Interview with Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: Leadership, Integrity, and European Projects

The story of a pragmatic and dedicated leader, co-founder of Asociația Mereu pentru Europa, about career, teamwork, balance, and the impact of European funds on communities.

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu is the co-founder and project manager of the Asociația Mereu pentru Europa in Craiova, an organization he helped establish and has been leading for over 17 years. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Craiova, specializing in Economic Informatics, and also holds a master’s degree in European Project Management from the same university.

Throughout his career, Daniel has dedicated his work to accessing and implementing European funds, managing projects financed through sources such as the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. He has coordinated projects across diverse fields, including education, healthcare, labor market development, entrepreneurship, and social inclusion, building one of the most substantial bodies of experience in European project management in the South-West Oltenia region.

Beyond his professional life, Daniel is a devoted family man, firmly convinced that the balance between work and personal life is not a luxury, but a fundamental condition for genuine performance.

C&B: If we were to look at a narrative thread of your career, what were the key moments that defined you?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: If I really think about the red thread of my career, I realize that it all started from a convergence of circumstances and choices that, at the time, seemed simply logical, but turned out to be defining. I was at the end of my studies, had a solid background in economic informatics, had completed my master’s in European project management, and Romania had just joined the European Union. It was a moment of excitement, full of possibilities, and European funds represented a new, almost unexplored territory for many, full of potential.

The first truly key moment was the decision to co-found the Mereu pentru Europa Association in 2008. I didn’t join an already established organization – I helped build it from scratch, with everything that implied: bureaucracy, uncertainty, the first projects won with excitement, the first teams formed, the first mistakes from which you learned more than from any course. That founding act forced me to grow quickly and to understand that management is not learned from theory, but from direct contact with reality.

The second important moment was the first major project I managed as a project manager – the Europe Direct Craiova Center, funded directly by the European Commission. It was a responsibility of an entirely different nature: we were no longer talking about structural funds managed by national authorities, but direct funding from Brussels, with corresponding standards, rigor, and visibility. That project shaped me professionally in the deepest sense of the word.

And there is something else that spans this entire period and that I consider, perhaps, the most valuable capital I have accumulated: diversity. I have worked in health, education, the labor market, entrepreneurship, social inclusion, digitalization. Each field enriched me with a different perspective on people and their needs. I have never remained captive in a comfort zone for too long – and I believe it is precisely this continuous movement that kept me motivated and curious about what I do.

C&B: What has been the most difficult moment so far in your career, and how did you overcome it?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: There is a specificity to the field I work in that few people outside of it truly understand: you don’t operate like a private company generating its own revenue at your own pace. You are largely dependent on the schedule of management authorities, the launching of project calls, the pace at which reimbursements are made. And sometimes, that schedule simply stops.

I went through periods in which payments for ongoing projects were suspended for months due to non-compliances identified at the system level – things that were beyond our control, but whose consequences we felt directly. I also went through periods in which no new calls were launched for years. Everything stagnated around you, and you had to keep the organization functional, the team motivated, and the direction clear.

Those moments put real pressure, both financially and personally. I had a team, I had commitments, I had people who depended on the continuity of the activity. How did I get through them? First, through transparency. I didn’t hide the difficulties from the team – I communicated them openly and worked together on solutions. Second, through adaptability: I identified alternative activities, diversified the types of projects we approached, and always looked for another angle from which to continue being useful.

But, honestly, what helped me most during those moments was the conviction that what I was building was sustainable and that difficulties are inherent in any path worth taking. Family was my anchor during those periods – knowing that I had something concrete and precious beyond the office helped me maintain the right perspective.

C&B: Is there a dream or ambition that has always guided you, regardless of obstacles?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: I wouldn’t necessarily call it a dream in the romantic sense of the word – I have always been a more pragmatic person. But there is certainly a direction that has consistently guided me: to create things that matter beyond myself. Projects that leave something behind – trained people, better-equipped communities, systems that function better.

