Mircea Geoana appointed as NATO Deputy Secretary General

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has decided to appoint Mircea Geoana from Romania as the next Deputy Secretary General. He will replace Rose Gottemoeller from the United States, who took up her position in October 2016.

”I am happy to announce the appointment of Mircea Geoana as the next Deputy Secretary General. He is a staunch advocate of the transatlantic bond and will bring long experience as a statesman and diplomat to this post. He will be the first Romanian to hold this senior office.

I am very grateful to Rose Gottemoeller. Her diplomatic skills and her expertise in international security policy have been invaluable to the Alliance, as NATO continues to adapt to a more unpredictable security environment.”

Mircea Geoana is the founder and president of the Aspen Institute Romania. He previously served as President of the Romanian Senate, Foreign Minister, and Romania’s Ambassador to the United States. He will take up his post in mid-October 2019.

BIOGRAPHY

Mircea Geoana is the founder and president of the Aspen Institute Romania and was in the founding group of ATA’s NATO House (today the Euro Atlantic Council of Romania). He serves on the boards of trustees of the Aspen Institute US, Aspen Germany and Aspen Italia. He is also Co-chair of Aspen European Strategy Group.

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. 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 2012 and 2014, he served as Chairman of the Joint Committee of the Romanian Senate and Chamber of Deputies regarding Romania’s Accession to the Schengen Area, and as High Representative of the Romanian Government for Strategic Economic Projects and Public Diplomacy. Between 2008 and 2012 he also served as chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Romanian Senate.

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 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, CUNY, University of Pittsburg, CSIS, Atlantic Council, GMF, Chatham House, Policy Network, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and is a contributor to important Romanian and international publications, like the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Atlantic, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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 Soliedarita’ in 2013 (Italy).