Ciprian Dan is the new president of ABSL

The Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL) elected Ciprian Dan, Location Head – Timișoara at Wipro Technologies, as President. Also, within the Board of Directors of the association entered two new members – Cristina Nicoleta Apetrei, Chief of Staff CEO Office at Societe Generale European Business Services and for Retail Banking and Financial Services India&Romania and Adrian Baron, the EMEA ITSM Lead at Stefanini.

Ciprian Dan has been working in the business services industry for 15 years. He currently leads the Wipro Technologies office in Timișoara, with a team of 350 employees. Ciprian is in his second term of the ABSL board (2017 – 2019 and 2019 – 2021).

Cristina Nicoleta Apetrei is the Chief of Staff CEO Office for SG EBS and for Retail Banking and Financial Services India and Romania and has an experience of about 13 years in the business services industry, in different fields such as HR, IT, financial, banking, but also retail banking.

Adrian Baron, the EMEA ITSM Lead at Stefanini has been working in the industry for 6 years.

The ABSL Board of Directors also includes:

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• Cristian Cilibiu – Country Manager of UniCredit Services S.C.p.A.
• Ecaterina Ion – General Manager & HR Leader in Hungary and Romania at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Operations Center
• Bogdan Pelinescu – Managing Director, Luxoft Central and Western Europe
• Francesca Postolache – Audit Partner at PwC Romania

According to the statute, elections are held every two years in the General Assembly.

During this term, the main operational directions are related to promoting Romania and the business opportunities offered by the industry, collaboration with local and central authorities for the development of the sector, development of educational programs for young people who are choosing a career in the business services industry.

“On my mandate, my priority is to promote Romania to investors interested in this sector. The quality of the workforce and the value-added services make Romania an attractive destination, along with a competitive level of costs/competitive pricing. In addition, the current context may be favourable for Romania. Globally, companies are reviewing their costs and rebuilding their outsourcing strategies, and our speed of response, ability to adapt to new conditions (given by COVID-19) and the fact that we have continued to deliver services at a high quality level, compared to other regions, it reconfirms us in the top of relocation options. In order to attract more investment, as has happened in Poland, close cooperation with central and local authorities is also needed to ensure the necessary facilities. The second objective is related to the development of this sector in smaller cities, but with great potential in terms of workforce, local higher education structures and business infrastructure”, says Ciprian Dan, President of ABSL.

Cristina Nicoleta Apetrei will be mainly involved in the areas of investor relations, and her mission, together with the other members of the board, will be related to the communication and promotion of Romania as a destination for business services. Both for the companies already present on the market, but also for the new investors, Romania must remain one of the favourite business locations.

For Adrian Baron, the new member of the ABSL board, the priorities are related to career development and continuing/further education, especially for those who are at the beginning of the road and want a career in this field. Adrian Baron considers the collaboration with local universities, but also the training programs and workshops developed by ABSL are vital for changing the business environment.

In Romania, the business services industry will register an accelerated growth on medium and long term. The cost pressure that the global economy will feel is also financed by the savings that the outsourcing industry can produce. For this year, ABSL estimates in Romania an increase between 0 percent and 5 percent of the business services sector, in an optimistic scenario.

”After a period of decline in certain sectors of our industry, due to the situation generated by Covid-19, I estimate the resumption of growth in the second half of the year, given that many companies are rethinking their cost structure by opting to consolidate services to attractive destinations in terms of cost and quality of human resources. Romania is such a destination”, explains Ciprian Dan, President of ABSL.

ABSL is one of the most active professional associations in Romania. Through the 20 events organized in the first months of the year, which were attended by over 1500 people, the members of the association discussed the measures taken and exchanged good practices during this difficult period. Also, ABSL constantly conducts studies on various aspects of the industry, the most recent being on telework and the potential of the post-pandemic industry.

According to estimates, the business services industry last year generated growing revenues of over EUR 4.5 billion, reaching over 2 percent of GDP.

The sector includes 280 companies and over 131,000 employees, i.e. 2.4 percent of the total employees in the Romanian economy.

Most companies operating on the local market come from France, Germany, Romania and the USA.