Going Global: Business without Borders

In his current role, Ivan Vrhel oversees Citi Romania’s commercial banking division offering financial products, platforms and services to mid-sized companies, supporting their business growth in Romania and abroad.

Leveraging Citi’s unique global network, the commercial banking division in Romania helps companies free up time, reduce risk and expand internationally through a broad range of innovative financial solutions focused on liquidity and cash management, lending or trade.

Ivan Vrhel started his career with Citi in 2004 and over the course of the past thirteen years he has held several relationship management and leadership roles. Before coming to Romania, Ivan served as Head of Citi Commercial Bank Small Market Enterprises (SME) for the Czech Republic, and prior to that he successfully led the Middle Market Enterprises (MME) department. His responsibilities included business coverage of SME as well as top MME clients.

Andreea is Director in Tax Advisory Services, Corporate Tax Department of PwC Romania and a member of the Romanian Chamber of Tax Consultants.

Andreea joined PwC in 2003 and has 13-years’ experience in domestic and international taxation, working on a wide variety of tax advisory projects in the areas of tax structuring, tax due diligence projects and local tax audits. She is actively involved in discussions with the Romanian Ministry of Finance for reviewing and amending tax legislation and has contributed to projects undertaken by the American Chamber of Commerce and the Foreign Investment Council for the amendments and modernisation of Romanian legislation. Andrea works with clients from numerous industry sectors including energy, IT and software development, telecommunications and media. From 2008 – 2009, Andreea was seconded to PwC Amsterdam and is specialized in domestic and international tax structuring/reorganisations.

Andreea graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest with a degree in Business Administration. Andreea also has a Masters in International Law with the Law University in Bucharest.

Vlad Gheorghe is Senior Manager within the Management Consulting service division of PwC Romania.

Vlad has over ten years a professional experience and prior to joining the PwC consulting team he worked for Deloitte, ENGIE Group and Electrica Group, where he had various execution and management positions. Vlad’s experience has provided him with a deep understanding of project management and a specialisation in financial and operational process improvement. During his engagements within ENGIE Group and Electrica Group, Vlad was instrumental in coordinating numerous restructuring projects.. Vlad has also designed, harmonized and implemented many group-wide policies and procedures, and as a result has advanced knowledge in corporate governance.

Vlad graduated from the Public Administration Faculty of the National School of Political Science and Public Administration and he is an ACCA member. Vlad has Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification and he is a founding member of the Romanian Treasurers Association.

Laura Fogg is the Global Cross Border Program Manager with Citi Commercial Bank (CCB), working in collaboration with over 160 countries and jurisdictions, and with partners across Risk, Markets, Transaction and Corporate Banking, to develop and execute best-in-class international financing solutions. Laura focuses on simplifying customer access to international solutions, strengthening Citi’s cross-border product capabilities, reinforcing best practices and ensuring appropriate training and certification of CCB International Bankers.

Prior to her current role, Laura worked with the U.S. CCB International Credit team, structuring and implementing multicurrency financing solutions for clients headquartered in the U.S. with global operations. She began her career at Citi in 2010 working in the U.S. CCB Loan Structuring and Syndications team where she pitched, structured and syndicated large multi-bank and multi-country transactions to middle market and mid-corporate clients. Prior to joining Citi, Laura worked for 7 years at the Federal Bureau of Investigation leading teams to deliver priority analyses to the FBI Director, senior government officials and Directorate of National Intelligence in the U.S. and overseas.

Laura received an MBA with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York and graduated summa cum laude with a BA from Elon University, North Carolina, double-majoring in Spanish and International Relations.

Bianca Muntean is the Cluster Manager of iTech Transilvania by ARIES T and Executive Director of the Romanian Association of Software and Electronic Industry – Transilvania Branch. She is also the founder and vice-president of Transilvania Creative Cluster. From 1997 to 2013 Bianca directed the Development Department at Transilvania Business Center. Since 2002, Bianca has been involved in developing various regional and sectorial strategies: Transylvania 2007-2013 Development Strategy, Public Sector Recommendation Policy Papers, thus contributing to the Strategy of Development for the IT Sector in Romania, promotion and SME Mobilization for FP7. She is also a National Certified Trainer and Evaluator for Project Management, Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund and teaches European Programmes and Projects at the “Babeș-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca.

Through her multiple roles, Bianca contributes to defining innovation in one of the most important economical centres in Eastern Europe, Cluj-Napoca. She is known as a “bridger” for creating unique connections between various fields, creating projects which have brought European attention to Cluj as an example of good practice. Bianca actively promotes the unique competencies and business environment in Cluj and Transilvania through her participation in international conferences, business missions and workshops. Bianca is specialized in cluster policies and cluster management and, in 2016 she successfully submitted her doctoral thesis in Management at the Babeş-Bolyai University, entitled "Excellence in Cluster Management in IT".

Roy Sagi is a Vice President at Citigroup Global Markets, working as a Salesperson on the eFX Solutions Sales desk. He covers Corporate and Public Sector clients across EMEA with focus on Emerging and Frontier Markets.

Roy joined Citi in 2014 and worked on the Institutional Sales desk in London before relocating to Kenya, working on FX Sales for clients in East Africa. Roy then returned to London to assume his current position where he has responsibility for the origination and sales of tailored FX solutions for clients’ global operations – Cross-Border & Cross-Currency transactions, Trade and Liquidity Management. Prior to joining Citi, Roy worked for JPMorgan in Luxembourg and prior to that in the High-Tech and Startup sector in Israel.

Roy graduated with distinction from the Tel Aviv University with a degree in Economics and Management and also holds an MBA from the London Business School with concentration on International Finance.

Simona Anghel is a Treasury and Trade Solutions specialist with Citi Romania, with expertise in cash management, trade and business cards.

Simona has worked with Citi for 15 years. Her experience spans implementation, product management, multinational company coverage and TTS Sales. Since September 2012 Simona has led the TTS Sales team. Prior to this, Simona worked for 7 years as Client Sales Manager and had a temporary role as EMEA GSG Relationship Associate while on assignment in Switzerland.

Simona is also VP for Marketing for the Romanian branch of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.

Simona is a graduate of the Finance Department of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies.