Alianta Board
Chair
Ambassador Jim Rosapepe (ret.)
US Ambasador to Romania from 1998 to 2001, Jim is co-author of
Dracula is Dead: Travels in Post-Communist Romania with his wife, public broadcasting journalist Sheilah Kast. He is Chair of Patuxent Capital Group and Vice Chair of the Maryland Senate Budget and Tax Committee, as well as a Board member of the Council of American Ambassadors.
Secretary
Lauren Rakolta
Lauren is President and Chief Executive Officer of DFM Solutions. She also has extensive experience as a strategic consultant to political and legislative clients and has successfully served on numerous statewide and congressional campaigns for elected officials.
Treasurer
Allison O'Brien
Allison O’Brien serves as Managing Director, Government Affairs for Oracle Corporation, where she oversees industry-leading political programs in support of Oracle’s advocacy efforts, including diplomatic and policymaker engagement opportunities, the company’s political action committee, and political compliance, transparency, and oversight objectives. Additionally, Ms. O’Brien manages internal and external operations for Oracle Corporate Affairs globally.
Board Member
Ian Brzezinski
Ian Brzezinski leads the Brzezinski Group, LLC, a consulting firm advising commercial and government clients on international security policy, government relations, business development and political risk. He is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and its Future Europe Initiative.
Board Member
Iulian Calinov
Iulian Calinov is currently Program Manager with Facebook, and serves the Romanian community in Seattle as a Honorary Consul on Romania as well as the Secretary of Romanian American Society of Washington State.
Board Member
Allan Cruse
Allan Cruse is a retired professor in San Francisco who made his first trip to Romania with high school friends in summer 2011 and has been back one or twice each year since then, visiting 20 cities and villages by now, and joining Alianta'sBoard in 2015.
Board Member
Dan Dimancescu
Co-founder of Alianta. Dan Dimancescu and Mark Gitenstein co-founded Alianta in 2013. The launch of the organization was announced at the Cosmos Club Feb 6, 2013 to an audience of 250. Dan is Honorary Consul of Romania in Boston. Board Member Foundation Carpathia Conservation. Author of books and articles and producer of documentaries including varied Romanian subjects. Business consultant to Fortune 500 companies.
Communications Committee Chair
John Florescu
John Florescu has a 25 years history producing high-profile interviews with world leaders, as well as producing long-form documentaries for American and European television. A former Communications Director for the DNC, he now runs media companies in Romania with his brother, Radu.
Board Member
Charles Frank
Former First Vice President of the EBRD (major investor in Romania), Director of CME (owner of Pro TV), real estate developer in Bucharest, and owner of Time Out Bucharest Earlier he was a Professor of Economics at Princeton, Yale, and Makerere University; and a Vice President at Salomon Brothers and GE Capital.
Board Member
Obie Moore
Obie manages OLM Advisors which provides transatlantic legal and investment advisory services. Before that, he was a partner at Dentons LLP and was a Global Board member and MP of the Bucharest and SE Europe law practice of Denton’s legacy firm Salans. He also managed the Romania-American Enterprise Fund, and served as President of AmCham.
Board Member
Chang Oh-Turkmani
Chang Oh-Turkmani is Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University and the Managing Director at the Mega Company where she serves as financial advisor and sovereign debt negotiator to various East European governments. Prior to joining Mega Company, Professor Oh was an associate at Patton, Boggs & Blow.
Partnership Committee Chair
George Roth
George Roth is a Sr. Manager in the Tech Partnerships Group at UiPath. He is the Co-founder of Recognos, a software company located in the San Francisco Bay Area with a subsidiary in Cluj. George is the Honorary Consul of Romania in San Francisco, Board Member of the Romanian United Fund and also runs the Romanian American Business Network group in Silicon Valley.