When you manage a project in education or health and you know that behind the numbers in reports are real people whose lives have changed even a little – that is what motivates me deeply. It is not about glory or public recognition. It is about relevance. About the feeling that your work has a meaning beyond your own success.

There is also a personal dimension to this ambition: I want to build a way of life in which work and family do not exclude each other, but support each other. To be present – truly present – both in what I build professionally and alongside my wife and our two children. That, for me, is the definition of success.

C&B: What were you like at the beginning of your path, and how do you feel you have transformed since then?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: At the beginning of the journey, I was, naturally, more impatient and perhaps more rigid in my expectations. I believed that if you did things correctly, the system would reward you accordingly. I learned quite quickly that reality is more nuanced than that.

The most important transformation I feel in myself is the shift from wanting to control everything to knowing how to trust – in people, in the processes you have built, in the team’s ability to manage situations without you being at the center of every decision. It is a change that doesn’t come easily, because at first, the temptation to be involved in every detail is strong, especially when you are a co-founder of the organization and feel that you know best how things should be.

Over time, I have become a more patient and attentive person. I have understood that the performance of an organization is not the sum of individual efforts, but the product of the relationships between people. And that the best thing you can do as a leader is to create the conditions in which each person on your team can give their best.

Personally, I think I have also gained a certain serenity toward uncertainty. The unknown no longer scares me as much – I have been through enough difficult situations to know that there is always a way, if you are willing to search for it honestly.

C&B: If we were to meet your collaborators, what do you think they would say about you?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: I think they would say that I am a man of my word. That when I make a commitment, I keep it. And that I give them the same respect I expect – that is, I give them space to work, make decisions, and be responsible for what they do, without feeling the need to supervise them at every step.

We are a stable team, in which everyone knows what they have to do and has truly assumed a role. I do not have a rigid hierarchical approach – I prefer to operate as a system in which communication is direct and trust is the currency. I think that is what they would say as well: that there is no great distance between me and the rest of the team, that they can come with a problem or an idea at any time, and that they will be heard.

They might also say that I remain calm even in tense moments – and not because I don’t feel the pressure, but because I have understood that panic has never solved anything. A leader who spreads panic only multiplies disorder. I prefer to be the one who looks for solutions, not the one who dramatizes problems.

C&B: What is the most important decision you have made that changed your trajectory?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: Without a doubt, the decision to co-found the Mereu pentru Europa Association and to fully dedicate myself, professionally, to the activity of this organization. It was a decision that, at the time, was not without risk. I could have chosen a more predictable career, a stable job in a private company or in the public sector. Instead, I chose the more difficult path – to build something of my own, together with other founders who shared the same vision.

What I didn’t know then, but know now, is that this decision allowed me to develop much more quickly and deeply than I would have on another path. When you are a co-founder of an organization, you don’t have the luxury of being specialized in just one role. You learn to manage projects, people, relationships with partners and funders, crisis situations, moments of expansion. You inevitably become a more complete person.

And there is something else I appreciate in retrospect: the fact that this decision allowed me to build a way of life aligned with my values. Family remains my number one priority – and the structure of my activity allows me to be truly present: in the morning I belong to my family, I take the children to school, in the evening I am there when they come home. Not everyone can say that their profession allows this.

C&B: How did you build your leadership style or decision-making approach? Was it a natural process or learned?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: It was certainly a mix of both – and I believe that anyone who says their leadership style came exclusively naturally either hasn’t analyzed themselves enough or has had an exceptionally rare talent.

I started with certain predispositions – a calmer temperament, a natural tendency to listen before speaking, a preference for solving problems rather than dramatizing them. But the real lessons came from practice: from the mistakes I made while coordinating the first teams, from situations where my decision was wrong and I had to admit it openly, from moments when the pressure was high and I had to choose quickly without all the information I would have wanted.

