BIO

Born in 1958, Mr. Lazea graduated from the Management Faculty of the Academy of Economic Studies in 1982. Later he attended a one-year post-graduate course in economics at Sussex University, Brighton, as well as courses in banking (Milan) and in financial programming (Washington DC). Mr. Lazea has joined the National Bank of Romania in 1993, initially as an economist, later becoming head of the monetary policy division. Between 1996 and 2000, he has served as a Secretary of State (Deputy Minister) at the Ministry of Finance. Since 2001, he is Chief Economist of the National Bank of Romania. In this capacity, he participates in the formulating of the monetary policy decisions, and in macroeconomic co-ordination with the Ministry of Finance.

Between 2010 and 2020, he also provided the secretariat for the Committee for Preparing the Changeover to the Euro.
Besides his current job, Mr. Lazea was a founding member of the Romanian Center for Economic Policies (CEROPE) and was the president of the board of TRANSFOND, a company that performs electronic payments for Romanian banks.