Former Romanian finance minister returns to US as visiting fellow at Harvard
Ioana Petrescu, an economist who served as the finance minister between March and December 2014 in the cabinet of Victor Ponta, will be a visiting research fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Petrescu made the announcement in a Facebook post, Economica.net reported.
She will spend a year working at the Ash Center, she said. Petrescu explained that the position is granted to former dignitaries that wish to get teach or undertake research at the university for a limited period of time. Among those who occupied this position recently, at various centers of the Kennedy School, were Gordon Brown, the former UK prime minister, Giorgos Papandreou, the former prime minister of Greece, and Tom Ridge, the former US homeland security secretary.
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation was established in 2003 “ to address critical issues of governance and make governments more effective and responsive.”
Petrescu will work there beginning August 1 of this year.
“I will spend a large part of my time in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I will write a book for public policy MA and PhD students. The book will be an alternative manual, based on theoretical knowledge and the experience gathered in the Government of Romania, as finance minister and councilor of the former PM. I will also use in this manual my experience as consultant in the public sector in various countries and I will identify the best solutions for big issues, such as lack of infrastructure, modernizing healthcare and education systems and digital transformation,” she explained.
The former minister expects the year she will spend in the US to “offer the opportunity to undertake a retrospective of my activity, analyze the success and the failures, so as when I return to Romania I will have more solutions that can be applied to Romanian politics, regardless of whether I will be in the government or in opposition.”
Petrescu, who is 39, holds a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. In 2015, she replaced Mihai Tanasescu, a former finance minister of Romania, in the position of vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
(Photo: Ioana Maria Petrescu Facebook Page)
