Mircea Dan Geoana
Co-Chairman of the AESG
He serves as Co-Chairman of the AESG.
Mircea Geoana is the President of the Aspen Institute Romania since 2006, the President of the Social Romanian Party and a prominent political figure in Romania. He is also a member in the Romanian Senate representing Dolj County. He served as the President of the Romanian Senate between December 2008 and November 2011 and President of the Social Democratic Party, from 2005 to 2010. Between 2006 and 2009 he was also Vice-president of the European Socialist Party.
He is the founding member and President of the Aspen Institute Romania and member of the board of Aspen Institute US, Aspen Italia and Aspen Germany. Mircea Geoana is also Chairman and founding member of the National Development Committee public policy think-tank and Chairman and founding member of the “Romania Noastra” (Our Romania) civic platform. Mircea Geoana ran for the Presidency of Romania in 2009.
In an unprecedented narrow and contested election, he received 49.6% of the casted ballot.
Previous to his political career, Mircea Geoana had a successful diplomatic activity. Appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to the United States of America at age 37, in February 1996, he was the youngest ambassador in the Romanian diplomatic corps. From 2000 to 2004, Mircea Geoana served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania. He also served as OSCE Chairman-in-Office in 2001 and during 2005 he was the personal representative of OSCE Chairman in office for Georgia. Mircea Geoana is a founding member of the Harvard Club Romania – Republic of Moldova and of the Association of Former Students of E.N.A. (Ecole Nationale d’Administration). He also serves as Honorary Chairman of the George C. Marshall Association – Romania.
An alumnus of the Polytechnic Institute and, respectively, the Law School at the University of Bucharest, Mircea Geoana graduated in 1992 the “Ecole Nationale d’Administration” in Paris, France. He graduated in 1999 the World Bank Group Executive Development Program at the Harvard Business School. He holds a PhD in world economy at the Economic Studies Academy of Bucharest.
Mircea Geoana is an expert on European and Trans-Atlantic integration. He also was a NATO fellow on democratic institutions in 1994. He lectured on foreign policy, transitional economies, and globalization at major universities and think – tanks: Sorbonne, Harvard, Georgetown, Yale, CSIS, Atlantic Council, GMF, Chatham House, Policy Network and is a contributor to important Romanian and international publications, like New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Atlantic, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Also, he has been invited on foreign policy issues at CNN, BBC, PBS, Bloomberg, TV5, Fox Business. Mircea Geoana is author of several books: “Romanian foreign policy in the beginning of the XXI.th century – The road to Europe and transatlantic world”, “America, Europe and Romania’s modernization: bases for a Romanian societal model”, “The Romanian social model: the way towards a new Romania”, “Trust”.
Mircea Geoana was decorated Commander of the National Order “The Star of Romania” in December 2000, awarded the “Legion d’Honneur” in 2002 (France) and “Stella della Solidarietà” in 2013 (Italy). Born on July 14, 1958, Mircea Geoana is married to Mihaela, an architect by training and President of the “Renasterea” Foundation. They have two children, Ana Maria and Alexandru. Mircea Geoana is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian.