Established in 1971 within Bucharest University of Edconomic Studies (ASE Bucharest), the Marketing Department is now an integral part of the Bucharest Marketing School. Over more than five decades it has developed solid academic expertise and gained recognition in the academic community and the business environment.
The first marketing course in Romania was introduced into the curriculum of ASE Bucharest in the 1971/1972 academic year, marking a significant milestone both nationally but also for Southeast Europe.
The emergence and evolution of the Marketing Department have been driven by the growing need of the businesse environment to understand the market dynamics, anticipate consumer behavior and respond effectively to the expectations of both current and potential customers, ensuring the maximization of organizational profit and the achievement of wider organizational objectives.
Throughout its history, the Department has evolved through various administrative and organizational transformations, reflecting both the increasing role of marketing within Romanian society, and the broader socio-political context.
A retrospective view of Department’s highlights the following key milestones:
Year 1971. Establishment of the Marketing Department within the Faculty of Commerce.
Year 1973. Merger with the Marketing Department and the Economics of Domestic Trade Department forming a new entity, the Commerce-Marketing Faculty.
Year 1985. Following institutional restructuring at ASE, the Commerce-Marketing Faculty and the Merceology Faculty are merged into the newly formed Department of Commerce and Merceology within which the Marketing Group operates.
Year 1990. Re-establishment of the Marketing Department following institutional restructuring within ASE, its reaffirmation as a leading academic actor in Romanian economic higher education.
Year 2003. The Marketing Department becomes the core structure around which the Bucharest Marketing School is founded.
Year 2011. The Department is reorganized under the provisions of the National Education Law No. 1/2011. The Marketing Faculty is renamed in Bucharest Marketing School.
With a team of nearly 40 tenured academics, complemented by comparable number of associated teaching staff, the Marketing Department represents today the leading academic center for marketing education in Romania and one of the largest in Southeast Europe.
The Department’s evolution has been shaped by strong leadership, as well as by the academic scientific contributions of distinguished professors and department heads. Through the professional achievements of all its members, the Department has played a major role in shaping the Romanian school of marketing.
Over time, the leadership of the Marketing Department has been held by the following distinguished specialists in the field of marketing:
Professor Constantin Florescu, PhD
His academic career has been closely tied to the Marketing Department since its establishment in 1971. The esteemed Professor led the department during the periods 1971-1983 and 1990-1995, playing a decisive role in the development and consolidation of Marketing as a field of study within the curricula of ASE Bucharest.
A mentor to generations of graduates, Professor Constantin Florescu was the founder and coordinator of the academic team of the Marketing Department contributing substantially to the professional development of young teaching staff, especially those who joined the department after the 1989 Revolution. Under his leadership, the Bachelor’s degree program in Marketing was established within the Faculty of Commerce at ASE Bucharest. This program remains a central part of the Marketing Faculty's academic offering today.
Renowned for his academic rigor and exceptional analytical ability, Professor Constantin Florescu was twice awarded distinctions by the Romanian Academy.
Professor Vasile Mercioiu, PhD
During the period of 1983-1990, the team of marketing specialists within the Commerce-Merceology Faculty was led by Professor Vasile Mercioiu, PhD, who previously served as Vice-Rector of of Bucharest University Economic Studies, from 1976 to 1980.
Professor Virgil Balaure, PhD
Between 1995 and 2004, Professor Virgil Balaure, PhD, served as the head of the Marketing Department. One of his most significant achievements was the establishment of the Bucharest Marketing School, which admitted its first generation of students in the summer of 2003. Through this initiative, marketing, as a distinct area of organizational activity and an integrative function at the enterprise level in relation to the dynamic market environment, gained formal recognition within Romanian higher education in economics.
Under his leadership, the Marketing Library editorial collection was launched as a result of a partnership between the Marketing Department and Uranus Publishing House. Initiated in 2001, this collection brought together works covering a broad range of marketing domains and specialized areas, including business-to-business marketing, marketing research, consumer behavior, marketing communication, sales force management, logistics, agri-food marketing, direct marketing, international marketing, service marketing, social-political marketing, strategic marketing, cybermarketing, and marketing information systems. More than 50 university textbooks were published as part of this editrorial series.
In 1998, two distinct academic tracks were introduced within the Marketing specialization of the Faculty of Commerce: "Marketing Policies" and "Marketing Research". These new curricula included a number of pioneering in Romanian specialized higher education. Moreover, Professor Virgil Balaure supported the creation of the Master's program in Marketing and Business Communication (launched in 2000) as well as the first advanced postgraduate program in the field of marketing.
Professor Răzvan Zaharia, PhD
Between 2004 and 2008, Professor Răzvan Zaharia, PhD, led the Marketing Faculty. Under his coordonation, the academic offering expanded significantly, with the number of courses increasing from 21 to 48, alongside the growth of teaching and research staff within the Department. During this period, several new Master's programs were launched, including Marketing Research, Marketing Management, Public Relations in Marketing, International Marketing ( from 2004), and, notably, the Online Marketing master's program (introduced in the summer of 2005), which after 2011, became the most highly demanded Master's program within the Bucharest University of Economic Studies!
Professor Răzvan Zaharia later served as the Chancellor of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies from 2008 to 2011, President of the Senate of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies from 2012 to 2016. Since 2021, he has been Director of the Doctoral School of Marketing within the Bucharest Marketing School, overseeing the academic and professional development of future leaders and scholars in the field of marketing.
Professor Laurenţiu Dan Anghel, PhD Since 2008 until 2025, the Marketing Department, has been led by Professor Laurenţiu Dan Anghel, PhD. During this period, the department has undergone its most extensive phase of development, both in terms of the growth of the number of tenured and associated faculty members involved in teaching across all three study cycles (Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral programs) as well as through the diversification of its academic portfolio (exceeding 90 specialized courses). New formats of the Bachelor's program in marketing have been introduced, including part-time studies and an English-taught Bachelor's program, along with new innovative Master's programs such as Fundamental Marketing Research, Marketing and Sustainable Development, Marketing and Management in Public Services, and Customer Relationship Management (taught in English).
Today, the programs of the Bucharest Marketing School at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies are ranked among the leading academic programs nationwide and receive strong recognition from national accreditation bodies as welll as in major university rankings.