CORINA VINTAN
The Founder and Managing Director of Links Associates, Corina Vintan is one of the Romanian pioneers in the field of Strategic Communications, specializing in Public Affairs consultancy, Media relations, Branding and Corporate communications.
Over the years, Corina advised many Companies and Clients with projects of national interest in many sectors of the Romanian Economy which range from mining, oil and gas, tobacco, real estate, pharmaceutical industry, mass media as well as public diplomacy and charitable organizations.
In 2008 Corina worked with the German Marshall Fund (GMF) to organize the Bucharest Conference - the launching event of the NATO Summit - providing the liaison with the Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry, the US Embassy and the Romanian media. The conference played a key role in providing a platform for Policymakers, Scholars, and Business people from both sides of the Atlantic to discuss the most pressing issues facing NATO and the International Community.
She also organized the local selection to nominate the most prestigious female figure to represent Romania at the European level for International Association for the Promotion of Women of Europe (AIPFE); award won by Monica Macovei, who was also subsequently named the European Woman of the Year.
Prior to setting-up her own agency, Corina was the General Director for Communications and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this role, she was instrumental in reforming the Communications Department in preparation of Romania's accession procedures to join the EU. She also played an important role in major projects and events that Romania was part of at that moment: EU accession, the UN Security Council membership, the new role for Romania in the Black Sea Region and NATO, as well as the country branding process and new projects related to the Romanian public diplomacy. In her capacity at the Ministry, she was challenged to reshape not only the way diplomatic communications functioned, but also the public's perception of the Romanian Diplomatic Corp by creating the appropriate mechanisms answering the political and decision-making processes together with the various demands on the diplomatic service.
Before taking up her post with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Corina held the position of Chief Commercial Officer at the national newspaper Evenimentul Zilei, then, part of Bertelsmann Group, where she had considerable exposure and interaction with the media world, gaining invaluable experience and working knowledge of the Global and the Romanian media and in particular what are the challenges of this field. At the same time, she was also for 8 years the business representative in Romania for Financial Times and subsequently for Dow Jones and CNN International.
Corina began her career at Saatchi & Saatchi where she spent almost 8 years, 6 of which as the Head of the PR Department. During this period, Corina actively worked on some of the most important political and PR campaigns of the time; she was heavily involved on election campaigns for the then Mayor of Bucharest and Prime Minister, Victor Ciorbea, former President of Romania Emil Constantinescu as well as the former Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu. She also worked for some of the most important Commercial clients with huge investments in Romania such as RWE, British American Tobacco, ING Bank, LG, DHL, Toyota, MobilRom and Carrefour amongst others.
Corina has a Bachelor degree in Finance and Banking from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and accumulated her Communications skills through working experience and fine tuned her knowledge through professional studies in the United States and Britain. Corina is also one of the founding members of the Romanian Association of Public Relations Professionals (ARRP).