Leading mergers and acquisitions lawyer & Law Professor who decided to take a shift in career and follow her passion for promoting entrepreneurship, education and leadership. Internationally-minded, she traveled for work to more than 40 countries around the world before she turned 40.
Pioneer of legal advice for private equity and VC funds financing entrepreneurial ventures in South Eastern Europe, Irina founded and ran the first law firm specialized in advising funds and entrepreneurs in Romania. After more than a decade dedicated to private equity & VC transactions, Irina took advantage of her year spent as a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School to focus from an academic perspective on VC’s role in stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation around the world.
Back to Europe, Irina continued her activity as Managing Director of the South Eastern European Private Equity and VC Association, became a member of the Representative Committee of the European VC Association and was appointed as President of the Romanian Innovation Ecosystem Commission. She also created an NGO, Triple Helix, which develops and implements projects related to entrepreneurship, education and leadership.
Irina is frequently invited to be a panelist or moderator at conferences organized by at prestigious universities (like London Business School, Stanford University, Harvard Business School), or governmental agencies of various countries interested in stimulating entrepreneurship and VC investments.
She was selected in 2012 among the top 100 women in tech in Europe by Girls in Tech London, for the past years Forbes Magazine recognized her as one of the most influential 50 women in Romania and she included in the top 100 Foreign Policy Romania.
Irina was recognized as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2008, became a Mason Fellow at Harvard in 2009 and was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2014.
"Global Teacher Prize will not only put the spotlight on the best teachers, but will also spark critical conversations all over the world about the status of teachers in any community. I am thrilled to support this initiative and I am honored to become a member of its amazing Academy. "