[1][2] He was born in Ciuta, Caraș-Severin County and holds two degrees, one obtained in 1975 from the Sibiu Theological Institute and one in 1998 from the University of Craiova Economics Faculty, with a Management specialty.

Several scandals affected his term: in 2001, he was accused of criminal involvement in the privatisation of a Prahova County company, but later cleared; in 2003, a number of national newspapers alleged that he obtained a spacious central Bucharest villa at far below market value through a shady deal; also, he lost a testicle in a hunting accident that December.

[4] He was dismissed in July 2004 by Prime Minister Adrian Năstase so he could focus on party work, and stated the move came as "a surprise" to him.

[11] Regarding the latter priority, at the April 2009 Council of Ministers meeting, he secured a commitment to raise subsidies by €35 per hectare, benefiting around 1.25 million farmers.

[12] Previously, he had fired 60 managers at the agency responsible for distributing the EU funds because of repeated delays in starting payments.

[17] Between 2014 and 2018, when the case was dropped, the National Anticorruption Directorate investigated him for illegally privatizing 44,000 hectares of forests owned by Romsilva, alongside Viorel Hrebenciuc.