1. As Co-Head of the Employment and Labor Practice at Dentons Bucharest, how does your work in labor law, workplace policies, compliance, and data protection connect with RDCC’s mission of advancing inclusive economic growth and corporate innovation in Romania?

My daily work at Dentons sits at the exact intersection where legal frameworks meet people’s lived experiences in the workplace. As Co-Head of the Employment and Labor Practice, I advise companies on designing workplace policies that are not only legally sound but genuinely fair and can be effectively applied in practice – covering everything from anti-discrimination standards and equal opportunity frameworks to data protection in HR processes and accessibility obligations.

This connects directly to RDCC’s mission of advancing inclusive economic growth and corporate innovation. Inclusive growth is not possible without workplaces that respect and protect every individual, and companies cannot innovate sustainably if they exclude talent on the basis of disability, gender, ethnicity, or any other protected characteristic. My legal expertise allows me to translate RDCC’s values into concrete, actionable frameworks that businesses can implement with confidence, knowing they are both compliant and genuinely inclusive.

2. What motivated you to apply for a position on the RDCC Board of Directors, and how has your previous experience with RDCC—as a legal expert speaker on pay transparency, inclusive recruitment, accessibility, and disability inclusion—shaped your commitment to its mission?

My engagement with RDCC as a legal expert speaker was transformative. Speaking on inclusive recruitment, accessibility, and disability inclusion, and now on pay transparency –the hottest topic among the employers – I saw first-hand how keen the Romanian business community is for practical, credible guidance on these topics. The audience was not simply looking for legal lectures – they wanted to understand how to build better workplaces and what are the best examples in this regard.

That experience showed me that RDCC occupies a unique and irreplaceable space in Romania’s business ecosystem. It bridges the gap between legal obligation and cultural change. Joining the Board came with a huge responsibility but also felt like a natural progression – a chance to move from contributing occasionally as an expert to contributing strategically and continuously as a decision-maker. I want to help set the direction for how RDCC grows, what it advocates for, and how it serves its members. My motivation is ultimately about impact for companies: using my expertise where it can do the most good.

3. As an RDCC Board Member, what are your main objectives for this mandate, particularly in strengthening the RDCC member network, advancing ED&I best practices, and supporting awareness campaigns and events?

My objectives for this mandate fall into three interconnected areas:

· Strengthening the member network: I want to enhance the value RDCC delivers to its members by creating more structured, peer-to-peer learning opportunities – where companies can share what is working, identify common challenges, and collaborate on solutions. A stronger network means RDCC becomes an indispensable partner rather than simply a membership organization.

· Advancing ED&I best practices: I aim to help RDCC develop more concrete, sector-specific guidance on equality, diversity, and inclusion – moving beyond general principles toward practical toolkits, model policies, and benchmarking frameworks that companies can readily adopt.

· Supporting awareness campaigns and events: Visibility matters enormously. I want to support campaigns that keep ED&I, accessibility, and inclusion at the forefront of Romania’s corporate agenda, particularly as European legislative developments – such as the Pay Transparency Directive and the European Accessibility Act – create both obligations and opportunities for Romanian businesses.

4. From your perspective as an employment and labor law specialist, what does inclusive leadership mean in practice, and how can companies build diverse, resilient workforces while remaining aligned with labor-law compliance and anti-discrimination standards?

Inclusive leadership, in practice, means creating conditions where every employee can contribute fully – not despite their differences, but because of them. It is not about symbolic gestures, perfect policies or checkbox compliance; it is about the daily decisions that managers and executives make: who is heard in a meeting, who is considered for promotion, how performance is evaluated, how grievances are handled.

From a labour law perspective, inclusive leadership and legal compliance are not in tension – they reinforce each other. Anti-discrimination law, reasonable accommodation obligations, and equal pay frameworks are the floor, not the ceiling. Companies that understand this invest in training their managers, audit their HR processes for unconscious bias, design flexible working arrangements proactively rather than reactively, and build transparent pay structures.

Employer wise – a diverse and resilient workforce is also a competitive advantage. When companies embed inclusion into their talent strategy – recruitment, onboarding, development, and retention – they build organizations that are better equipped to navigate complexity and attract the best talent from the widest possible pool.

5. You have advised companies on workplace policies that prioritize accessibility, equal opportunity, privacy, and sustainable employment practices. What concrete measures should employers take to move from formal compliance to genuinely inclusive workplace cultures?

