Pavel Popescu

Vice President, National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM)

Commissioner for Romania

A mentor told me once: 'Pavel, all abdicated responsibility will be taken by tyrants and used against you'. In a brand new world, where cyber, AI, quantum computing, 5G and disinformation are new battlegrounds where totalitarian regimes are fighting against freedom and democratic values, we, the people of the free world, are obliged to never abdicate from the responsibility to expose and fight against these regimes and the tyrants behind them. Never stop fighting! Never stop protecting our core democratic values! The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue is an authentic powerhouse to fight for the freedom of our people, among the best tech and diplomacy experts across our like-minded nations. It honors me to be part of the KITDP family.

Pavel Popescu is a Romanian politician, economist and member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies since 2016. He held the chairmanship of the Committee on Defense, Public Order and National Security in 2022 and is currently a member of the same committee. In the period 2016-2020, he was the representative of the electoral district of Timiș county in the Romanian Parliament, and in 2020 he ran for and won the mandate of deputy of Bucharest.

He was one of the Romanians who decided to emigrate to Norway, working in the construction industry as a simple laborer and then as a team leader. At the same time, he gained professional experience in the IT field, providing consulting to companies in the field. In 2016, following the tragedy of the nightclub fire at Colectiv, he decided to return to Romania to serve his country.

Active in the sphere of parliamentary diplomacy and in the promotion of strategic projects to strengthen Romania’s position in NATO and the EU, Popescu is one of the most vocal parliamentarians advocating for the consolidation of Romania’s partnership with the United States and for combating China’s influence in the Black Sea region. Among the projects he promoted are the law that prohibits the participation of operators connected to the Chinese Communist Party in the tenders for 5G networks in Romania and the implementation of screening for foreign investments through an institution inspired by the CFIUS model.