New candidates for the position of BSE CEO: Paul Prodan and Andre Cappon

Three candidates have been included in the race for the CEO seat of the Bucharest Stoch Exchange (BVB), during the internal selection process initiated by the Board of Directors, namely, Paul Prodan, the president of the Board of Directors of BT Capital Partners, Andre Cappon, head of CBM, Inc. Consulting of New York, and former CEO Ludwik Sobolewski, according to some market sources.

The members of the Board of Directors have submitted until Friday candidate proposals and yesterday a list was supposed to be made for the short list, to start the interviews and negotiations.

Since the long list wasn't so long, as it only included three people, they stayed in the contest, following yesterday's board meeting.

Apparently Ludwik Sobolewski, heavily backed by president Lucian Anghel, was included by default, without following the established procedures, meaning presenting a CV and a cover letter, according to our sources.

Thus it is unknown if he wants to return to Bucharest. At any rate, the fact that is he isn't following procedures is nothing new, after all the show he put on in order to cling to his seat, by claiming he no longer has a contract with the BSE, but that he still had a mandate, according to the Civil Code.

From the lack of interest of the Board of Directors for this competition it is obvious that the launch of the selection was made only as a diversion, as the intention seems to be to reinstate Sobolewski despite any risks, at least where his supporters are concerned.

It remains to be seen how long the selection process will take, and whether Radu Hanga, who was elected last week as the ninth board member of the BSE, will get the approval of the BSE in time to vote for the CEO.

Mr. Hanga, backed for the board of the BSE by Banca Transilvania and the EBRD, has not yet stated whether it backs Sobolewski for a new term as CEO or not, but recently told "BURSA", that he hopes that the board "will find the best solution and stand by it".

Right now, candidates for the CEO position also include his colleague from the Banca Transilvania group, Paul Prodan.

In August, he was saying that the Romanian stock market was still in its embryo stage and that we are far from where we want to be compared to the market's capacities and requirements.

Paul Prodan also worked for Credit Europe, BRD, ING and OTP, according to information in the media.

Andre Cappon is an experienced consultant in the United States. In his opinion, it would be best if the BSE stayed among the top emerging markets rather than graduating to the emerging market status, according to his interview he gave us last week, which we are publishing today.

The competition for the position of CEO of the BSE is low, when considering that the position, at least during Sobolewski's term, was extremely well compensated - a fixed salary of approximately 18,000 Euros plus benefits and performance bonuses, subject to easily achievable criteria. The reasons for that low competition may be that the BSE officials have announced that they want to cut the salary package for the CEO, as well the relatively low importance of the BSE as an institution in the domestic economy.