I was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1974. I grown up in a wonderful family... I am a father today, and until today, I keep wondering how did my parents and grandparents managed to bring us up into what we are today. Thank you!
I lived in Bucharest where I went to school in Drumul Taberei district (School 278).
I went to Gheorghe Lazar High School. I graduated in 1993 from class 12C. I loved this school - I made a group of smart and funny friends. I think we had a team of great professors: Prof. Chelu (physics) one of my mentors, Prof. Ursea - my chemistry professor, Prof. Dobrescu (Math), Prof. Chiru (Romanian Literature) and all the others. They knew how to work with us, even if we were sometimes lazy and uninterested, to provide us a great education.
I went to the Polytechnics Institute of Bucharest (PUB) - Department of Engineering Sciences (DSI) - English Stream - where I got my Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering and started post graduate studies. During my student years I worked together with one of my best friends - Valentin Tudor (Valy) - for an renewable energy NGO lead by Prof. Fara - Physics. He is a well known personality in this area in Romania. Later, I worked with Professor Dr. Banu for my graduation project and then join the company he was working for (SMC Romania). Dr. Banu was an example of work ethic and professionalism for me.
After this I worked for a financial and banking software company - FIBa Software LLC - at the time where I met two exceptional professionals: Catalin Georgian and Gratiela Bailescu. They started me in my IT carrier. One funny story about Cata is: The company was selling a software called IntBank - a banking software - which was pretty successful. In the same time I was taking MBA evening classes at PUB. One day we get a prospective visit from a future client for IntBank. In the discussion the client expresses some interest in opening a leasing business too and they asked if we have any leasing software too. Cata with a total confidence replied: "Yes, IntLease". As the client walked out he turns back to me and say: "What the heck is this leasing - we need to learn everything about it now...". As you might have figured not only we had no software IntLease - we hardly new what is was. I told him the bits I was learning about in my MBA class. The next day Cata came in with a full stack of laws and books - all about leasing - and he was talking about it like an expert. I really think he was an example and they were a great team.
In 1999 we (me and Valy) were offered a by Dr. Pascu and the team of profession from DSI a contact to pursue a scholarship in US at UMD. We contacted Dr. Ohadi from UMD and got admitted to the PhD Program in the SSTS (Small and Smart Technology Systems). Here I worked for 5 years towards my PhD. I did interesting and challenging experiments at NASA involving cryogenic liquids pumping. Upon graduation, unfortunately, as a lot of non-US citizens I faced a lot of head winds towards getting a position in mechanical engineering research due to the fact that although my expertise was valuable I did not have the clearance necessary to get those jobs.
I started my IT carrier in US working with a group of PhD in Physics from UMD at a company called Ceresoft which was using OCR technologies to process paper forms. Most of our clients were in the Health System.
Later I joined Mooring Finacial (later MTAG Financial Services) a great company lead by to great people: Jim Meeks and Adam Berman. Here I spent 3 year developing a financial system for management and due diligence of tax liens. This was a niche investment area which when very well before the big financial crash.
Now, I am working for Dakota Consulting which a IT services company which consists of a select group of IT professionals lead by an awarded CEO - Lori Reiner.
Let's see what the future has in the bag for me from here...