Biography
Born in Zalău, [1] he attended Babeș-Bolyai University from 1993 to 1997,graduating with a degree in political science. In 2009,he received a doctorate in the same field from the National School of Political Science and Public Administration. From 1997 to 1998,he worked as a stockbroker; [2] during that time,he was also present on the editorial staff for Stelian Tănase's Sfera Politicii magazine. In 1999–2000,during the Romanian Democratic Convention cabinet,he worked as a Chief of Staff for Interior Minister Constantin Dudu Ionescu [ ro ]. [2] [3] In 2000,he was on the Presidential campaign team of that cabinet's final prime minister,Mugur Isărescu. [4] From 2001 to 2003 he headed a polling firm,and in 2004 he became director of Sintezis,an information technology company. [2] In 2005,together with Zsolt Szilágyi and others,Hellvig was nominated as a member of Generația Așteptată ("The Awaited Generation"),a project which took inspiration from a campaign in the newspaper Cotidianul ,and which sought to evidence and nominate the valuable young contributors to Romanian society. [3]
Hellvig entered the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR),as the PC was then called,in 2003,and served as interim head of its Bihor County chapter from 2004 to 2005. [2] Elected to the Chamber in 2004,he served,from 2005 to 2008,on its defense committee. He crossed to the PNL in September 2008, [5] and served as its secretary general from 2011 to 2014. From January to November 2007,he was a Member of the European Parliament. [2] [6] At the 2008 election,he ran for re-election to the Chamber,but was defeated. Subsequently,he became a close ally of PNL leader Crin Antonescu. [7]
In May 2012,Hellvig was named Regional Development and Tourism Minister in the new Ponta cabinet,serving until December. Elected to a new term in the Chamber at that point, [2] he initially sat on the foreign affairs committee,until February 2013,when he switched to the European affairs committee. He became one of the Chamber's vice presidents in December 2012. [8] In November 2012,investigators from the National Integrity Agency (ANI) charged that for several months,from the time he took ministerial office until he left Sintezis that September,he was,legally,in a conflict of interest. Hellvig denied the charges,which were upheld the following April by the Bucharest Court of Appeal,prompting him to state he would continue to fight for vindication. [9] In December 2014,the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided in Hellvig's favor,ruling that he had not been in a conflict of interest and rejecting the ANI's claims. [10]
In September 2013,when two vacancies opened in the PNL's delegation to the European Parliament,Hellvig filled one of the openings after resigning from the Chamber. [11] As MEP,he sits on the Internal Market Committee. [12] He won a full term as MEP at the May 2014 European Parliament election. [13] In February 2015,President Klaus Iohannis nominated him to be director of the Romanian Intelligence Service; [14] the following month,a joint session of Parliament confirmed him to the post on a 498–15 vote. [15] A vice president of the PNL at the time,he subsequently resigned from the party,as required,and also from the European Parliament. [16] [17] He resigned as SRI director in July 2023,citing a desire to avoid “petrification”in office. [18] He rejoined the PNL in November 2024,in the wake of the presidential election,where the party’s candidate Nicolae Ciucă fared poorly. [19]
In 2019 he was awarded the Order of the Star of Romania,Officer rank. [20]
He and his wife Andreea (née Dumitraș) have a daughter. [2] [4]
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