field. Continuous communication and strengthening relations with authorities are also on the new Vice President’s agenda.

The ABSL Board of Directors also includes:

• Cătălin Iorgulescu – General Manager, Deloitte Shared Service Center
• Ecaterina Ion – General Manager, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Operations Center & HR Leader in Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania
• Bogdan Pelinescu – General Manager, Central and Western Europe Luxoft
• Francesca Postolache – Partner, PwC Romania
• Adrian Baron – EMEA ITSM Lead, Stefanini Romania
• Cătălina Crișan – Head of Operations, UniCredit Bank Austria Branch Romania

The business services sector has seen significant growth over time, from a share of approximately 1.8% of GDP in 2008 to 3.2% in 2011 and 5.4% in 2020.

Although the last three years have been very challenging, the number of employees in the industry has steadily increased, with over 180.000 employees currently working in this field.