Top 100 Social Capital
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RUF unites the global Romanian diaspora to foster strategic change through philanthropy, innovation, and community-building. By connecting leaders worldwide, RUF positions Romania as a dynamic force in the global economy for future generations.
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Mihai Lehene
Board of Directors
Honorary Member
RUF Founder & President
Founder
Volunteer (full)
Teacher
Mihai is the Owner of MDL Investments, a real-estate and VC family-office with a focus on emerging technologies, including fintech, biotech and crypto. In 2020 Mihai resigned his business roles to run RUF, and in 2022 he was elected as President of FORA.
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Simona Oarga
Honorary Member
Founding Angel, Chicago, IL'}} <-- Note: JSON closed incorrectly. Please produce corrected validJSON
Volunteer
Simona Oarga assists taxpayers and small businesses with taxes in Chicago IL and the surrounding communities. Whether you are an individual or a local business in or around Chicago IL, Simona C. Oarga has years of valuable experience as an IRS registered
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Flaviu Simihaian
Board of Advisors
Member
Founding Angel, Health Tech Co-founder, New York City
Volunteer
Flaviu is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Amplicare, a software platform for pharmacies to help patients afford their medications. Originally from Nasaud, Romania, Flaviu is passionate about social impact, volunteering, and mentorship.
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Finance professional with more than 12 years of experience in sustainable/impact investment
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Beatrice Radu
Board of Advisors
Advisory Board Lead, GlobalRomania Initiative | Strategic Communications Architect
Volunteer
Beatrice Radu is a business and life coach with expertise in management, community-building, and holistic practices like yogic astrology, empowering clients to align personal and professional goals.
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Cristian Merdariu
Board of Directors
Member
ROCO Biz
Founding Angel, RCC Chicago Ambassador
Founding Member
Cristian is co-founder and owner of City Habitat Realty, a successful real estate company in Chicago. He believes Romanians should work harder to express and identify themselves as one nation, to earn their own sense of value and the right to be proud.
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I am a dedicated member of the Romanian United Foundation (RUF) Core Team, I'm serving as the "Trips to Romania" Program Manager. Born and raised in Romania, I immigrated to the United States in 2006 at the age of 23.
At RUF, I coordinate annual Trips to
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Miruna Zamfirescu
Founding Angel
Founding Member, Reporting Officer, VP of Fundraising
Founding Member
Volunteer
Originally from Bistrita, Miruna earned her BA in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has built her career in the financial markets as an algorithmic trader/quantitative analyst.
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Monica Ferchi
Founding Angel
RUF Fundraiser & Founding Angel, Honorary Member of ROCO, the Romanian Community Center
Volunteer
Founder and CEO of TransUSA Exchange, a cultural exchange organization that specializes in placing international students and young professionals with industry leaders in the U.S.
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Diana Dram
Board of Advisors
Honorary Member
ROCO Biz
GlobalRomania Business Connector Liaison & ROCO Business Chapter Lead
Diana is acting as Global Strategic Sourcing Director with McDonald’s. She leads business relationships and strategies that leverage scale for positive impact on the environment and communities globally.
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Diana Gini serves as Chief Growth Officer at RUF, where she is deeply committed to strengthening the Romanian diaspora community. She is also a Founding Angel and RUF Ambassador to Madrid for the organization.
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Graduated from UIC, College of Business, with a degree in finance and works as a Digital Manager at Mainland. Fun facts: prefers a camera, unable to make a choice between hiking a mountain or walking in the sand, an incurable optimist.
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Adriana Trandafirescu
Board of Advisors
Member
Education | Law | Mindset | Self-Realization
Volunteer
Adriana Trandafirescu is a multifaceted professional based in New York City with a diverse background spanning law, psychology, education, and personal development.
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Dan Serban
Honorary Member
RUF Fundraiser & Founding Angel, Key West, Florida; Honorary Member of RoCo
Dan is one of the best-connected Real Estate Agents and a Top Producer in the Luxury Real Estate market in Key West. He is passionate about preserving Romanian American values and being an Ambassador of the Romanian United Fund in the Key West Area.
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Ligia Apostoaia
Board of Directors
Member
Secretary of the Board, CEO of MDL Investments
Founding Member
Volunteer
Teacher
Ligia’s charity involvement began at a very young age, helping her family foundation with the distribution of humanitarian aid to the families in need in the area immediately. Today she continues to do what she is most passionate about: doing good.
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Ionel Nechiti is an Investment Director at Aramco Ventures, managing a $7B fund focused on sustainability, technology, and energy transition.
