Grup Feroviar Român brings on board new Human Resources Director

Starting July 1, Mihaela Crăciun, EMBA, took over the role of Human Resources Director of Grup Feroviar Roman (GFR), the flagship company of GRAMPET Group.

She has over 20 years of experience in top organizations in the steel, oil & gas, cement, information technology and food industries. Throughout his career, she has managed multicultural teams and complex projects of organizational transformation and culture change. As human resources director, she was part of the regional management team of the largest steel company in the world. She has defined and implemented the human resources strategy for thousands of employees in Romania and Northern Macedonia, Turkey, Greece; she has built and strengthened the human resources function at group level and has managed significant annual budgets of tens or hundreds of millions of euros. Mihaela is a Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies graduate and has an EMBA through the program developed by ASEBUSS in collaboration with Kennesaw State University – USA.

“We are glad that Mihaela joins the most important company in GRAMPET Group, bringing the experience she has gained in similar roles in comparable industries in terms of complexity and challenges. We thus bring another valuable professional in the human resources team, which has an essential role for sustainable growth and achieving our business objectives,” says Gruia Stoica, President of the GRAMPET Group. “I am confident that her profile completes the experience and talent of the existing team, at an important moment for our company, which today celebrates 20 years of activity.”

Mihaela Crăciun adds: “I am honored to join the largest private railway transport operator in the region, which is entering a new stage of growth and development. I intend to bring through my experience a fresh perspective within the management team, which will amplify existing projects and identify new opportunities and strategies.”

Despite its strategic role, the railway industry is facing one of the most serios labor crises in history, as fewer and fewer young people show interest in a career in this field, and the pressure for innovation and digitalization pushes for a new employee profile.

In recent years, Grup Feroviar Român has accelerated training and development programs carried out internally, but also through collaborations with partners from the professional and academic environment.

“Regardless of the industry, I think we are all at a key moment for the labor market, which requires rethinking and optimizing the human resources strategy, in line with the new post-pandemic economic paradigm,” continues Gruia Stoica. “The challenge is thus even greater for HR professionals, because the way they understand the new reality will directly influence companies’ future and, implicitly, their specific industries’ future in a global context.”

From her role, Mihaela Crăciun will coordinate the human resources activity of GFR, including recruitment and talent development, staff training, career planning, and performance management.

Grup Feroviar Român (GFR) is the leader of the local rail freight market. Currently, over 20% of traffic is international, GFR offering clients complex logistics solutions. GFR is a member of all representative international organizations and has collaboration agreements with both state railway operators (BDZ Cargo, UZ, CFM, PKP Cargo, ZK, RCH, HZ Cargo, ZBIH) and private railway operators in Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Germany. The operator has over 5,000 employees.

Established almost 20 years ago, GRAMPET is today the largest private rail freight and logistics operator in Romania and Southeast Europe. Its 16-company structure is strategically designed to span the entire chain of rail transport solutions and products, thus offering clients an integrated experience at the highest level of competence: freight railway transport, building, repairs and upgrading of rolling stock, spare parts production, lease of rolling stock, freight transhipment, logistic services, as well as innovative IT solutions for railway operators.

Its flagship company Grup Feroviar Român (GFR) is one of the main rail freight operators in Romania and Southeast Europe. Currently, over 20% of traffic is international, with GFR offering complex logistic solutions to rail sector customers. GFR is a member of all representative international organizations and has cooperation agreements with both state railway operators (BDZ Cargo, UZ, CFM, PKP Cargo, ZK, RCH, HZ Cargo, ZBIH) and private railway operators from Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Germany.

The Group’s companies Reva Simeria, Electroputere VFU Pascani, Reloc Craiova, and Electroputere VFU Craiova account for an important share of the Romanian rolling stock repairing market.

In parallel, the group carries out an intense activity of research and development of technical solutions meant to offer clients a transparent and real-time experience of services to which they have access. Thus, the GRAMPET Group launched an e-client portal for the first time in Romania, which facilitates the management of relations with client companies, from placing an order to invoicing.

Its subsidiary Roserv Oil, which took over the industrial platform of the RAFO Onești refinery in the summer of 2020, focuses on the national development of logistics terminals both on the container side and warehouses for petroleum products.