Mircea Geoană was Deputy Secretary General of NATO from 2019–24, his time at NATO was marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He previously served as President of the Romanian Senate from 2008–11, Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE in 2001, and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000–04. Geoană is an expert on European and Trans-Atlantic integration and has lectured at many of the top universities and authored several books on the topic. He earned a PhD in world economy from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and completed the World Bank Group Management Development Program at Harvard Business School after studying at the Bucharest Polytechnic Institute, the University of Bucharest, and the École nationale d’administration.