Christian Busch found 'fantastic country' in Romania, vistas that remind him of his Bavarian home. The head of Arval's local subsidiary talks to Romania-Insider.com about his passion for restoring old cars and about his long trip downstream from near the Danube's source, to Romania, the country where the Grande Dame of European rivers finally flows into the sea. 

By Corina Saceanu

When he first moved to Romania to lead the local subsidiary of Arval car leasing and fleet management company, Christian Busch took his boss' advice and drove to the country. “I considered it an adventure to come here with the whole family, but in the end we really enjoy our stay,” Busch says in an interview for Romania-Insider.com. He moved to Romania mid-2010, soon after a Friday-to-Sunday trip to the country where there was an opening for a General Manager position within the group. Back then, Busch was working with Arval in Munich. The week-end trip to discover the future setting of his job was enough. Soon after that, he was behind the wheel, heading for his new job- and his new home.

Passionate about cars, the Arval Romania GM didn't mind driving to Romania. “It took me seven hours to reach the Hungarian border and 12 hours to reach Bucharest. This is one of the limitations of the country- the state of its infrastructure,” he says. But this hasn't stopped him from exploring Romania.

He found a "fantastic country set”, which reminded him of his childhood on the banks of the Danube in the Bavarian city of Ingolstad, when the area was relatively unspoilt . “You cannot find places like these very often when traveling around Europe. When you go to Sinaia, you feel like you're in the Alps, and it's only one hour from Bucharest. I don't have any favorite areas just because I like so many of them,” the 46-year old German confesses.

He speaks some Romanian as he has taken Romanian language classes, but in the meantime he competes with his 9-year old children, who already speak Romanian better than he does. Busch's strategy for getting to know the country is spending more time with Romanians than in the expat community, as well as learning the local language, “out of respect for the country and for my team.”

Busch leads a team of 40 in Romania, where he has a three-year contract and the possibility to extend it. With his team in Romania he tries to use a mix of classic principles, with communication at their heart. Respect, ambition and engagement are also part of the recipe he uses. It was surprising for Busch that he didn't have to change his leadership style when coming to Romania. “It is a very young team, they are very open minded, they all speak different languages. Well, except German,” he says laughing. Humor and cheerfulness easily found their way in Busch's stories all through the interview. That, and his love of cars. “If you love this business, you are technical, you love cars and are passionate about what happens in the field,” says Christian Busch. Restoring classic cars takes the passion further. Busch restored some cars back in Germany – and doesn't rule out the possibility of restoring an old Dacia model – Romania's national car, even though he is yet to discover one that would inspire him to restore it.

His first project was a Porsche Roadster that he restored and kept it for 15 years “because I could not sell it when I finished it. It was like a part of the family.” With two cars waiting for him back in Germany, including his holiday car for visits to his home country, Busch's passion keeps him close to the business: “We all have a bit of gasoline in our veins.”

Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Arval)