UK/Romania Business, a new organization dedicated to reshaping bilateral opportunity, has announced an international advisory board with 13 top names to mark its first anniversary.
The announcement crowns the platform’s achievements over the past year and brings expertise in four core areas-– technology, finance, energy/infrastructure and defense, a press release said.
Dr David Webster, Founder of UK/Romania Business, said: “This group is an asset we’ve been building strategically and mindfully over the past few months, thinking how best to harness the knowledge and expertise of our incredible network, to amplify the UK/Romania business message, and deliver on our mission to build more focused and effective mechanisms for bilateral business and innovation partnership.”
The new advisory board members, in alphabetical order, are:
Alexandru Agatinei – CEO, How to Web
Olga Belyakova – Partner and Co-Head of TMT sector group in CEE, CMS
Josephine Hus – Chief Transformation Officer, Superbet
Ioana Iacobescu – VP Growth, Eurazeo
Mădălin Ioniță – Executive Director, Măgurele Science Park Association
Yan Manka – Director, Fintech and Product Partnerships Europe, Mastercard
Bianca Muntean – Founder, Transilvania IT Cluster
Diana Olar – Tech Executive, Entrepreneur and Board Member, Innovation Labs Romania
Radu Orghidan – Global SVP, Data and AI Strategy, Endava
Nicolae Rațiu MBE – Chairman, Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation
Shajjad Rizvi MBE – Chairman, Duke of Edinburgh International Award, Romania; Co-founder of Youth Cancer Europe; Director of Resysten International
Keren Shurkin – Director, UK-Israel Tech Hub at British Embassy Israel
Peter Watkins CB, CBE – Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE IDEAS; Non-Executive Member of the Board, UK Space Agency
Following publication of Technology Report: understanding and advancing the UK/Romania opportunity in June 2024, UK/Romania Business has incubated its Tech Hub project – a network of startups, investors, corporates and mentors to support companies as they scale, and connect businesses with the innovation they need.
The follow-up report Research, Technology and Innovation Partnerships: uncovering new bilateral opportunity (March 2025) develops on this work, setting out an agenda to extend the UK/Romania Tech Hub approach to build communities and promote opportunities in other key areas of operation.
Both reports, each launched at special events in the Palace of Westminster, are available for download at www.uk-romania.business/resources.
Commenting on the development, Dr Webster also announced a new in-depth study – examining UK/Romania defense partnership possibilities – to be published later this year alongside the delivery of a multi-country dual-use technology program for startups scaling to the UK, and supporting the integration of these providers with UK-based defense primes.
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