Kai Brand-Jacobsen

Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen is Director of the Department of Peace Operations of PATRIR. He is an international expert in mediation and peace processes, systemic peacebuilding, design and implementation of early warning and comprehensive prevention, and post war recovery. He consults widely for governments, foreign ministries, and international and national organizations. He is a co-founder and Director of the Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR). He works as an advisor to several governments and international and national agencies, including the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the All Party Parliamentary Working Group (APPG) on Conflict Issues of the British Parliament.

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Dennis Deletant

Dennis Deletant is Professor of Romanian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London, and at the University of Amsterdam (on secondment). As a graduate of SSEES he studied on a British Council postgraduate scholarship for nine months in 1969, and thereafter visited the country frequently until 1988 when he was declared persona non grata as a result of his adverse comments on the Ceauşescu regime in the British publishing and broadcasting media. At the end of December 1989, he returned to Bucharest as consultant to the BBC during the Romanian revolution. Between 1990 and 1999, he served on the advisory board of the British government's Know-How Fund, set up to fund a transfer of expertise to Central and Eastern Europe in political, social, economic and charitable domains, and was actively involved in the Romanian aspects of its work; for this service he was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1995.

He is the author of several monographs and volumes of studies on the recent history of Romania, among them Ceauşescu and the Securitate. Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989 (1996), Romania under Communist Rule (1998), and Terror in Romania. Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948-1965 (1999). His most recent book is Aliatul uitat al lui Hitler. Ion Antonescu şi Regimul său, 1940-1944 (2008). He has also co-edited with Ottmar Traşca a volume German Documents on the Holocaust in Romania.

Dan Dimancescu

Honorary Consul of Romania in Boston

Dan Dimancescu is the Honorary Consul of Romania in Boston. He is also the president and founder of BEH lcc and BtF srl companies and is active in heritage restoration and tourism in Romania. Until 2003, he ran Technology & Strategy Group, a consulting company to Fortune 500 high-technology companies. He has taught at several universities (Dartmouth College, Boston University, University of Nantes) and is author or co-author of books on management and technology policy and most recently on Romania (Romania Redux). He has organized expeditions for the National Geographic including articles covering the Danube River and the Romanian Carpathians. He studied at Dartmouth College, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Harvard Business School. Born in England, the son of a diplomat, he holds both US and Romanian citizenships.

Anca Harasim

Anca Harasim is the Executive Director of The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) since 2000, Vice-President of Harvard Club Romania-Moldova and a founding member of Aspen Institute Romania. With a Master Degree of Bucharest Polytechnic University in Electrical Engineering, she has contributed to the design of Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, the first NPP (nuclear power plant) in Romania. Since 1990, Ms. Harasim has fulfilled assignments in major non-governmental organizations in Romania, as Executive Director of the Soros Foundation for an Open Society, Fulbright Commission and AmCham Romania. In 1999, she obtained a Master of Public Administration from John F. Kennedy School of Government – Harvard University, as a Mason Fellow and Associated Kokkalis Fellow. Between 1999-2001 she was a World Bank consultant for Albania’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Program, as well as for the European Commission’s largest PHARE Program in Romania reforming the Local Public Administration. With almost twenty years senior-level experience in managing and developing non-profit organizations, of public policy and program strategic planning, management development and implementation of innovative reform projects in Central & Eastern Europe, she is currently serving on the Boards of Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation, Carpathian Foundation – Fund for Development of the Carpathian Euro-region, Partners Romania Foundation for Local Development, CODECS Foundation for Leadership, Youth for Understanding, Romanian-American Center of Excellence for Small and Business Enterprises and the Romanian Association for Community Relations.

Liviu Matei

Liviu Matei is the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Central European University (CEU) Budapest. He teaches Higher Education Policy in CEU’s Department of Public Policy. He studied Philosophy and Psychology at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj and Sociology at Bucharest University. He received his PhD from the later. He benefited form scholarships at the New School University, Université Paris X, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Université de Savoie, Salzburg Seminar. His professional trajectory includes, among other appointments: Co-chair of the Working Group on Higher Education of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe; Member of the Steering Committee, UNESCO - EU Commission Project on Management of Higher Education in South-East Europe, Director General for International Relations, Romanian Ministry of Education; Lecturer, Babes-Bolyai University; Program Director, Médecins Sans Frontières - Belgium, Program of Assistance to Underprivileged Roma Communities in Transylvania; occasional consultant for UNESO, Council of Europe, Commission of the European Union, and OSCE on issues concerning higher education and civil society.

Simona Mirela-Miculescu

Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary
Permanent Representative of Romania to the UN

Ambassador Simona-Mirela Miculescu was the Director of the Department for Communication and Public Diplomacy within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs prior to her current position. During her 18 years of diplomatic career, she served twice as Spokesperson for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Senior Media Advisor to the Minister (1993 and 1999), Director of the Press Department within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1994), Press Secretary of the Romanian Embassy in Washington D.C. (1994-1998), and as Senior Public Information Officer at the Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kosovo (1999-2000).
Between 2000 and 2004, she served as Foreign Policy Adviser to the President of Romania, becoming the first woman in the Romanian diplomatic history to be granted the rank of Ambassador. Between 2006 and 2007, as part of Bearing Point, she acted as Senior Advisor for Public Outreach to the Government of Iraq.
Ambassador Miculescu also has an academic background, as well as an extensive experience in public communication. Starting with her PhD in Literature, her academic career as a professor of International Public Relations at two Romanian universities and as publisher of several books and tens of articles goes in parallel with her evolution in diplomacy. In Romania, she is known as one of the best experts in the area of management of international public relations and developed the first curricula on this topic, which is now used in several Romanian universities.

Adrian Vierita

Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the United States of America

Ambassador Adrian Vierita presented his credentials to President of the United States, George W. Bush on January 22, 2008.
Prior to his current assignment, Adrian Vierita served as State Secretary for European Affairs with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since July 2006. Between 2002 and 2006, he was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to the Federal Republic of Germany.
Mr. Vierita is a career member of the Diplomatic Corps of Romania. He joined the Foreign Service on March 1, 1991. He held various executive positions with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Chief of Staff of the State Secretary coordinating relations with Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America, Deputy Director of the United Nations and International Organizations Directorate, Director of the Central and South-East Europe Directorate and General Director for European and Transatlantic Affairs. Other postings abroad include a 4-year tour with the Permanent Mission of Romania to the International Organizations in Vienna, where he covered OSCE negotiations related to CFE Treaty and Black Sea security issues, as well as trafficking in persons and transborder crime; he also served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Romania to IAEA and UNIDO.
In 2002, he was decorated with the Order of Faithful Service of Romania in the Rank of Officer. In 2003, he received the “Ambassador of the Year” Award and in 2005 was acknowledged Diplomat of the Year by “Nine O’Clock” daily in Bucharest. In 2006, Mr. Vierita received the Great Cross of Merit of The Federal Republic of Germany.