New ABSL President: “We have a significant deficit of jobs and salaries above the national average in the business services industry”
The most important organization representing the local business services sector, the Association of Business Service Leaders in Romania (ABSL), announces the appointment of the new president – Dragoș Stefan, Head of PMO at Stefanini EMEA. Within the board of directors all the already existing vice-presidents have reconfirmed their positions.
With 11 years of experience in the industry, Dragoș Stefan follows Bogdan Pelinescu, general manager for Central Europe – Luxoft, who is now one of the vice-presidents of the association, at the head of ABSL. According to the statute, every two years elections are held within the General Assembly.
The new board of directors ABSL comprises:
- Bogdan Barbu – Head of Centralized Branch Operations Department – UniCredit Services
- Ciprian Dan – Location Head la Wipro Business Process Services Timișoara
- Ecaterina Ion – General Manager & HR Leader în Ungaria și România la Hewlett Packard Enterprise Operations Center
- Cătălin Iorgulescu – General Manager la Samsung Shared Service Centre Europe
- Bogdan Pelinescu – Director General Luxoft Central Europe
- Francesca Postolache – Audit Partner la PwC România.
The business services sector contributed with about 4 billion euros in 2017 to the country’s economy, and ABSL, as the main association of companies in the field, plays a vital role in the development of this industry and in collaboration with the authorities.
“The three operational directions we set out to develop during this term are:
Attracting new investments in the sector – We will continue to promote the business opportunities that our country offers to external investors. Romania is still a robust and sustainable market for the business services industry, although the context of the last years has increased the operational costs. We are still in the unique position to offer the perfect combination of cost efficiency in relation to the quality of the service offered, technical skills and language skills.
Support granted to expand the development of the business services sector in cities with potential still untapped – Resumption of dialogue with local authorities in key cities where this service sector is present, but with the involvement of smaller cities, where we believe there is potential to expand this sector . As you know, we have a significant shortage of jobs in our industry and salaries above the national average. We would like to see at least some of these jobs open in other cities of the country and not just limit ourselves to Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara, Iasi, etc.
Development of the Master’s program in other university centers – We aim to replicate the Master’s program we have now, in collaboration with ASE, and to other universities in the country, to expand the group of young people who are entering and making a career in our industry. ”, said Dragoș Ștefan, the new president of ABSL.
A briefly presentation of ABSL President:
Dragoș Stefan is a graduate of the Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Economic Informatics of the Academy of Economic Studies and of the first generation of specialists in Business Services, through the Master’s program organized by ABSL together with ASE.
“At the age of 20, I started my career in Stefanini Romania, where I work today. The company has been an excellent school for me and has transformed me from a junior with zero experience, into the man I am today. As areas of competence: I worked around 7 years in the Operational field, on various roles from helpdesk technician to operations delivery manager, 2 years as solutions engineer in presales and 2 years running the PMO EMEA department ”, said Dragoș Ștefan.
Detailed knowledge of the industry, market players, constraints and opportunities existing in Romania, but also in the region are elements that will help Dragoș in the new term.“I would like to thank the members of ABSL, on my behalf and the entire Board, for the trust granted by this new mandate for two years. We also want to assure them that their proposals have been heard and that we will try, as far as we are concerned, to turn them into reality.” concludes Dragoș.