Cristina Harea

Cristina Harea

AmCham President 2012-2016

Cristina Harea is a Chisinau native and the second President of the American Chamber of Commerce Moldova (AmCham). She fulfilled the role for 4 and a half years with AmCham and helped the organization thrive and achieve new and exciting milestones such as the moment AmCham reached 100 active members.

Cristina is a powerhouse in the financial and investment sector. She graduated in Moldova in foreign languages and picked up a master’s degree in business administration in the USA. Since then Cristina has progressed from height to height in her career working in a variety of organizations. She was an important asset within the Western NIS Enterprise Fund working as both a senior associate and later as Director of the representative office in Moldova.
Following this, she took on the role of Investment Director and Country Manager for Moldova within Horizon Capital LLC, one of the leading private equity firms in the region, and later the role of Chief Investment Officer for Moldova in the SME investment fund Gazelle Finance. Additionally, during her time in these roles Cristina was also a board member in a number of associations and businesses within Moldova. Some of these organizations include current AmCham members like Glass Container Company, FinComBank SA and Total Leasing and Finance.

Cristina dedicated much time to the development of AmCham and represented the organization as a board member from 2007 through 2012 until elected President of the board where she took on a key role in supporting the organization. She was also an active member of some of the governmental working groups with AmCham such as the Economic Council of the Prime Minister of Moldova. She helped the organization to continue to grow even through major upheaval within the financial system, particularly after the banking fraud scandal of 2014.

With Cristina, AmCham improved its collaboration efforts with other business associations with similar aims. In 2015, together with the EBA (European Business association) and FIA (Foreign Investors Association), AmCham published ‘Recommendations of the Business Community on Elimination of Constraints to Doing Business in Moldova’. These recommendations were sent to the government of Moldova in a major advocacy drive on behalf of the business community in Moldova. The recommendations covered a number of policy areas and sectors of business.

In September 2016, Cristina Harea was appointed by the Parliament to serve as the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Moldova. This new opportunity and role for Cristina sadly meant that her professional relationship with AmCham Moldova would have to end. However, Cristina will remain a member of the AmCham family and AmCham would like to express a high level of gratitude to her for all of the actions she took to support the organization. Cristina was a key player in AmCham, consistently driving development in both the finance sector and within the wider business community of Moldova.

AmCham wants to thank Cristina for helping to lead the organization to where it is today and to express well wishes and hope that Cristina will continue to thrive in all that she does in life.