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Claudia is a Romanian and U.S.-qualified attorney specializing in pharmaceuticals and life sciences. She is working as in-house counsel for AbbVie Inc.
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George Roth is a Romanian‑American tech entrepreneur and AI evangelist at UiPath, founder of Recognos, community mentor, and Honorary Consul of Romania in San Francisco, focused on intelligent automation.
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Oana is the Executive Director of ROCO. Prior to this role, she was one of the most active volunteers. She believes in the strength of our community, in doing good things, and in leaving something worthwhile behind.
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Ciprian is the owner of Chicago Clean Home since 2013. The company was founded with a great desire to offer top-quality, detail-oriented cleaning services to home and business owners that aim at having not just cleaner spaces, but also healthier ones.
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Cosmina has a Master Degree in Economics from University of Targu Mures. She is the RUF office wizard, handling all accounting and administrative issues. She moved to Chicago from Romania more than a decade ago and she is passionate about helping people.
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Cristian Luput
Board of Directors
Honorary Member
RUF President of the Board of Directors; Founder & CEO, Optimus Realty
The founder and CEO of Optimus Realty Inc, Cristian strongly believes in the power of charity to improve people's lives and change the mentalities and hopes of the less fortunate ones. Cristian is acting Treasurer of RUF.
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Valentin Daraban
Founding Angel
Founding Angel, Ambassador of the Romanian Community Center of Chicago
Volunteer
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Anamaria Neamt
Founding Member, Word Whisperer (Newsletter), Supporter of the Romanian Community Center of Chicago
Founding Member
Volunteer
“Don’t Panic” (aka Douglas Adams’ version of today’s “stay calm”)
Born with an affinity for numbers and words in a family of educators. My journey: music school, writing club, math, economics, and, closing the circle, teaching. Going back to the roots se
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Monica Zaha
Volunteer
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Georgiana is bringing extensive experience in Communication & Marketing gained from her previous roles as a journalist in the biggest media trust in Romania and coordinator of international campaigns for well-established clients at Ogilvy and Grey G2.
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Diana Muresan is Mortgage Banker with The Federal Savings Bank, member of the Chairman Club and currently creating the first Senior Housing Department at the TFSB. She has a master degree from DuPaul University, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.
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Mihaela, a RUF founding member and U.S. repatriate, serves as the primary link to Romanian nonprofit partners—identifying high-impact initiatives, ensuring grant compliance, and cultivating strong relationships between RUF and the nonprofit sector.
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Originally from Romania, I relocated to the US in 2013 with a Bachelor's degree in Economics. Currently, I serve as the administrative expert at RUF, where I handle all accounting and administrative issues. I have a passion for teaching young children.
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Full stack engineer working at Amazon/Alexa. Not long ago, breaking the cloud at AWS, building web services at scale to solve BigData problems. Mike lives in San Diego and chose to teach Math to be an inspiration for children, including his two daughters.
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MSW from Washington University in St. Louis, firm believer in the importance of building a strong Romanian community to enrich the lives of individuals, their families, and society as a whole. Currently volunteers as Founding Angels Liaison for RUF
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The "Ambulance for Monuments" project is targeting, in a desperate race against time, the salvation from collapse and degradation of hundreds of Romanian threatened historical buildings that are listed.
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Hi, I'm Matei Busu and I'm the President of RUF Youth 2025 and co-leader of RUF's Youth Data Team. Currently, I'm a senior at Maine South, and in the past I've helped co-lead classes in programming and finance at RUF. I'm a huge Chicago sports fan.
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Simona Vasile
Board of Advisors
Founding Angel
Tax Principle at BDO US, Board member at FORA and ROMAMPRO, Board Advisor at RUF
Volunteer
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Raised in Romania, Monica's upbringing involved learning traditional textile techniques, which fueled her passion for fashion and sustainability. Monica has an extensive background as an apparel industry executive, including a role as Senior Design Direct
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Hi, I’m Ana Guset, President of the Romanian Youth Board and Romanian Dance Club at Northside College Prep. I participated in a business internship with ROCO Biz. I am passionate about empowering young Romanian-Americans to embrace their heritage.
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Alexander Mihai Popovici is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman at Z-Terra Inc., a provider of state-of-the-art geophysical and geological technology, services and software for the oil and gas industry. He holds a Ph.D. in geophysics from Stanford Univ.
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Alex Popa is a global technology, venture, and growth investor. He spent the last sixteen years at The Capital Group, one of the world's largest and oldest investment firms, where he was a Partner and a Portfolio Manager for the largest actively managed f
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Radu Georgescu
Founding Angel
Serial Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist, Founder of Seedblink, RUF Founding Angel
One of the most prominent and successful entrepreneurs in Eastern Europe, Radu founded GECAD in 1992. He focuses on identifying and on-boarding new investment opportunities, as well as promoting entrepreneurship in the new generation of innovators.
