Gabriela Lungu leaves The Practice for an international career

Gabriela Lungu, Managing Partner & Creative The Practice, leaves the agency in the end of January and will head towards an international career. Further details related to where Gabriela will head to will be released soon.

Lungu, that founded The Practice in 2006, will be succeeded at the head of the agency by 2 Managing Directors, Oana Bulexa, until now Head of PR, and Monica Jitariuc, Head of Social Media.

Stefan Iordache, co-founding partner The Practice and COO Leo Burnett Group Romania, will buy the shares Gabriela Lungu has within the agency and will support the new management team.

The Practice was founded in November 2006 as an entrepreneurial initiative of Gabriela Lungu (Ogilvy PR Romania ex-Managing Director) together with Ioana and Stefan Iordache (leaders of Leo Burnett Group Romania). The company started off with a team of 4 people and only one client, positioned as a highly creative & efficient PR consultancy, aiming to become “an industry point of reference”.

Under Gabriela’s management and creative leadership, The Practice became the most awarded Romanian PR agency, winner of over 150 awards and nominations in local and international competitions, including the Agency of the Year title in 2009 & 2012 in Romania. The company also ranks 13^th in the top of the most creative PR agencies in the world (according to The Holmes Report Creative Index 2012).

The agency is among the top 10 Romanian PR agencies in terms of financial results (+1.3 million euro in 2011) and has a strong portfolio of both international & local brands (including Avon, IKEA, Renault, SABMiller, Samsung, Starbucks or Unilever, to name just the ones best known internationally). The agency partners internationally with MSLGroup and locally with Leo Burnett group.

I’m really proud of the agency I created & managed. The 6 years with The Practice has been a tremendously rewarding journey and has brought me a lot of joy! Many thanks to all those who have been with me along the way and supported me all these years. It’s not going to be easy for me to be apart from my tiny but mighty company and also from the people who are so dear to me, but I’m doing it with the strong belief that what I leave behind is a solid and beautiful structure

Gabriela Lungu.

We are extremely pleased that we have been partners all these years – it was a very good and happy cooperation, which offered us great satisfactions. We support her (Gabriela’s) plans for the future and we want to thank her for the great results The Practice had so far

Stefan Iordache

The management hand over is following a succession plan, which included the identification and recruitment of high leadership potential people, training and promoting them step by step to gain the necessary experience, including even an exercise during the summer of 2012. The result is a natural and easy transition and a competent management team, responsible and enthusiastic, ready to lead The Practice.

Oana Bulexa (32) has 11-year experience in communication, working together with Gabriela Lungu for the past 8 years, and was among the first employees of The Practice. Within the agency, Oana has grown professionally and has taken positions of increasing managerial responsibilities, up to the current position of Head of PR Department. She has been coordinating some of the most awarded campaigns of the agency. For over two years, Oana has been leading the largest department of THE PRACTICE, successfully focusing both on the consultants’ professional development, as well as on the PR division’s growth by strengthening the relationships with existing customers and winning new business.

Monica Jitariuc (30) has over 12 years of work in marketing, advertising, and PR; she joined The Practice in 2010 to coordinate the new Social Media department. She did it successfully – under her leadership the department grew (being now the most important and respected Social Media department of a local PR agency), the client portfolio increased and our Social Media team conducted some very visible and effective online PR campaigns awarded in local and international PR & digital competitions. Monica is currently one of the most appreciated Social Media experts of the Romanian communication industry.

The Practice means excellence in communication. We’re always looking for the best, we are passionate about our job, we are curious and creative, we like effective results. This is the way  our customers and partners know us and we will continue to be so in the future. We will focus on consolidating everything we’ve built so far with Gabriela and the entire team, and to provide our customers the same dedication, the same professionalism they are familiar with. We want to thank Gabriela for letting us learn from her and to grow rich with confidence and passion for communication.

Oana Bulexa

I feel honored that Gabriela trusted Oana and me with the management of the company. We will continue to be an innovative agency that believes in results through creativity. We continue to be in line with the international concepts and trends, to assume leadership in strategic thinking. We will continue to honor the name: The Practice

Monica Jitariuc

I am very confident in the new management team formed by Oana and Monica and I am very happy for them too.  I know them very well, both of them are people of great character and professionalism, they have been working together in this agency already for several years with good results, and they are well trusted by clients and the industry. They already form a well consolidated team, and I know they have what it takes to further lead the destiny of my tiny but mighty The Practice

Gabriela Lungu

We wish Oana and Monica good luck and we are confident that under their management the company will continue to serve its clients up to the highest standards and to maintain the good reputation the company has on the market.

Stefan Iordache