THE RUMOR MILL The question of the day: Who will be the manager of the Bucharest Stock Exchange?

Who will be the new manager of the Bucharest Stock Exchange is the question everyone is looking for an answer to, after the shareholders elected a new Board of Directors on Monday.

There are three possibilities being discussed in the market.

• 1. Valentin Ionescu returning

The first and the most likely version seems to be having Valentin Ionescu be hired once again, after he was fired by the old Board of Directors, in November, after a group of shareholders had requested the replacement of the Board of Directors.

It seems that the old board assumed that Valentin Ionescu was in league with the shareholders who wanted to replace the Board of Directors, which is likely, considering that he seems to be on good terms with the new management. The previous Board of Directors fired Valentin Ionescu, claiming that he hadn't met the goals that had been set for him.

• 2. A contest will be held for the position

The second rumor is that the new board will resort to a "head-hunting" firm and will hold a contest for filling the position.

Head-hunter George Butunoiu said that a company with expertise in the field of recruiting could find a general manager for the company in one month, but the search could be made more difficult by the internal procedures of the BSE.

• 3. Negotiations with an official in the Ministry of Finance

There have been rumors that negotiations with an employee in the Ministry of Finance have begun, but this idea doesn't seem to be too popular with the group of shareholders which obtained the majority of the seats on the Board of Directors.

The General Manager of the BSE will be elected after the new management is validated by the CNVM. Also elected on the same occasion will be the two vice-presidents and the general manager.

Valerian Ionescu, the head of trading and sales of financial instruments tradable on regulated markets of BCR and current member of the Board of Directors of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, yesterday said that the validation procedure could last two or three weeks.