Dragos Pislaru picked for minister of European investment and Funds

The Social Democratic Party (PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL), the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) and Save Romania Union (USR) at the weekend agreed on their ministerial picks for the ongoing Bolojan Government. Dragos Pislaru is PNL's pick for minister of European investment and funds.

He was born on March 23, 1976, in Bucharest. He is a graduate of the Faculty of International Economic Relations within the Bucharest School of Economics (ASE) (1998), having a degree in International Economics. He attended postgraduate studies (1998-1999), winning a diploma in Advanced Studies in European Integration also at ASE. He holds a Master of Science - International Relations degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (1999 - 2000) and an Executive Education diploma Entrepreneurship - Case Study Centered Learning" (short-term course) from Harvard Business School (HBS) (July 2006). He is a specialist in public policy evaluation.

He also holds a PhD in Economics.

A university lecturer, he taught World Economy, International Politics, International Economy, European Integration at ASE, Bucharest (1998-2007). Associate researcher at the Romanian Centre for Economic Policies (CEROPE) in Bucharest (Dec. 2000-June 2004) and executive director of the Applied Economics Group (June 2004-December 2006). He held the position of general manager within the business and management consulting company, GEA Strategy & Consulting S.A. (Dec. 2006-Nov. 2015). He was state councillor on economic affairs at the Chancellery of Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos (Dec. 8, 2015 - Apr. 18 2016). During the same period, he was the president of the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Coordination of State Aid.

Pislaru was the minister of Labour, Family, Social security and the Elderly between April 18, 2016 and January 4, 2017. From March 2017 to May 2019, he was a partner at Civitta Strategy & Consulting SA, part of the Civitta International group.

Founding member of the Romania 100 Platform, together with former Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, former Minister of Health Vlad Voiculescu and others (May 10, 2017). The following year, he was part of a group that initiated the political project Romania Together, which in December 2018 became PLUS (Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party). He was elected MEP on the ticket of the 2020 USR PLUS Alliance in the election of May 26, 2019. In June 2022, he was one of five founding members of the Party Renewing Romania's European Project (REPER).

He is a member on the Advisory Board of the Competition Council; Romanian Society of Economics (SOREC); TCI (The Competitiveness Institute); Team Europe 2005-2008, European Commission/Romania; representative of the Alumni Association in Romania of the London School of Economics; of the Working Group for the Improvement of SMEs and the Business Environment (under the patronage of the Ministry of Economy).