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Ruxandra Stoian co-founder of the Bucharest-based Women Invest in Tech Angels Club, launched 2021. Ruxandra Muys-Stoian has a background in public health and health services management.
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Dan Nicolae serves as the Faculty co-Director of the Data Science Institute and the Committee on Data Scienceat the University of Chicago and is a Professor in the Departments of Statistics, Human Genetics, and Medicine. His research interests are in the
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Live and die by the data. Founder https://t.co/UJURPIiMJd embedded working capital for vertical SaaS. Former Adobe built Experience Cloud, Big Data Analytics, open-source.
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James Carew Rosapepe (born May 20, 1951) is an American politician from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party.
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High school senior, CFC ECNL soccer player, tutor, referee, and nonprofit founder passionate about applied math, data science, policy, and biology, leading youth and women’s empowerment initiatives.
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Mihaela is the founder of the Psychotherapy and Transformational Movement with over twenty-two years of clinical experience. She received an MA in Psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, specializing in Counseling Psychology.
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Diana has an extensive background in Sports and Management, and graduated with a Master's in Healthcare Administration from National Louis University in Chicago.
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Since she moved to Chicago, Gabi’s Romanian roots became stronger. She believes in community and giving back and wants her children to be proud Romanians. She’s been a passionate teacher of Italian for over 25 years.
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Mihaela Simianu
Founding Angel
Global Biopharma Leader — Injectable Product Commercialization & Manufacturing Science
Volunteer
Mihaela Simianu stands out as an influential figure in the Bio-Pharmaceutical field, where she has made significant strides in product development, commercialization, and international manufacturing.
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OvidiuRo focuses on making early education accessible to and effective for disadvantaged children throughout Romania via teacher training, providing rich educational materials, and parent education. We focus on early literacy for children.
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Marius is internationally recognized as one of the founders of computer simulation of complex phenomena. He was Principal Investigator at the Argonne Laboratory and an Associate Professor at the Univ. of Chicago and Northwestern University.
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Vlad is the Founder of CEO of Maia Biotechnologies, an immuno-oncology company focused on the development and commercialization of potential first-in-class drugs.
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Is a finance major with a Master’s degree in Project and Process Management. He gained extensive experience in change management, designing roadmaps, and managing client relationships at both institutional and individual levels.
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A dedicated leader that volunteers through her church and Romanian Community in Chicago. Passionate about teaching her culture, traditions, and faith to children and youth, organizes various social, cultural, and religious events in the community.
Studie
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Gabriela Cosma
Member
Program Coordinator "Learn Romanian", Supporter of ROCO, the Romanian Community Center
Volunteer
Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Masters of Arts in Teaching from National Louis University. She taught Science, Social Studies, and English as a Second Language to refugees from the Middle East in public school
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Bianca Nicoara
Member
RUF Volunteer, Ambassador and Supporter of ROCO, the Romanian Community Center
Volunteer
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Luminita (“Lumi”) Ispas has been an award-winning top producer, an effective team leader, and a successful real estate investor & developer for more than 20 years.
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Casandra is an employment lawyer and has practiced law for nearly 10 years as an associate at two well-respected Chicago law firms and as in-house counsel at a large international bank. Casandra obtained her law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
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I always felt that something was missing in our Community, in Chicago, a central point of connection for our people. It was a dream "if somebody would open a Community Center for all of us, that would be nice ..."
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Adriana moved to Chicago from Romania in 2008. She’s a passionate storyteller and public speaker that wants to give back to her community.
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Is the Founder of Protek-IT, where he successfully manages a team of eight highly skilled IT professionals, supporting over 100 Chicago businesses and non-profits.
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Alex Turik is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish United Fund and the immediate past Chairman of JUF's Russian Jewish Division Advisory Board and one of the founders of RJD.
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Laura lives in Key West with her family, including her 4 children Andrei, Thea, Nyssa, and Clara. Laura has been working with SOS Mission, a nonprofit focused on helping homeless people and poor families. She believes all Romanians should work together.
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Curious mind and adventurous soul, always trying to become, never to fit in! Inviting you to #ContemplateDifferentPerspective.
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Romanian-American Mezzo-Soprano Nicoleta Roman has been a prominent member of the Romanian community in Chicago for over 23 years. She is fond of her Romanian heritage, constantly promoting her values through her voice.
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