From a first job as a delivery boy for Kentucky Fried Chicken in Marbella, his Spanish home town on the sea, when he was trying to save money and buy a car while studying law, to getting into real estate, moving around the world and to building 400 apartments in Bucharest and renovating the historic Cismigiu hotel downtown Bucharest, Mauricio Mesa has come a long way. A lover of seafood and water-sports, the general manager of Hercesa Romania and Bulgaria talks to Romania-Insider.com about his five-year Romanian story.

When asked what was the hardest thing to adapt to in Romania, Mauricio Mesa says it was the food. "From my point of view, Spanish food is the best in the world, much better than Italian or Asian food. Spanish cuisine is super rich, we have completely different styles from north to south and east to west,” says Mesa.

When he first came in Romania, in 2007, after he had worked in countries like Spain, Bulgaria, Brazil and Panama, it was quite difficult, he says, to find a large variety of fish, for instance. "I was always surprised how you could find salmon, as there is no production of such fish here in Romania, but you couldn't find any other types of fish, like Mediterranean fish for example. It's salmon or river fish you have here: trout, carp,” says the Spanish manager, adding that this has changed and now various sorts of fish, including Mediterranean, are available, as well as high quality veal meat.

In Romania, the services are still in the red, as are the road network and the public transportation, although there are signs of improvement, Mauricio Mesa thinks. But he's found the good parts of the country too. One such example is the small city of Micloșoara, which Mauricio Mesa discovered a couple of years ago. This is the place that Prince Charles always visits when he's in Romania. “My favorite place in Romania is Micloșoara. I like Transylvania a lot, in general, because it's greener, there are beautiful forests. I like the Romanian mountains a lot, too,” says the Spanish manager.

In Bucharest, the city where he works every day, at his office in the Vivenda Residencias showroom, he likes the sport facilities. "There are very nice places for sports, for instance, if you play tennis there are some really good courts, like the ones in Herăstrău. You have very good parks. If you like water sports – that's what I do now the weather has improved – you can go to Snagov, for waterskiing or wakeboarding,” explains Mauricio Mesa.

He's really into water-sports, a legacy from Marbella, his home town near the sea. "I'm completely addicted to kite surfing lately, I discovered it last summer and I can't wait to go to Greece or Turkey this summer, there are some perfect islands there.” He has also visited the Romanian resorts on the Black Sea, but finds the Bulgarian ones cheaper and better serviced. "The sea is much better, there are beautiful places like Balchik or Albena. It depends what you're looking for, if you like to party, probably one of the best places in Europe is Mamaia, in Romania. And I haven't visited the Danube Delta, I want to go to Gura Portiței, I have been told it's beautiful.”

On the work side, the Spaniard says he's not an authoritarian leader. He likes to share ideas with his team, because he thinks that, probably, everyone has a point in something, even if it's not their specific area of expertise. "I like to listen to what each person involved has to say and take a decision based on that. It requires also to have a certain level of trust and freedom. Of course, you have to define the target and where are we going based on the strategy, but I'm not the type of guy who is breathing down your neck. If someone is not doing what they are supposed to, then at some point it will show,” says Mesa.

Maybe this horizontal style of management has something to do with Mauricio Mesa's first job as a delivery boy for Kentucky Fried Chicken in his home town. “I worked there for some months, so I could save money to buy a car, this was during University. It was funny, because I had a completely red uniform, with a red cap and I was riding a motorbike. I had to work no matter what, no matter if it was snowing, no matter if it was raining.”

After University – he studied law – and a masters in real estate and urban planning, the now 37 years old manager went to work for city hall in Marbella. "That was my first real estate related job. After this, I worked in an international law firm also dealing with real estate. Then I started my own consulting firm, ”Urbanismo Integral”, with a colleague of mine and some others. We were two lawyers and two architects. I never worked as a court lawyer, I wanted to focus on the business side,” says Mauricio. And it was this 'business side' that eventually brought him to Romania.

editor@romania-insider.com