Sergiu Celac (; born May 26, 1939) was the first

post-communist Post-communism is the period of political and economic transformation or transition in former communist states located in Eastern Europe and parts of Africa and Asia in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economi ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( ro, Ministerul Afacerilor Externe) is the ministry responsible for external affairs of the Romanian Government. The current Foreign Minister is Bogdan Aurescu. List of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (1 ...

(December 26, 1989 - June 28, 1990) within the Romanian Provisional Government in the aftermath of the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...

Early life

Celac was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. In 1961, he graduated from the School of Languages of

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

Political career

Diplomatic career

Celac started working as a junior clerk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania immediately after graduation from the university. By 1963 he received the rank of

Attaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accord ...

and in 1972 he was promoted to a rank of

Counselor Counselor or counsellor may refer to: A professional In diplomacy and government * Counsellor of State, senior member of the British royal family to whom the Monarch can delegate some functions in case of unavailability * Counselor (di ...

. From 1962 until 1967, he worked as the personal secretary to the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1967-1969, he was a part-time secretary to the Foreign Minister on his trips overseas and during Romania's presidency of the UN General Assembly. In 1968-1974, Celac served as Deputy Director and later Director of the Intelligence Analysis and Policy Planning Department. From 1961 through 1978, he also served as an interpreter for Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceaușescu. Throughout his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was an expert and member of the Romanian delegation to 14 sessions of the UN General Assembly and Disarmament Committee in Geneva. In 1978, Celac was dismissed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an ideologically unreliable employee. After removal from foreign service, he worked at the Encyclopedic Publishing House in Bucharest until the overthrow of the Ceaușescu regime on December 22, 1989. On December 26, 1989, being one of close allies of new President Ion Iliescu, Celac was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs (Romania), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania within the Provisional Government of Romania in the aftermath of the anti-communist revolution and served in this position until June 28, 1990. Celac refused to run for Romanian Parliament or join any political party. In 1990-1996, he worked as the Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland (from 1991). In 1996, he was appointed Ambassador at large leading special envoy missions to the Balkans, Central Asia, Caucasus and the Middle East. From April through August 1998, he was the Director of Political Affairs of the ministry. In August 2000, Celac resigned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pursue academic and business interests and work as political analyst and environmental consultant.

Post-diplomatic career

Since August 2000, Celac is the chairman of EmC Emission Control Ltd. In January 2002, he was hired to be the President & CEO of the Romanian Institute of International Studies of Nicolae Titulescu ( IRSI). From March 2002 until December 2004, Celac served as Personal Adviser to the President of Romania. He was also the Alternate Director General at the International Center for Black Sea Studies in Athens in 2003-2007. In 1997 - 2002, he was an invited speaker at many conferences in United States, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Ukraine, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Czech Republic, Greece, Slovakia, Switzerland, Georgia (country), Georgia, Azerbaijan, Portugal, Austria, the Netherlands, Brazil. His publications include more than 40 fiction and non-fiction political science books, and more than 500 essays and articles. He also co-chairs the Millennium III Quarterly Learned Journal. Currently Celac is the Senior Adviser at National Center for Sustainable Development, Vice President of Romanian Association for the Club of Rome and Associate Professor at the Romanian Diplomatic Institute.

Awards

Celac is the Grand Officer of the ''National Order for Faithful Service'' (Romania, 2000). Celac is married to Silvia Celac with no children.

References