Chicago · Sunday, September 20, 2026 · 9:30 AM - 2:00 PM
GlobalRomania Summit
Romanians with strong voices - people who dare to lead, have the vision to build, and the determination to create meaningful impact in their communities worldwide.
Free registration · Limited seats
ROCO Chicago5406 N. Kedzie Ave, Chicago, IL 60625
On stage
Who you will hear from.
Dan Nicolae
GR Ambassador, Univ. of Chicago
Violeta Suciu
GR Ambassador
Dallas
Diana Filip
GR Ambassador
Bruxelles
George Roth
GR Ambassador
San Francisco
Simona Vasile
GR Ambassador
New York
- CB
Camelia Bratu
GR Ambassador
Las Vegas
Roxana Nistor
Founder
House of Romania at Davos
- ML
Mihaela Lovin
GR Ambassador
Detroit
Dana Bucin
GR Ambassador
Connecticut
- MC
Mihaela C. Simianu
GR Ambassador
Indianapolis
- MM
Maria Micsia
GR Ambassador
Toronto
- MM
Mihaela Madaras
GR Ambassador
Cincinnati
WITH OUR PARTNERS
- Partner
- Partner
- Partner
- Partner
- Partner
- Partner
- Partner
- Partner
01 / Thesis
What we are, and why we exist.
There are millions of us outside Romania. Doctors, founders, engineers, teachers, researchers, organizers. Individually, remarkable. Collectively, unconnected. That gap is the entire reason GlobalRomania exists.
This entire initiative runs on one thesis: Romania can be one of the great country-development stories of the twenty-first century. We treat that as a thirty-year engineering problem with a roadmap to match. We measure Romania's global relevance across seven independent criteria.
Our vision
A trusted Romanian in every institution, city and corporation. A Romanian diaspora that is strong, connected, and sure of who it is. Not one of the largest diasporas in the world. One of the most connected, most capable, most useful.
Our mission
To find the people in this community who are already changing things, put them in the same room, and multiply what they can do. We connect, highlight, and elevate change-makers across the diaspora, and we amplify their impact where it lands hardest.
Why a summit and not a conference
Conferences produce notes. We're after introductions that survive the week. The whole panel is built so you leave with people you'll actually work with, and so does everyone else. That's the mechanism. Everything on this page is downstream of it.
02 / Receipts
What we've built so far.
Before we ask for your time, here's the evidence that it won't be wasted. Every number below is money that moved and something that got finished.
- $5M+
- raised since 2019
- 80+
- projects funded or facilitated
- 100,000+
- donors and supporters engaged
- 300+
- cities across 50+ countries
- 55+
- partners
- 100%
- of donations passed straight to projects
When hospitals ran out
$800,000+ raised in weeks. PPE and equipment delivered to 1,300+ hospitals across Romania, protecting more than 150,000 doctors and medical staff. It started as a livestream and became the largest diaspora emergency response of its kind.
Education, paid for
$90,000 committed to the Livia Plaks Scholarship Program. $746,000 to the Colina Learning Center across two years. Plus scholarships, mentorship, and 45 students recognized at our last Gala.
1,400 km on foot
$135,200+ raised for Via Transilvanica, the trail crossing Romania that turned into the country's most successful piece of civic infrastructure in a decade.
And the network itself
GlobalRomania launched in 2025 with a real cadence of events, conversations, and connections instead of another dormant group chat. Inside it, GRX (GlobalRomania Exchange) already works: you tell us who you need to reach, and a human being goes and finds them in a vetted network spanning 50+ countries. No algorithm, no cold outreach, no fee. About IdeaLab, you'll learn at the event.
03 / Plan
Where this goes next.
Here's the plan, stated plainly enough that you can argue with it. Bring the argument to the Summit.
The number we're building toward
- 300
- diaspora communities connected
- 500
- universities in the network
- 1,000
- corporations engaged
- 50,000+
- professionals reachable through one request
The three tracks
GlobalRomania Business
Senior Romanian and Romania-connected business leaders, connected on purpose rather than by chance. A permanent network of vetted senior professionals across every major market. Curated introductions, executive roundtables, cross-border deal flow.
GlobalRomania Education
Students to mentors, universities to each other, research to funding. The pipeline that keeps talent connected to Romania instead of severed from it.
GlobalRomania Communities
Local chapters, community centers, and organizers, linked to the resources of the whole network rather than working alone in their city.
GRX: now and next
Now: a fast, human-powered introduction service. Volunteers with clear escalation paths, real names, real results.
Next: a structured, pod-based exchange with published response times and public metrics, so a request from Madrid or Melbourne gets the same answer at the same speed.
That part is the plan, not yet the reality. We'd rather tell you which is which.
Speakers
Who's making the case.
Mihai Lehene
Founder & President
Romanian United Foundation, Chicago
Trader turned family-office investor turned full-time on this. On what the network has actually delivered, and what institutions on both sides still get wrong about the diaspora.
- AG
Aldina Gheorghe
Partnerships & Institutional Liaison
Romanian United Foundation
The person who turns goodwill into signed partnerships. On how the future of GlobalRomania is shaped collaboratively, by people who share our values and vision.
Roxana-Cristiana Nistor
Founder & President
House of Romania at Davos
Next January she puts Romania inside the room at the World Economic Forum, not in the corridor outside it. Her talk: why it's time Romanians took a seat at the big tables, and the practical route to getting one.
- GP
Gabriel Petrescu
Managing Partner & Founder
OrgXO
On the plan: what has to be true for a network of 50,000 to work, and what breaks first if it isn't.
- LC
Liviu Chelcea
Dean of Sociology, PhD (Michigan)
University of Bucharest
Thirty years of studying how Romanian society actually changes, as opposed to how it says it does. He brings the evidence, and the questions the rest of us are too close to ask.
04 / Contract
What we commit to. What we ask of you.
This community runs on values, which is a phrase that means nothing until someone writes down the behavior. So here it is, both directions.
Our commitments
Integrity
We do the right thing when nobody is watching, and we're transparent when they are.
Excellence
Every small thing done extraordinarily well, then improved again next time.
Partnership
We support the ecosystem, we don't compete with it. If someone else is better placed to do it, we'll say so and help them.
Openness
Every friend of Romanians and Romania is welcome. No religious or political affiliation, ever.
Altruism
Empathy is the default setting in every interaction.
Respect
Your time, your effort, and your disagreement all get honored.
What we ask
- Show up as a builder, not an audience member.
- Make at least one introduction that isn't for you.
- Keep the room non-transactional. Sell nothing; offer plenty.
- Say what you're working on, honestly, including the parts that aren't working.
- Follow through on what you offer. This network's only currency is whether people do what they said.
If that reads like a description of how you already operate, you belong in this room.
Save your seat
Sunday, September 20 - 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM at ROCO Chicago. Free registration, limited seats.
Seats are limited and the room is curated for a reason. Register and you'll get the agenda, more details, and an invitation to GlobalRomania before the day itself.
GlobalRomania Summit
The diaspora stops being a statistic here.
Seats are limited and the room is curated for a reason. Register, and you'll get the agenda, more details, and an invitation to GlobalRomania before the day itself.