Mircea Geoană

Dan Mircea Geoană (born 14 July 1958) is a Romanian politician and former ambassador who served as president of the Senate of Romania from 20 December 2008 until he was revoked on 23 November 2011.

Mircea Geoană was born in Bucharest, on July 14, 1958.

His father, Ioan Geoană, was a general in the Romanian Army from 1965 to 1992 and was head of the Civil Defense Command.

He graduated from Saint Sava High School in Bucharest in 1977, where he followed the real profile.

Then he attended the Faculty of Mechanics at the Bucharest Polytechnic Institute, as well as the Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest.

He was among the defendants of the investigation into the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

His mother, Elena Iuliana Geoană, was an engineer at ITB.

Mircea Geoană grew up in the Cișmigiu and Domenii neighborhoods of Bucharest.

A speaker of the French language, in 1990 he was hired by the Foreign Ministry as responsible for relations with France.

The following year, Minister Adrian Năstase promoted him to head the European Affairs Directorate for relations with NATO, the European Union, the OSCE, the WEU, and the Council of Europe.

In this capacity in 1991 he led the Romanian delegation to the committee of senior officials of the OSCE.

He attended the École nationale d'administration in Paris in 1992, as well as the course on Democratic Institutions of NATO.

He also holds a doctorate in world economy from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest.

During the period in which he was Romania's ambassador to Washington, he attended the World Bank Group's Managerial Development Program, within the Harvard Business School.

Mircea Geoană is married to Mihaela Geoană, an architect by profession, with whom he has a daughter (Ana Maria) and a son (Alexandru).

Mihaela Geoană's brother, Ionuț Costea, was the president of Eximbank.

Between 1993 and 1995 he was simultaneously the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry then led by Teodor Meleșcanu.

In 1994 he became director general of the directorate general for Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa and in 1995 also for Europe and North America.

In February 1996 he was appointed to transfer to Washington, D.C., becoming the youngest ambassador in Romania's diplomatic corps at 37.

A career diplomat, from 1996 to 2000 Geoană served as Romania's ambassador to the United States.

From 28 December 2000 to 28 December 2004, Geoană was the Foreign Minister of Romania, as part of the PSD government of Adrian Năstase.

As foreign minister on 11 January 2001, on the occasion of the permanent council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, he assumed the rotating presidency of the OSCE for one year.

Among the objectives of his mandate he listed the resolution of the ongoing conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Moldova, and Chechnya.

The government and parliament guaranteed their support to the United States in President George W. Bush's War on terror, and in November 2002 the admission of Romania to NATO was approved with effect from March 2004.

After the Romanian legislative elections of 2004, he was replaced by Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu from the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA).

From 21 April 2005 until 21 February 2010, he was the head of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, Partidul Social Democrat).

In 2005 he was then personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office for Georgia.

The Năstase government considered membership of NATO and the European Union a priority, succeeding in both cases.

Relations with the United States were marked by various official visits and by the constant support of American diplomacy for Romania.

Mihaela Geoană was President of the "National Red Cross Society of Romania" since April 2007, of the "Renaissance for Education, Health and Culture" Foundation, as well as of the "Millenium for Human Rights" NGO.

Mircea Geoană occupied, for two or three years, a place among the domestic football referees at Bragadiru and Voluntari.

"I took it from below, from the Honor Division" – he said in an interview.

"Only I know how much swearing I heard, but also how much physical conditioning I did. You cannot imagine how much passion there can be at an Honor Division match, at Bragadiru or Voluntari. I did it with passion."

He is a supporter of the football team Rapid București.

Geoană is the President of the Aspen Institute Romania, "an apolitical organization that aims to promote dialogue between the political, intellectual and business leaders.” Geoană serves on the advisory council of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University, which is dedicated to accelerating the innovation and adoption of trusted technology to advances freedom. He is also Honorary President of the George Marshall Romania Association.

Furthermore, he was the candidate of the party for the position of President of Romania in the 2009 presidential election which he narrowly lost to Traian Băsescu.

He was dismissed from PSD on 22 November 2011 but rejoined the party in late 2012.

From 2015 to 2018, he was the founder and leader of the Romanian Social Party.

Additionally, he was also the president of Aspen Institute Romania, which is an apolitical and non-profit organisation.

On 17 July 2019, he was appointed deputy secretary general of NATO, replacing Rose Gottemoeller.