“It felt like coming home again,” says Ioana Paula Sava, Head of Staff at MET Romania, who left and then rejoined MET after an eight-month break. The 3 words she highlights are stability, courage and people.
It was almost 10 years ago: Ioana Paula Sava joined MET in December 2014 as a Business Analyst, just when the Power Division of MET Romania was established and the first transactions on the power market were launched. The challenge was huge for Ioana who came from the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) industry: she had to learn a lot of things, reading all the relevant legislations and procedures. “Maybe it was an advantage. I did not come with preconceptions, everything was new to me,” she believes.
Later, she was offered – by the CEO of MET Romania at that time – the job of setting up a back-office and a regulation department for the whole subsidiary. She started building the new structure and was appointed as Back-office Manager. She was responsible for supervising data management during the merger with Repower, after the sale of its operations in Romania, and also during the acquisition of RWE Energie in Romania.
A sudden change came in August 2020 when Ioana left MET Romania, shortly before a new CEO was appointed. She continued her career at an IT company developing energy solutions. “I wanted to discover what it looks like to work on the other side of the business. I was not the customer anymore, I was the developer.” Ioana realized though this job was not for her – she likes to discuss and interact with people, but she didn’t have the chance to do so, particularly because the Covid pandemic exploded at that time.
Ioana left MET with the idea that one day she might go back, she did not mean to close the door behind her forever. At the beginning of 2021, Ioana discussed with MET Group’s HR Director who said that MET Romania’s new CEO Florin Frunza was thinking about creating a new position that might just be a good fit for her. So, after an 8-month break, Ioana returned as Advisor to the CEO – staying in that position for one year and a half, before being appointed Head of Staff, her current job.
“It was a bit like going on maternity leave and then coming back. I did not really feel that I left MET,” Ioana emphasizes.
She tries to apply all the new things that she learnt at the IT company. “I would like to bring added value to what I have already built at MET Romania. All the knowledge about IT architecture and digitalisation, for example.”
As best memories from the past 10 years, the Head of Staff recalls the merger with Repower and the acquisition of RWE, even if they were challenging moments. “I think I tested my limits back then,” she says, but fortunately both projects turned out to be successful.
When talking about MET Group, the first word that comes to Ioana’s mind is stability. “I feel very safe here, from all points of view. The business is growing, I have the opportunity to improve every day and to be involved in new things.”
The second word Ioana can think of is courage, one of MET Group’s brand values. “You need to be courageous to have such diversified activities under the same umbrella and to expand continuously.” She considers no matter how much MET will expand, the stability will remain.
The third word is people. “Every time I look at HR announcements about new colleagues, I can see that we hire people who are the best in their domains. Just like our Group CEO always says, MET’s success is based on every single employee working for the company.”
The recently established MET Alumni Club is a great platform for former colleagues to exchange experiences and reminisce over nice memories. “I think that the MET Alumni members still feel like part of the MET family,” Ioana states. “And rightly so – I had the same feeling while I was away.”
MET Romania’s Head of Staff loves reading, travelling and watching sports. This summer, she will travel to the Paris Olympic Games together with her father. As she is the mother of two (5- and 8-year-old) little girls, Ioana and her husband are now discovering the world with the kids. “I really appreciate that at MET I have the opportunity to combine professional and personal life,” Ioana Paula Sava concludes.