Violeta Ciurel, the former general manager for global pensions with the Dutch ING group, was promoted to general manager of public and international relations of the group.

Before leaving for Amsterdam in the autumn of 2004, Violeta Ciurel had been the general manager of ING Asigurari de Viata for five years. She was one of the first people the group hired the moment it entered the Romanian market.

"This is a promotion. I will handle international relations with governments, international organisations, including financial institutions, as well as trade associations in the banking-financial, pension and investment fields," Violeta Ciurel told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.

Ciurel succeeds Johan Richters, who retired.

"This is completely different from what I was doing before, it is something very new for me. The positioning and reputation of the group are now my main goal," says the new general manager of public and international relations of the ING group.

Ciurel says a significant part of her time will include liasing with the European Commission, as well as lobbying for legislation improvement and for everything that makes an impact on the Dutch group.

Even though she is no longer the general manager for global pensions, Ciurel has retained her position as governmental advisor for pension reform. She says she is now involved in several pension-related projects, one of which devised by the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the ING group and other institutions.

"This is a comparative study of pensions, which has never been done before. Its results will be published next year," ING's official explains.

In her position as ING general manager for global pensions, Ciurel was in charge of the strategy to develop pension services of ING throughout the entire world.

Ciurel says she intends to