Sphera Franchise Group has appointed Mr. Răzvan Lefter and Mr. Lucian Hoancă as interim directors, non-executive members of the Board of Directors. Sphera has also appointed Mr. Daniel Paliţă as interim CFO of the company.

“We welcome Mr. Lefter and Mr. Hoancă to the Board of Directors of Sphera Franchise Group and we want to express our confidence that they will add greatly to our business. Discussions with many investors since Sphera listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange encouraged us to increase the number of Non-Executive Directors and with the changes to the Board, we have been able to use this opportunity to achieve this” said Mark Hilton, CEO of Sphera Franchise Group. “We remain committed to upholding the highest corporate governance principles and we are pleased with the strengthening of the non-executive majority on the Board of Sphera”, Mark Hilton added.

With the Board appointments of Mr. Lefter and Mr. Hoancă, 5 out of the 7 members of the Board of Sphera Franchise Group will hold non-executive positions.

Mr. Razvan Lefter will join the Board starting 16 November 2018. Mr. Lefter is a finance professional, based in Bucharest, with extensive capital markets and public companies corporate governance experience. He currently sits on the board of Teraplast (Romania) and Eurohold (Bulgaria) and has been until recently a board member at Conpet (Romania). He is a CFA charter holder and an active member of the Romanian financial community. Mr. Lefter is also advising KJK Capital (Finland) on the Romanian private equity portfolio.

“Razvan has a proven track record generating awareness and confidence from within the investor community and we believe this will help Sphera continue to build strong relationship with our investors”, said Mark Hilton.
Mr. Lucian Hoancă will hold the position of non-executive member of the Board of Directors, starting 25 October 2018. With over 35 years’ experience in executive management, business development and sales, Mr. Hoancă has coordinated end-to-end business development projects, as well as product marketing and communication strategies, leveraging his early experience in the advertising field. Over the years, Mr. Hoancă has served in top management as well as advisory positions.

Both Mr. Hoancă and Mr. Lefter will hold their interim positions until the date of the General Shareholders Meeting when new members in the Board of Directors will be elected. The two board member positions are vacant following the resignation of Mr. Stylianos Bairaktaris from the office as of 25 October 2018, and of Mr. Kostantinos Mitzalis, effective as of 16 November 2018.

“Whilst being delighted with the appointment of Mr. Razvan Lefter and Mr. Lucian Hoancă, I would like to put on record my thanks to both Mr. Stylianos Bairaktaris and Mr. Kostantinos Mitzalis. Stylianos played a significant role as CFO for many years with the business and more recently as Executive Board Member, while Kostantinos joined the first Sphera Board and has helped the transition through to the publicly listed business operating today. We truly appreciate Kostantinos’ decision to step aside to ensure that we have even stronger representation of the minority shareholders. We would like to thank both of them for their commitment and wish them continued success and best wishes.” said Mark Hilton.
Mr. Daniel Paliţă’s appointment as interim Chief Financial Officer took into consideration his extensive experience, both within Sphera and in previous positions. Daniel Paliță is key person for the company, holding the position of Manager of Strategic Planning and Investor Relations since September 2017. He has a solid expertise in finance, having held the position of Director of Monogram Advisory, an advisory and investment banking boutique, where he actively advised on various finance related activities, including management reporting and budgeting. Previous to this, Mr. Paliță worked for Alpha Finance Romania, where he held several management positions, including Head of Corporate Finance. Mr. Paliţă will hold the interim position until a new CFO will be appointed, following a thorough recruitment process, which is currently underway.