Ionut Costea, the state's most powerful representative in energy sector

Ionut Costea, Eximbank chairman, was designated to represent Property Fund (Fondul Proprietatea) in the Supervisory Board of Petrom, Romania’s biggest company, after having been elected as a member in the boards of directors of the other two important companies in the energy sector, Romgaz and Transelectrica.

The new board of directors of Transelectrica was named on Monday, with the new members including the former vice-premier Gheorghe Seculici. At Romgaz, Costea is already a member of the board of directors, according to the latest data published on the company’s website. At the same time, according to some market information, he is supposedly present on the list of candidates proposed for the board of directors of Transgaz Medias, but the information was not officially confirmed. Costea thus becomes the state’s most powerful representative in the energy sector, as he will take part in the management of some companies with cumulated turnovers estimated at over 24bn RON (6.5bn euros) in 2008. The decisions made in the boards of directors of the four companies have an impact over almost 40,000 employees. Costea (the brother-in-law of PSD leader Mircea Geoana), 48, on Monday received the NBR’s approval for the position of chairman at Eximbank, one of the two state-controlled banks. Before being appointed at Eximbank, he had ran Emporiki Bank since September 2008 and had previously held the position of chairman at Raiffeisen Banca pentru Locuinte, between 2004-2008. Before 2000, he filled public positions, being a secretary of state at the Finance Ministry, and between 2000-2004 was an alternate director of EBRD, in London, as Romania’s representative. Ionut Costea could not be contacted for comment. Petrom’s supervisory board members earn mover 20,000 euros a year, while at Romgaz, Transgaz and Transelectrica directors earn 1% of the general manager’s salary.