I am a co-founder of Excel-M.ro and its Chief Development Officer, primarily responsible for formulating spreadsheet solutions, in-house corporate training programs and other educational curricula aimed to pave the way for employers and professionals who want to nail the great power of spreadsheets to more profitable and savvy use.
I bank on the know-how grown during a life-time (+30 years) of working on corporate finance, private equity and banking projects where I built hundreds of financial models, developed procedures and risk rating methodologies, performed due-diligence and planning, originated, structured deals and compensation packages, negotiated and walked-away from or concluded manifold projects and transactions.
During the last 15 years I have run my own consultancy practice – I have advised two of the most successful Romanian entrepreneurs on two of their M&A projects, I negotiated agreements, performed due-diligence and assisted two private equity funds which invested in Romania.
Before that I worked with NEC (adviser to Reconstruction Capital II) as a Partner and Managing Director mainly responsible for origination, structuring, negotiation of long-term investments (private equity), risk-rating and deal-making. Previously, I was a Principal with Advent International – where I managed different investment projects, multidisciplinary teams and situations. I have helped with establishing Advent’s office in Romania and I served as a Board member for one of Advent’s investee companies in Turkey. I have also worked with ABN AMRO BANK Romania and EXIMBANK of Romania. More details on LinkedIn
Schooling
Experience is the best teacher, they say. Also, training. In 1999, I took in much by schooling with Operis, the world-class standard in professional financial modelling and modelling best practices. I attended two courses taught by Joseph Godfrey (Valuation and PPP Modelling). This marked a leap forward in my modelling technique & practice.
In 2000-2002, I attended courses taught by some outstanding professionals, old-hands who set-up training companies to share their craft:
| Company | Training Program |
| Maxima | Procedures and Methodologies in Fraud Detection, Risk Rating and Profit Optimization |
| Fulcrum Partners | Negotiation Skills in Private Equity Assessing and Structuring Investment Opportunities |
I have also graduated two Train-the-Trainer programs (Project Evaluation, Accounting & Financial Analysis), taught in 1994 by Jose Garçon and Len Brown, via a PHARE sponsored, IBR organized venue.
In 2011 (and again in 2022), I studied the top-notch modeling techniques (Fast Excel Development Method) offered by the spreadsheet wizards at Production Scheduling.com (Tony Rice, Kien Leong).
Financial Modelling
Employers or customers, private equity funds, banks and Romanian entrepreneurs (in Top 100) evaluated investment opportunities of +350 million USD and funded profitably +80 million USD based on the models I have developed. They cast a net in many fields:
- screening procedures;
- production capacity gauging;
- budgeting & forecasting;
- capital raising;
- debt raising;
- valuation;
- due diligence;
- business planning;
- interest rates subsidizing;
- remuneration packages (ratchet mechanisms, warrants).
As a Trainer
I have taught financial modelling and other spreadsheet kit and caboodle to professionals working in private equity, banking, capital markets and accounting:
| Accounting, Real Estate Development & Trading | Banking | Other Financial Institutions |
| Teaha Management Consulting, AD CONT S.R.L. & ACMS, Mafra | CEC Bank, Alpha Bank, Garanti Bank, Banca Transilvania, Banca Nationala a României | S.A.I. Erste Asset Management S.A., BT DIRECT IFN S.A., SMITH & SMITH SRL, EFG Eurobank Securities, New Europe Capital, Credit Market IFN |
In 2009, I taught the course ”Financial Modelling” (how to build financial statements of a business plan) and in 2022, the course ”Lookup Techniques” as a lector with the Romanian Banking Institute.