I first visited Avenor in July 2019, when I returned home for the summer holiday. It was one of instances when you enter a place and you know that you belong there, when you meet people and you discover that you share a common vision for how excellence in education looks like. It was a moment when I knew that I wanted to be part of the team and contribute to achieving the vision of co-creating the best future for our children. I realised, during the few hours that I spent at school, that Avenor represents to me more than any other international school – it is an international school functioning within my own, Romanian, culture and this makes it so special. In the words of Andy Hargreaves, “If we want to understand schools, we need to understand larger systems that they are part of”.

I am happy and honoured to, one year later, fully join this wonderful community!

Throughout my professional life, I refined myself as a leader and significantly widened my vision of excellence in international education, internationalism and of leadership.

The years spent as a lecturer at the University of Bucharest and as an Associate Professor at the University of Osijek (Croatia) taught me not only academic rigour, but, beyond this, made me think more deeply about the exit point of our high school students. Developing independent thinkers and learners through building students’ agency becomes, in this context, one non-negotiable goal of education.

The strengthening fascination with education, which determined my professional path as Head of Mathematics at The British School of Warsaw and at The Anglo-American School of Moscow, has further evolved during the past eleven years at the ESF South Island School in Hong Kong. What was, initially, a passion for mathematics and a commitment to make it accessible to students of all abilities, changed into a broader interest on how schools work as whole systems and how school culture impacts on teachers’ and students’ growth. My role in Hong Kong evolved into one where I had different roles in the school’s senior leading structures.

At the same time, I had a long term partnership with the University of Hong Kong, Department of Education, in training teachers and evaluating their Masters of International Education programmes.

Additionally, I worked with the Council of International Schools – a large organisation, similar to BSO, that evaluates, accredits and helps schools improve. Twice per year, I chaired teams of 8-10 international evaluators, from all over the world, that spend one week in a school and look at all its aspects.

Over the past decade I have opened several windows, all facing into the garden of education. I am now looking forward to bringing all my learning and energy together, in one place, taking the path that converges towards serving and learning from our Avenor community.