If I were to define my style in a few words, I would say: decentralized and trust-based. I don’t function well with micromanagement – neither as its subject nor as a practice. I prefer to build a team in which each person knows what they have to do, understands why their work matters, and has the freedom to make decisions in their area of responsibility. My role is to set the direction, resolve obstacles that cannot be solved at the team level, and be a real support when needed.

I also believe that a good leader is a good listener. Not necessarily the one who always has the best answer, but the one who knows how to ask the right questions and create a space where people feel comfortable speaking openly.

C&B: What does a typical day look like for you now, and what moments of the day give you the greatest satisfaction?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: My day has a structure that took me some time to consciously build, but that I now value very much. The morning belongs to my family – no meeting or professional emergency changes that. I take the children to school, we have breakfast together, we talk. It is a simple ritual, but it sets the tone for the entire day.

Then I enter the professional rhythm. Working on several projects simultaneously – some in the implementation phase, others in preparation or reporting – the morning is usually dedicated to tasks that require the most focus: reading documents, drafting reports, preparing strategies. Around noon and in the afternoon, meetings come, discussions with the team, interactions with partners and funders.

At the end of the afternoon, I go back to pick up the children from school or extracurricular activities. And again, the evening belongs to the family. It’s not always perfect – there are days when deadlines or unforeseen situations change the plan. But the framework exists, and I protect it.

The greatest moment of satisfaction in a day? Probably when I see things moving – that a report has turned out well, that the team solved a problem on its own, that a project passed a review successfully. Or, just as often, simply the evening meal with the family, when we don’t talk about European projects at all.

C&B: What values or principles guide you in what you do, and how do you apply them day by day?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: The first principle is integrity. This means, concretely, that I do what I say I will do and that I say what I truly believe – not what is most convenient to say. In the field of European funds, where there is a lot of bureaucracy and, sometimes, the temptation to take the easier but less correct path, remaining honest is not always the easiest route. But it is the only one that allows you to sleep peacefully.

The second principle is responsibility – toward the people I work with, toward the beneficiaries of the projects I coordinate, toward the European public funds we manage. It is not an abstract responsibility; it is something I feel concretely in every decision I make.

The third is balance. I have understood, not without effort, that a career built at the expense of family or health is not a success, regardless of what the CV shows. Family – my wife and our two children – is not a detail in my life. It is its center. And all the important professional decisions I have made have taken that into account.

And, last but not least, I believe in people. I believe that people, if treated with respect and given the right conditions, are capable of much more than they expect from themselves. This guides me in how I build my teams and in how I relate to those I collaborate with.

C&B: If you were to give a message to people who follow your example, what would it be?

Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu: I would tell them to have the courage to choose the path that suits them – not the one that seems safer or the one chosen by those around them. There is strong social pressure to follow well-trodden paths, to make predictable choices, to avoid risk. And I understand that. Risk is real. But I have noticed that most people who become truly professionally fulfilled are those who, at some point, chose to do something they believed in, not something they were sure they would succeed at.

I would also tell them that failures and difficult moments are not signals that you chose wrong – they are part of any serious journey. If things were simple, they wouldn’t be worth building. I have gone through periods when everything seemed blocked, when uncertainty was at home, and it was precisely those periods that shaped me the most.

And, perhaps the most important message: do not sacrifice family on the altar of your career. A career can be rebuilt, redirected, reconstructed. Certain moments in the lives of loved ones do not come back. I consciously chose to be present – and I regret nothing about that choice. Professional success, no matter how real or important, has a completely different value when you have people by your side with whom you are truly present and who truly matter to you.

In short: build with integrity, invest in people, and never forget why you started your journey.

For Daniel Neagoe-Bacanu, success is not measured solely by completed projects or achieved goals, but by the people he inspires, the teams he nurtures, and the lasting impact he leaves behind. Being present, authentic, and building with integrity are the principles that guide every day and every professional decision he makes.