According to HotNews.ro, Hidroelectrica’s supervisory board decided on Monday who will be the company’s five directors. The winners were determined at a meeting of the Council after a complex selection procedure riddled with scandals and political pressure.

Who are the winners of the five director positions at Hidroelectrica

According to HotNews.ro, Karoli Borbeli, a former member of Hidroelectrica’s supervisory board, has been appointed president of the directorate. He is politically supported even by Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku because of his family relationship with a businessman from Buzău. Karoli Borbeli is married to the daughter of Ionel Gaga, a businessman from Buzău who is close to the prime minister.

He was a member of Hidroelectrica’s board from August 2017 to August 2023, and was president of the company’s strategy and IPO committee. He is also the Director of Public Relations at Orange. He was also the Director of Business Development and Exports at Energobit Group.

He held several positions in the state: Secretary of State in the Ministry of Energy, in the Government of Ponta, Minister of Communications in the Government of Tarichan, Secretary of State in the National Youth Administration, also in the Government of Tarichan.

There are winners in other director positions (financial, operational, investment and administrative).

• Marian Fetitsa, head of the accounting department of Hidroelectrica
• Radoj Janes, chief engineer of UHE Caransebeș
• Bohdan Badya, the current president of the directorate, who has been managing the company since June 2017
• Radu Kostyantyn, manager of Hidroelectrica’s trade department

Selection procedure with scandal

HotNews.ro has written a lot about political interference in the qualification process of candidates from Hidroelectrica.

According to HotNews.ro, the selection procedure for Hidroelektrica Directorate members was deadlocked, as some of the politically supported individuals did not make it to the short lists. Surprisingly, some of the political favorites did not make it to the shortlists, and specialists from the company, not affiliated with any party, received higher scores.

Interviews with those shortlisted according to the calendar were supposed to take place on October 17-20, but did not take place. Instead, the Ministry of Energy sent the Control Body to identify violations in the candidate selection procedure. If violations are detected, the procedure can be resumed, which will benefit those who did not pass the qualification.

According to HotNews.ro, there has been pressure at the political level to widen the shortlists so that those who have been rejected can also fit in, so that they can get to the interview stage, where twists and turns can still happen. Given that the rules could not be changed during the game, the option of resuming the selection procedure was considered.

who lost

HotNews.ro reported how Hidroelectrica’s executive appointment process was blocked because Dragos Stefan Roibou, chief of staff to Minister Sebastian Bourduis and a business partner of the Bourduis family, was not on the shortlist. Roybu wanted to take the position of investment or administrative director, but did not get the required score.

One of them would be Corina Popescu, the former head of Electrica, who is strongly supported by former Prime Minister Mihai Tudose. Corina Popescu wanted to get the highest position in the directorate – the position of general director, but she would be satisfied with the position of operations director.

Along with the SIE reserve general, he controls another former Electrica boss and shareholder in Fratelli, a company that has just received a license to supply electricity, according to Profit.ro. Swift Spot SRL is the name of the company and is fully owned by Swift Energy SRL, a consulting firm founded in September 2022 and associated with Silviu-Bogdan Nicolae, Corina Popescu, Christian Busch and Nicolae Merjani, each of whom holds 25% of the capital .

Mihai Dari, former CFO of Nuclearelectrica and ex-CFO of Electrica, was also not shortlisted as he sought the post of CFO, although he was supported by PNL. Another PNL-backed candidate who wanted the CFO position but was not shortlisted was Julian Cristian Bosoanca, a close associate of ex-minister Virgil Popescu, former president of Electrica’s board of directors.

He also lost Petronel Chiriac, a former member of Hidroelectrica’s Directorate, who was supported by Remus Borza, the court administrator who brought the company out of bankruptcy, a former parliamentarian and adviser to former prime ministers Nicolae Chuke, Florin Kitsu, Ludovic Orban and Viorica Dencile.

For more information, also read:

• Hidroelectrica’s directors’ selection epic is coming to an end / Who can be the winner
• Hydroelectricity woke up with a control group from the Ministry of Energy / They are looking for violations in the selection procedure of directors in order to restore it
• The battlefield at “Hydroelectricity” for management positions / How political parties try to impose their favorites on specialists
• Selection of new directors from Hidroelectrica is blocked. The reason: the head of the Cabinet of the Minister of Energy is not on the short list / Burduzh denies any interference