The Real Women: 10 Influential Women in Romanian Real Estate
A not long ago male – dominant sector, Real Estate has reached a phase in which prominent women professionals are leading several of the most powerful real estate businesses in the Southeast European region – not to speak about the sector in general. While some may explain it as a market maturity phase, we see it mostly as a result of genetic characteristics, typically attributed to women, being put to work – such as consistency, assertiveness, empathy or self-organization. The result is, however, an impressive number of women at the helm of some of the most influential real estate businesses in Romania.
They are deal makers, shrewd negotiators, market movers & shakers, business growers, inspirational leaders over hundreds of people and target over- achievers.
Over 5 billion EUR businesses managed by women in Romanian Real Estate. With the beginning of the year having brought new promotions in the market, we list below 10 of the most powerful profiles in the industry:
FULGA DINU
She was recently named country manager of Immofinanz for Romania and Bulgaria.
The company has a significant presence on the Romanian market, with 10 class A office projects and four shopping malls operated under VIVO! brand, in key-locations nation-wide: Cluj-Napoca, Constanta, Pitesti and Baia Mare.
Before joining Immofinanz, she occupied top management positions such as CFO of Iulius Group and Country Manager of Eurohypo (part of the Commerzbank group), the German bank which financed the real estate projects of Anchor Group in Romania.
AURELIA LUCA
Skanska’s commercial development unit in CEE announced in early February the appointment of Aurelia Luca as Managing Director for Skanska Property Romania. She also became a permanent member of Skanska CEE’s commercial development unit Management Team.
Aurelia has over 16 years’ experience in the real estate market. She started in Skanska Property Romania in 2012, where she held the position of Leasing Manager, and from 2016 to 2017 as Country Director.
In her previous roles, Aurelia was fully committed to successfully delivering, leasing and divesting the Green Court Bucharest office complex, strengthening Skanska`s position in the northern part of the city with the Equilibrium project, and leading the way as Skanska entered a new sub-market with the Campus 6 development.
LUIZA MORARU
CBRE has recently appointed Luiza Moraru as Head of CBRE’s Asset Services Division for Central and Eastern Europe. From this position, Luiza will guide and supervise almost 500 CBRE consultants performing asset management activities for office buildings and shopping centers in the CEE region.
Bucharest becomes this way a key-point in CBRE’s European network, as Luiza will lead the asset management teams located in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania, aligning the good practices and the workflows at a regional level, with an aim for excellence.
Currently, in the CEE region CBRE manages a total area of 3,950, 000 sq. m. out of which 1,800,000 sq. m. are shopping centers and 1,000,000 sq. m. are office buildings, the remainder being industrial and logistics spaces. In Romania, the Asset Services department was founded at the end of 2013, under Luiza Moraru’s leadership, and grew to 400,000 sq. m. in just 4 years, the portfolio including representative buildings such as Sun Plaza Bucharest, VIVO! Cluj, VIVO! Constanta or Timpuri Noi Square Bucharest.
SILVIANA PETRE BADEA
JLL has appointed Silviana Petre Badea as managing director of its Romanian business, based in Bucharest, beginning with March 2017.
Silviana joined JLL at the start of 2015 to lead its capital markets business in Romania. During this time, she has spearheaded the expansion and evolution of the team and services offered to clients, with JLL continuing to enjoy the largest market share of capital markets transactions in the country.
JLL Romania is one of the top real estate consultancy firms in Romania, serving big institutional clients. The company was recently involved in the sale of Radisson Blu Hotel in Bucharest, assisting Elbit Imaging during one of the biggest investment transactions last year.
ANCA DAMOUR
One of the most experienced retail real estate professionals on the Romanian market, she is the Managing Director of Carrefour Property Romania, one of the most active retailers on the local market, with three type of retail formats: hypermarket, supermarket and proximity shop.
Anca’s career in Carrefour begun in 2002 when she was a Legal Director. After seven years she was promoted as Development Director for Carrefour Property and beginning with 2011 she is the head of the company, responsible for Carrefour’s expansion. At the end of 2017, Carrefour’s Romanian network counted 311 units – 33 hypermarkets, 225 supermarkets and 42 proximity shops.
MIRELA COVASA
She is the Chief Financial Officer and a member in the Board of Directors of NEPI Rockcastle, the leading retail property investment and development group in CEE.
She has joined NEPI in February 2012 and was appointed CFO in February 2015. Following the merger between NEPI and Rockcastle, Mirela was appointed CFO for the new entity beginning with May 2017. She has graduated with a finance degree from Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania (CAFR).
Prior to joining NEPI, she was senior manager at PwC, where she spent eight years performing audit assignments in Romania, Slovenia and India. She has 15 years of accounting, auditing and financial experience.
ROXANA DUDAU
A very experienced real estate lawyer, Roxana Dudau is associated partner in Noerr. She specializes in real estate & construction law, urban planning law, corporate law and energy law. Her career focused on advising major foreign investors active in the field of retail and construction, banks, as well as major investors, predominantly in the automotive sector, in their greenfield investments in Romania, which she advised on structuring the planning and construction contracts for erecting their production facilities.
Roxana has large experience in real estate, town planning & construction and in regulatory issues, especially in retail transactions, advising the firm’s clients on their market entry and on their expansion in Romania. She has been part of Noerr ever since 2004.
EMA IFTIMIE
She is Commercial Director for Globalworth, the leading office investor in Central and Eastern Europe. The company founded by Greek business man Ioannis Papalekas is today the biggest office owner, with assets totaling 1.8 billion EUR.
Ema’s real estate career spans over 16 years, beginning with Victoria Holding and continuing with BOB Development and Upground. In her current role, she is part of the management team, responsible for frontline liaison with potential occupiers and letting agents.
OANA ILIESCU
She is Managing Director for Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, one of the top brokerage & consultancy real estate companies active on the Romanian market.
Her career identifies with the company started by Mihnea Serbanescu back in 1993. She begun in 2002 as a Consultant for Office Department and in 2005 she joined the Retail Department. Beginning with 2010 she was promoted as Managing Director, the company merging in 2015 with Cushman & Wakefield.
Echinox is the Cushman & Wakefield’s independently owned affiliate in Romania, comprising a team of over 50 professionals & collaborators and providing a full range of services to investors, occupiers and owners across all sectors of the real estate market, including the residential property advisory.
SINZIANA PARDHAN
P3, one of Europe’s leading logistics property investor-developers, promoted last year Sinziana Pardhan to the role of Country Head in Romania. Pardhan, who was previously Acquisitions Director for P3 in Romania, took over from Blake Horsley, who has become P3’s Group Development Director.
Sinziana oversees the company’s continuing expansion in Romania, a market that P3 believes has great potential due to strong economic growth and increasing importance in Europe’s manufacturing supply chain. With extensive experience in investments, acquisitions and disposals, she had previously spent nine years working at real estate consultancy Colliers.
P3 has a total of 370,000 sq. m in 14 warehouses in P3 Bucharest and another 100,000 sq. m of land which allow future expansion. Located just 13 km from the city center, the park is on the city ring road, which provides easy access to all six Bucharest districts, Henri Coanda International Airport (22 km away) and the A2 motorway. P3 is looking to expand in Bucharest as well as central and western parts of the country.