Press release, 20 July 2020
The winner of the Executive MBA BT Roberto Marzanati scholarship offered by Banca Transilvania is Ioana Baba, and the winners of the two partial scholarships offered by SIF Moldova are Ştefan Mesaroş and Vlad Anca. The scholarship campaign took place between June 26 and July 12 and brought together over 30 candidates who entered the competition for one of the 3 scholarships offered by Banca Transilvania and SIF Moldova. Our media partner for this year’s campaign was Republica.ro.
Ioana Baba has been working for the Alba Iulia City Hall in the field of non-reimbursable structural European funds since 2012. Together with her colleagues, Ioana is responsible for identifying various sources of funding, writes proposals, and implements projects that contribute to the harmonious and sustainable development of the local community. Ioana is a graduate of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, and during this period that she spent in the structures of the local administration, she completed her technical knowledge with managerial skills, successfully developing and implementing numerous important projects that have enhanced and improved the governance and development of the city of Alba-Iulia.
Ştefan Mesaroş, one of the winners of the partial scholarship, is Customer Solution Manager for Romania and Hungary within conTeyor, a global partner dedicated to sustainable solutions in the field of returnable packaging. In addition to his managerial experience, Ştefan has been a volunteer member of the Junior Chamber International Cluj branch since 2013 and participated in the past years in various community projects carried out by World Vision Romania and other organizations concerned with environmental health in Cluj-Napoca and Transylvania. Between May and June this year, Stefan was part of a team that delivered more than 4,000 daily meals to medical doctors working in the hospital circuit designed to treat people infected with COVID-19.
Vlad Anca, the second winner of a partial scholarship offered by SIF Moldova, works in the field of renewable energy as Business Development Manager. He is a graduate of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, and currently lives and works in Brasov. After spending 8 years in the oil and gas industry in companies such as OMV Petrom and Halliburton, he decided to join Alpin Sun, a successful global company in the field of renewable energy, that is focused on designing solar energy projects. Vlad is active in the international renewable market, developing large-scale solar projects. He is interested and concerned about the development of green energy and he would like to contribute to the development of this field in Romania as well as globally.
Andrew Taylor, the director of Transilvania Executive Education and member of the scholarship evaluation committee, was surprised by the professional diversity of the candidates, as well as by their innovative ideas. "We received applications from a diverse range of people, with various backgrounds. Some of them were working in the field of non-governmental organizations and the arts, while others came from the field of technology and engineering, some already have a Ph.D. and a lot of managerial experience, while others were much younger, being rather at the beginning of their career. The business plans which they had to develop within the applications and the ideas they came up with are extremely interesting and I think we have a lot to learn from them. During the evaluation process, I had the impression that these candidates are here to teach us a lesson about innovation and business and that this program has turned into a business incubator overnight! This experience made me realize that there is a lot of potential out there that we can channel and harness in addition to running this Executive MBA program.”
The Roberto Marzanati BT scholarship of 15,000-euros covers the tuition fees for the entire Executive MBA program, a 100% British program, delivered by Hull University in Cluj-Napoca, while each of the two partial scholarships offered by SIF Moldova, worth of 7,500 euros each, covers half of the program. Those who applied for scholarships have been required to include in their application a business plan, where they indicated the beneficiaries, the sustainability of the business, and how it can be scaled, along with a CV and a letter of recommendation.
As every year, there were over 10 applications / per scholarship. Those who applied hold top and middle management positions in companies and organizations from various fields: IT, automotive, civil society, energy, aviation, medical-pharmaceutical, public sector, telecommunications, tourism, financial-banking, start-ups, education and training and come from various corners of Romania (Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Iași, Tg. Mureș, Constanța, Baia Mare, Craiova, Pitești, Alba Iulia, Brașov,) and the Republic of Moldova (Chisinau). The winners will join the seventh group of students who will start their courses on July 30, 2020.