This is one of the most important questions in the ED&I space, because the gap between formal compliance and genuine inclusion is where many companies get stuck. Based on my advisory experience, I would highlight the following concrete measures:

– Conduct an honest check: Audit existing policies, pay data, promotion rates, and complaint records through an inclusion lens. Compliance on paper often masks inequality in practice.

– Ensure psychological safety. Employees need to feel safe raising concerns without fear of retaliation. Robust speak-up mechanisms, confidential reporting channels, and genuine non-retaliation cultures are essential.

– Use data meaningfully. Track and analyze workforce diversity data (within the limits of data protection law) to identify patterns and measure progress over time.

– Engage employees as partners. Inclusion cannot be designed in isolation by HR departments. Employee resource groups, listening sessions, and co-design processes are powerful tools.

6. Given your RDCC contributions on Law 232, accessibility, workplace adjustments, and accessible digital products, how can businesses better integrate accessibility into their operations, employee experience, and customer-facing services?

My work on Law 232, the European Accessibility Act, and workplace adjustments has given me a clear view of where Romanian businesses currently stand – and where they need to go.

The first shift required is moving from accessibility as a legal risk to manage, to accessibility as a value to embed. Concretely, this means:

– In the employee experience: Ensuring that recruitment processes, onboarding materials, internal communications, and digital tools are accessible to employees with disabilities. This includes physical workplace adjustments but also – increasingly – the accessibility of HR software, communication platforms, and remote working tools.

– In operations: Appointing a designated lead for accessibility, conducting regular accessibility audits, and incorporating accessibility requirements into procurement processes so that vendors and suppliers meet the same standards.

– In customer-facing services: With the European Accessibility Act coming into full effect, companies offering digital products and services must ensure their websites, apps, and self-service platforms meet accessibility standards. This is both a legal obligation and a significant market opportunity, given that an estimated 16% of the population lives with some form of disability.

The key takeaway is that accessibility is not a niche concern – it is central to how modern and competitive businesses operate.

7. How can RDCC support companies through advisory services, certification programs, executive training, inclusive hiring guidance, and practical legal education on topics such as pay transparency, anti-discrimination, disability inclusion, and data governance?

RDCC is uniquely positioned to be the trusted guide for Romanian companies navigating the increasingly complex intersection of ED&I, compliance, and competitiveness. Concretely, I see RDCC’s support role developing in several directions:

· Advisory services: Offering tailored guidance to member companies on implementing ED&I frameworks, particularly as new European directives – pay transparency, accessibility, corporate sustainability reporting – create new obligations.

· Certification programmes: Developing or endorsing certification standards that recognize genuine commitment to inclusion, giving member companies a credible external validation of their efforts.

· Legal education: Translating complex legislative developments – such as the Pay Transparency Directive, EU Accessibility Act, data protection rules in HR, and anti-discrimination standards – into accessible, practical guidance that non-legal professionals can understand and act upon.

The goal is to make RDCC the first go to organization for any company that wants to do better on inclusion and needs both the inspiration and the tools to do so.

8. Looking ahead, what opportunities and challenges do you see for Romania’s business environment as ED&I, accessibility, compliance, and competitiveness become increasingly interconnected in European and global markets?

European legislative developments – the Pay Transparency Directive, the European Accessibility Act, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – are raising the bar significantly for all companies operating in the EU. For Romanian businesses, this creates both challenges and opportunities.

The challenges are real: many companies still treat ED&I as a soft, optional extra rather than a strategic priority. Awareness of new accessibility obligations remains limited. Capacity to implement pay equity analyses and transparent remuneration structures is still developing. And there is a risk that compliance becomes a box-ticking exercise rather than a driver of authentic cultural change.

The opportunities, however, are substantial. Companies that invest in inclusion now will be better positioned to attract and retain talent in a competitive labor market, and build the kind of employer brand that resonates with younger generations entering the workforce. There is also a reputational and commercial dimension: global investors and multinational partners increasingly factor ED&I performance into their decisions.

Let us take the example of Kaufland – a corporate member of the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce (RDCC) and one of its founding members since the organization’s establishment in December 2020. Kaufland stands as a pioneer in creating accessible workplaces and serves as a compelling illustration of what a truly inclusive employer looks like.

Romania has the talent, the ambition, and – through organizations like RDCC – the ecosystem to become a regional leader in inclusive business practices. My commitment as a Board Member is to help turn that potential into reality.