Romanian public relations specialist Carmen Staicu will take over as spokesperson and head of external communication for Austrian Erste Group Bank starting May 1, 2015.

She will replace Hana Cygonkova, who has built and developed Erste’s external communication department over the last 14 years and will take on another role within the group.

In her new position, Carmen Staicu will be in charge of the group’s financial and corporate communication. She will answer to Michael Mauritz, Erste Group’s head of communication.

Carmen Staicu, 32, joined Erste Group’s communication team in 2011. She had previously worked as senior account manager for local PR agency Grayling Romania.

She holds a master’s degree in geopolitics and international relations from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE).

Erste Group in one of the biggest financial groups in Central and Eastern Europe. It has some 45,000 employees and 2,800 branches, and serves about 16.2 million clients in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia.

Erste Group manages close to EUR 200 billion in assets and has a market capitalization of EUR 11 billion. It controls Romania’s largest bank BCR.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com