Miruna Mazurencu-Marinescu’s career started with a Bachelor of Science from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, and progressing through Master of Science, Ph.D., and MBA degrees, to a post-doctoral certificate from the Romanian Academy. Since 1996, she has been affiliated with the Bucharest University of Economics, where she is a full professor. Her involvement in significant projects, such as the innovative statistical-econometric model for the early detection of insolvency in companies and the assessment of political risk’s impact on foreign investment, underscores her expertise and contribution to vital economic and financial studies.
The work that has had the greatest impact is her leadership and involvement addressing critical issues facing Romania and the broader European region focused on business insolvency, demographic aging, and the harmonization of qualifications with the offer of human resources training. These projects are pivotal in shaping policies and strategies that contribute to economic stability and growth.
Dr. Miruna Mazurencu-Marinescu’s contributions to the field of economics and statistics are notably marked by her involvement in high-impact projects, including those for the World Bank, and her consistent research applying quantitative methods in smart cities and ICT-based businesses. These endeavours not only underscore her expertise in applied economics and statistics but also reflect her commitment to leveraging this knowledge in addressing global challenges.

Dalia Poleac is carrying her doctoral studies t at The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, where she is also a Researcher and Assistant Professor.
She taught Design Thinking at the Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages and has been guest lecturing at Hoseo University Seoul, Istituto Europeo di Design Roma and Richmond University, in Florence. Dalia is pursuing research on creative industries and economic and social development, and she has presented her work in international academic conferences having published several academic papers on this topic.
Dalia is currently coordinating the Master in Business Administration in Creative and Cultural Industries at FABIZ – Bucharest.

Cristian Negruțiu is Founding Partner at Sparking Capital, a venture capital fund aiming to help innovative start-ups to scale-up and develop. He works side by side with the founders to build great companies that create long lasting competitive advantages.
Cristian Negrutiu has extensive managerial experience acquired through various positions in different companies at executive level since the year 2000. In the period 2010-2019 he was Logistics Country Manager for DSV Solutions in Romania. In this capacity, Cristian served as a Board Member, fully responsible for strategy and P&L of his division. He managed more than 500 people and led several local and regional projects, ranging from IT implementation to capacity expansion.
On the academic side, Cristian has a double background, in economics and law, followed by an MBA at University of Sheffield and a PhD at Bucharest University of Economic Studies (BUES). Currently, he is Lecturer PhD at BUES, with research focused on entrepreneurship, investments, AI and supply chain.

Raluca Ignat has a PhD in Economics and is a full time Professor at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, where she holds the position of Director of the Department of Agrofood and Environmental Economics. She is author and co-author of books and book chapters as well as scientific papers. She has been involved in more than 30 research projects with public, national or European financing, and World Bank grants. Her main research interests include sustainable development, circular economy, rural economy, agribusiness and eco-business redesign.