The current real estate boom has embroiled firms operating on the market into a competition to recruit individuals for high-level management positions. At least 10 top managers have changed positions in the past six months. According to human resources specialists, salaries for top management positions are often exceeding a monthly level of 10,000 euros.
Polimeni, a U.S. company specialising in the development of shopping centres and housing complexes, which arrived on the domestic market several months ago, recruited its national manager from the Austrian real estate investment fund Europolis. The newly appointed manager, Stefan Gheorghiu, says he left Europolis because he did not want to miss out on the opportunity of heading operations at a major real estate developer that specialises in shopping centres and residential complexes. Gheorghiu's situation is not unique, however. Early this year, Raiffeisen Evolution, the real estate development unit of the Austrian Raiffeisen group, recruited both Ionel Giuglea, the former general manager with Alpine builder, and Monica Barcutian, the former chief financial officer with Strabag group's domestic infrastructure and constructions unit, in order to encourage domestic investments.
Other examples include Andrei Panculescu, who has, since October, held the position of acquisitions and commercial manager with Westhill Investments, which operates investments above 100m euros. In February, Ovidiu Marian, a former chairman of the National Tourism Authority and CEO of the Howard Johnson Hotel Bucharest, became the CEO of Baneasa, so far the biggest real estate project launched on the domestic market.
What persuades a top manager to drop his or her current job and move to another company? George Butunoiu, one of the best-known headhunters working in the business, says he has recruited 4 general managers in major