VZCZCXRO7848
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBM #0313/01 0751551
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161551Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6271
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000313 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NCE AARON JENSEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SOCI RO
SUBJECT: MEDAR OUT, STANISOARA IN: PRESIDENT RESHUFFLES 
PRESIDENTIAL ADVISORS 
 
 
¶1. (SBU)  The Presidential Office announced 3/15 a major 
reshuffle of the Presidential Administration, including the 
naming of Mihai Stanisoara as National Security Advisor; 
Sebastian Lazoroiu as the head of a reorganized Political 
Planning department; Cristian Preda as Presidential Advisor 
for Education and Research; and Bjujor Bogdan Teodoriu as 
Presidential Advisor for Economics. Biographic sketches of 
the four new Presidential Advisors follow: 
 
Mihail Stanisoara 
----------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Mihai Stanisoara replaces General Sergiu Medar (who 
is reportedly retiring for health reasons) as National 
Security Advisor. Stanisoara has presided over the Chamber of 
Deputies Defense Committee since December 2004.  He is a 
member of the PD,s National Standing Bureau-)e.g., the top 
executive party body--having been elected one of the party,s 
executive secretaries in May 2005.  Stanisoara began his 
parliamentary career in 2000, and was reelected from the same 
constituency in Mehedinti county, South-East Romania in 2004. 
 He served in as a member and subsequently president of the 
foreign policy committee and concurrently as head of the 
delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and as a member 
of the Romanian Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary 
Assembly.  Stanisoara was also the general secretary of the 
Ministry of Defense for a brief period in early 2000 (note: 
he served under then-defense minister Sorin Frunzaverde, who 
resumed the MOD portfolio in late 2006.) 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Between 1992 and 1999, Stanisoara served as the 
general secretary and subsequently as president of the 
Mehedinti Chamber of Trade and Industry. Before 1989, he was 
an engineer in Turnu Severin (Mehedinti county) and 
Timisoara, and a teaching assistant at the Timisoara 
Technical University.  Stanisoara graduated from the 
Polytechnic Institute of Timisoara in 1986, and subsequently 
obtained a PhD in technical sciences from the same institute 
in 2003.  Stanisoara also attended the NATO College in Rome 
(2006), the Superior College of National Security (2005) and 
the Defense College in Bucharest (2001).  He is currently 
enrolled in a doctoral program at the Bucharest-based Police 
Academy in the field of public order and national security. 
Mihai Stanisoara is 45, is married, has two children and 
speaks excellent English. 
 
Sebastian Lazaroiu 
------------------ 
 
¶4. (SBU) Sebastian Lazaroiu until recently was Managing 
Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Sociology 
(CURS), one of the leading polling institutes in Romania.  He 
is also lecturer at the National School of Political Studies 
and Public Administration.   Between 1999-2000, Lazaroiu was 
Research Director at the Center for Marketing Studies and 
Polls (CSOP-TNS), a partner of Gallup International.  His 
educational background includes coursework in Quantitative 
Methods of Social Research at the Inter-University Consortium 
for Political and Social Research at the University of 
Michigan. 
 
Cristian Preda 
-------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The appointment of Cristian Preda, the former Dean 
of the Political Science Department at the University of 
Bucharest, as Presidential Advisor for Education and Research 
fills a long-vacant position created in July 2006 when two 
new departments were created in the Presidential 
Administration, including the Department for Public Health 
and the Department for Education and Research.   Preda was 
formerly the MFA's deputy Minister for Francophony.  Preda, 
41, does not have any known political party affiliation. 
 
Bujor-Bogdan Teodoriu 
--------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Bujor-Bogdan Todoriu replaces Theodor Stolojan as 
State Counselor and head of the Economic Department in the 
Presidential Administration.   Stolojan resigned last year 
following his decision to reenter party politics (note: he 
was in the vanguard of a group of PNL leaders who left the 
party to form a new breakaway Liberal Democratic Party 
closely aligned with President Basescu.)  Todoriu served as 
Minister of Research and Technology from 1996-98, and 
subsequently served in a variety of positions as both a 
member of parliament or deputy minister in various 
 
BUCHAREST 00000313  002 OF 002 
 
 
governments.   Teodoriu, 54, is a longtime member of the 
Democratic Party. 
TAUBMAN