I am a career in-house counsel and executive leader with more than a decade at the helm of legal, governance and public affairs at Banca Comercială Română (BCR), part of Erste Group. Since 2011, I have served as general counsel, leading the direcția legal, governance and public affairs, which includes four departments – business legal advisory, dispute resolution, non-banking legal and corporate governance, and group secretariat – alongside the coordination of the Bank’s internal regulations framework.

My mandate centres on protecting the Bank’s rights and interests, enabling strategic growth, and embedding sound governance, compliance, and risk culture across BCR and its subsidiaries. I advise the CEO and senior leadership on complex transactions, strategic initiatives (including the deployment of AI across the bank), high-stakes litigation, regulatory change, and corporate governance, while partnering closely with the Business, Risk, and Finance divisions. I have led the legal work on key strategic programmes – from compliance function transformation to GDPR implementation – and have overseen the resolution of sensitive disputes and regulatory matters, strengthening the business franchise, reducing legal risk and cost, and safeguarding BCR’s reputation.

I am deeply committed to legal innovation. Under my leadership, BCR’s legal function has been an early mover in deploying AI-enabled tools for contract support, litigation knowledge management, and internal regulation lifecycle management. Working with cross-functional teams, we have built practical use cases that improve speed, consistency, and the client experience for both internal and external stakeholders.

A core part of my role is public affairs and regulatory advocacy. I routinely engage with Romanian and EU-level stakeholders on banking and financial-sector dossiers, contributing to industry positions that balance prudential objectives, competitiveness, and customer outcomes. Internally, I have strengthened the governance ecosystem around internal regulations – streamlining a corpus of hundreds of policies and procedures, clarifying ownership models, and reinforcing accountability.

People development and ethics are central to my leadership. I have built a high-performing legal organisation with clear standards of professional conduct, continuous development, and an open feedback culture. The function’s credibility rests on technical excellence paired with pragmatic, business-oriented advice.

Over the past decade, I have transitioned into a more strategic role within both the bank and the wider industry, supported by executive education programmes at London Business School, IESE, and MIT. These experiences have sharpened my ability to combine legal expertise with business acumen, technological insight, and leadership skills.

Beyond the bank, I regularly contribute to sector discussions, speak at industry events, and mentor emerging legal talent. I am passionate about building modern legal departments that combine rigorous legal reasoning with data, technology, and design thinking – so that legal becomes not only a guardian of integrity, but also a catalyst for innovation and value creation.

I am honoured that BCR’s legal transformation journey is recognised by peers and partners, and I remain focused on three priorities: enabling BCR’s strategic ambitions, advancing responsible AI in legal services, and elevating governance standards in the Romanian banking sector.