European Affairs Director with the Romanian Maize Growers Association (APPR) since March 2018, Cristina Cionga has close to thirty years of experience in the agricultural sector, both in the private and public sector. She was for over a decade corporate affairs manager with agri-science global companies, and, prior to this, senior agricultural specialist with the US Embassy Bucharest, secretary general of the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture, policy economist/consultant with the World Bank Bucharest Resident Mission, researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Economics. Cristina Cionga studied economics in Romania, specializing in the management of agricultural resources in Greece (M.Sc. from CIHEAM). She did the Pew Economic Freedom Fellows Program at School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (1999), the Executive Program for Leaders in Development at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (1998), and followed the EMBA Romanian- American ASEBUSS Program in 2019/2020.

She co-authored a number of papers related to Romania’s farming sector pre- and post- EU accession at the Institute of Agricultural Economics, the US Embassy or commissioned by the World Bank and the European Commission in different projects she was part of.