Peter Georgescu

Peter Andrew Georgescu (born March 9, 1939 in Bucharest) is a Romanian-born American business executive, author, onetime political prisoner and the Chairman Emeritus of Young & Rubicam.

Early life and education

Georgescu emigrated to the United States in 1954 after a long and arduous series of events. Therein, he along with his elder brother Constantin and grandfather were jailed by the new soviet satellite regime. Meanwhile, his then away on business in New York City and suddenly exiled father, Valeriu C. Georgescu the immediately former manager of the Romanian Ploesti Oil fields under Standard Oil of New Jersey,^[1] was asked to spy for the Soviet Union and then in turn asked by the FBI to turn double agent. Peter was finally traded along with his brother for unnamed Soviet spies after his father, having gone to the press at the advice of the U.S. Government, obtained the intervention of Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton of Ohio and President Dwight Eisenhower.^[2][3] Also in 1954, shortly following the boys' release and safe arrival in the United States, they appeared on the Today Show with Dave Garroway in an interview focusing on their ordeal and erstwhile adventure.^[4]

Peter Georgescu went on to attend Phillips Exeter Academy at the invitation of the headmaster and subsequently to earn his BA degree from Princeton University and his MBA from Stanford.^[5]

Business career and writing

Georgescu became chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam in 1994 and served in those positions until 2000.^[6][7] As chairman he began to streamline the company's operations. In 1995, therein Y&R began an acquisition push increasing ownership in advertising agencies and public relations firms across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.^[8]

Georgescu is the author of "The Constant Choice: An Everyday Journey From Evil Towards Good"^[9] and "The Source of Success"^[10][11] and he wrote the foreword for "Eisenhower on Leadership: Ike's Enduring Lessons in Total Victory Management".^[12][13][14]

He was interviewed on his book "The Constant Choice: An Everyday Journey From Evil Towards Good" by Leonard Lopate on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC the NPR affiliate in New York City.^[15] He was elected to the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame in 2011.^[16][17]

An opinion piece Georgescu penned in the Sunday Review section of the New York Times, on financial disparity, titled, "Capitalists, Arise: We Need to Deal with Income Inequality", in which he argues that monetarial disparity in the U.S. has to be addressed as the situation otherwise would lead to unbearable taxes or social tempest, engendered over one thousand comments on the newspaper's Facebook page.^[18][19]

Georgescu sits on the Board of Trustees of New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

References