New Appointments within PwC Romania, New Assurance and Advisory Leaders

New Leader in Assurance

Starting with the 1st of July, John Webster will be a new Partner in PwC Romania, taking over as Assurance leader for Romania and South Eastern Europe.

John comes from PwC Canada, which he joined in 1981. He was for a number of years Managing Partner for British Columbia Region based in Vancouver. He was also the Technology and Mining Leader in the recent past. John built a number of practices while in Vancouver in Mining, Technology and Private Company Services.

"I am excited about the business opportunities that the emerging Romanian market offers and it is for me a personal challenge to lead the excellent Romanian assurance team, which is the local market leader in this field", said John Webster.

Wilhelm Simons, who has lead the Assurance Department of PwC Romania in the past four years will become Central and Eastern Europe liaison Partner based in Vienna, focused on increasing the cooperation of PwC firms across the region.

New Leader in Advisory

Radu Stoicoviciu, Partner, will become the new Advisory Leader of PwC Romania, leading a team of more than 100 management consultants spread across PwC Romania's five regional offices (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Constanta and Chisinau).

He joined PwC Romania in 1992 and became a Partner in 2007, leading the Romanian Deals team and the South and Eastern Europe Corporate Finance and Business Recovery department. He is specialised in project finance, privatization, mergers and acquisitions, and valuations. In his 18 years spent with the firm he led a significant number of projects for clients operating in various industries with feasibility studies, finance raising, valuations as well as M&A negotiations both on-buy and sell-side.

Dinu Bumbacea, the acting Leader of Advisory decided to pursue personal projects. Dinu has been the CEE TICE Leader for a number of years in addition to Advisory Leader for Romania, providing business advisory services for major Romanian and Central and Eastern European companies.

PwC Romania, Lakeview Building, Barbu Vacarescu Street 301-311, Bucharest, Romania, www.pwc.com/ro

The firm acknowledges his contribution to the development of the advisory practice and to the teams he has set-up.

New Leader of the PwC Cluj-Napoca office

Alexandru Lupea, Partner, Assurance Services practice, will take over the responsibilities of managing the PwC office in Cluj-Napoca beginning with July 1st. Alexandru specialises in audit and business advisory services for Romanian and multinational companies in the energy, utilities, manufacturing and distribution sectors. He is also the Energy, Utilities and Mining Industry Group Leader of PwC Romania.

"Transylvania is one of the most economically dynamic areas of Romania. My new role will be to maintain and strengthen the relationship with the fast developing companies from that region and to further develop the local professional services team", stated Alexandru Lupea.

New Partner in Assurance

Also, starting with the 1st of July, Mircea Bozga will become a new Partner in the Assurance Department of PwC Romania. Mircea has been with the firm since 1997 and will now be working as a partner within the Industrial Products industry group.

Mircea is an ACCA member and a qualified Romanian statutory auditor. Mircea held a number of external appointments in various accountancy bodies and is a regular speaker at seminars run by the industry such as the Romanian Chamber of Financial Auditors or ACCA.

"All these appointments are part of the development strategy of PwC that puts a stronger emphasis on increasing our regional presence and building closer relationships with our clients, particularly with local entrepreneurs. The firm has also invested heavily in developing the strongest Advisory team in Central and Eastern Europe. Our advisory team grew substantially in the past few months, as did the complexity of the projects we are involved in, both in the public and private sector. We are convinced that these investments are fundamental in maintaining our leading position on the market", concluded Vasile Iuga.