The five people who set the trends on Romania’s telecom market
Three expats and two Romanians are currently running the five most important companies in the Romanian telecom sector. They manage businesses totaling about EUR 2.3 billion and around 24,000 employees, according to 2013 data.
These people make sure that millions of Romanians can call each other at any hour of the day, or night, and that millions of Romanian homes have cable TV and high-speed internet. Their decisions to expand and invest in their networks have allowed Romanians to enjoz some of the fastest internet connections in the world, as well as some of the cheapest internet and telephony services in Europe.
Here they are, sorted by the size of the businesses they manage (as of September 17, 2014):
1. Nikolai Beckers, CEO of Telekom Romania (sales of EUR 1.05 billion in 2013)
German Nikolai Beckers took over in April 2013 as CEO of Romtelecom and Cosmote Romania and his main task has been to prepare the operational union of the two companies under one brand, Telekom Romania. This became official on September 13 this year, when Deutsche Telekom officially launched its “T” brand in Romania.
On this occasion, Telekom Romania also launched integrated service packages containing mobile telephony and mobile data, previously provided by Cosmote, as well as cable TV, broadband internet and fixed telephony, previously provided by Romtelecom. Overnight, the two brands disappeared from the market and were replaced by the Telekom brand, in the largest telecom rebranding ever performed in Romania.
Nikolai Beckers has been working for Deutsche Telekom since 1995 and during this time he managed the group’s operations in various countries all over the globe. He started in Indonesia, then he moved to Philippines in 2000 and one year later took on as CFO of T-Online France. He was then promoted to President and CEO of Deutsche Telekom in France and then moved to Macedonia, in 2007. He returned to France, as president of T-Systems, in 2011, before moving to Romania in 2013.
He graduated the University of Koln and an executive management program at INSEAD. His full LinkedIn profile here.
2. Jean-Francois Fallacher, CEO of Orange Romania (sales of EUR 967 million in 2013)
French Jean-Francois Fallacher has been CEO of Orange Romania, the local subsidiary of French group Orange, since July 2011. He leads the country’s largest mobile carrier, and second largest telecom group in Romania, with some 10.4 million clients at the end of 2013. During his mandate, Orange Romania launched 4G mobile internet services and a satellite and online TV service, Orange TV.
Before coming to Romania, Fallacher was CEO of Sofrecom, an Orange subsidiary that provides consulting and IT services telecommunications operators in fast-growing markets, from February 2006 to June 2011. Before that he had been working as COO of Internet Service Provider Wanadoo Netherlands, marketing manager of B2B internet provider EuroNet Internet in Amsterdam, sales account director in large accounts B2B sales for France Telecom.
He holds engineering degrees from Ecole Polytechnique, from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications and also graduated a complementary ESSEC business school international business development program. His full LinkedIn profile here.
3. Ravinder Takkar, president and CEO of Vodafone Romania (sales of EUR 735 million in 2013)
Indian born American citizen Ravinder Takkar took helm at Vodafone Romania in June 2014. His mission is to help Vodafone, Romania’s second largest mobile carrier by revenues and number of clients, and third largest telecom group, to increase its market share. The main segments he is focusing on are mobile internet and business clients. Vodafone recently launched “SuperNet”, which aims to be the fastest 4G mobile internet service on the market.
Ravinder Takkar, 45, started working for Vodafone group in 1994, in a company called Air Touch. He was first involved in acquiring GSM licenses for the mobile carrier on various European markets. His various jobs carried him through Spain, Poland, Portugal, and the U.S., then to Britain, India and back to Britain where he took over as CEO of the Vodafone Partner Markets Division, in 2012.
He graduated the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His LinkedIn profile here.
4. Alexandru Oprea, general manager of RCS&RDS (sales of EUR 469 million in 2013)
Romanian Alexandru Oprea, 52, has been general manager of local telecom group RCS&RDS since 1997. He’s also the face of the company, as the group’s main shareholder Zoltan Teszari is almost invisible in the public space. RCS&RDS was the most aggressive player on the local telecom market in recent years. What started as a local cable TV company in the 90s is now an integrated services provider with more than 9,000 employees and almost EUR 0.5 billion in sales, and the only serious competitor for the big three international telecom groups on the Romanian market.
Before coming to RCS&RDS, Alexandru Oprea managed a stock brokerage firm. He has a degree in electronics from the Timisoara Polytechnic.
5. Severina Pascu, CEO of UPC Romania (sales of EUR 102 million in 2013)
Romanian Severina Pascu started working for UPC Romania in March 2008, first as CFO, and was promoted to CEO of the company in November 2010. UPC Romania is part of American group Liberty Global, and is one of the main cable TV and broadband internet providers in Romania.
Severina Pascu started her career as an auditor for KPMG Romania, in 1995. In 2000, she became financial director for Metromedia Telecommunication, a telecom company headquartered in London, and in 2005 she returned to Romania as M&A director for local investment consultancy firm CA IB Romania.
She graduated the Economic Studies Academy (ASE) in Bucharest. Her LinkedIn profile here.
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