About

Bio

I am a novus homo, a new human, forged out of nothing. This idiom, used in Roman society to describe the first in a family to achieve significance, resonates with me as a Romanian with Roman blood. My Hebrew name, Beniamin, meaning "son of the right hand," carries the weight of this identity. It envisions a consul at the right hand of the king. Sometimes I wonder why parents do this to their children, marking us with great names that follow us everywhere. It’s a way to remind us that we’re not alone. We are accountable to a greatness before and beyond ourselves. But how in the world could someone like me live up to this name?

Imagine an 18-year-old from a lower class, with dreams far beyond his reach. He lives in a remote city, lacking the connections or context to pursue his destiny. The only things to his advantage are his intellectual abilities and natural talent in oratory. To carve a path to prominence, he ventures to a bustling metropolis to commit his life to learning. In this new context, the center of his world gets bigger—big enough that it extends to shape other worlds. The teenager in question is none other than Cicero, who, against his modest beginnings, went on to become one of history’s greatest statesmen, ultimately serving as consul, the highest elected official in the Roman Republic.

My journey bears a striking resemblance to Cicero's. That’s because all stories have already been told—the only thing that changes are the names. Like him, I was a teenager from a lower-class background with an unsettled heart, expecting more of himself and others, so heartsick for greatness. All that blind drive to chase the contexts, conditions, and causes of flourishing led me to pursue higher learning in a foreign metropolis. Everyone thought I was there as a student, but I was there to save the world. All the ancient books were right. You don’t need a noble heritage to be noble. My paternal grandfather worked on a pig farm, while my maternal grandfather was a shepherd in the hills of Transylvania. And my father? Despite enduring the hardships of a Communist labor camp, he instilled in me the belief that I could turn adversity into ambition and iron into gold. He had a theory that the ordinary, once tested, changes into extraordinary and that the extraordinary is nothing but the ordinary with a better heart.

Do not underestimate character. It testifies on your behalf when invited on philanthropic boards or when considered for awards. It has your back to secure a Cambridge doctorate and work your way up to make contributions to institutions like Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. It can even power you to scale the peaks of academia, business, and philanthropy, earning you recognition by the U.S. government as a person of “national interest and extraordinary ability.” But character also has intangible depths and values that science can't quantify. There are no assurances of glory except that wherever you go, you see reality with a different set of eyes. Above all, character gives you accolades not for the world to see and serve you, but for you to better see and serve the world. It’s the bizarre inner voice telling you to consider others as better than yourself, if for nothing else, to attempt to love them like you love yourself. I have come to believe that being a novus homo is about turning away from yourself, always projecting outward, and hoping that when you do become a consul to leaders who wield influence at the highest levels of society, somehow it rubs off in such a way that selflessness for the greater good wins over personal gain.

We can all rise from nothing as a novus homo by seeing and bringing out the best in others. It’s our destiny as humans to immerse ourselves together into the unknown and make unclaimed potential known. We owe it to ourselves and our world to create something sublime.

Lifelong Learner

My leadership doesn't stop at these credentials. I'm a lifelong learner, constantly seeking new knowledge and connections across disciplines. This polymathic approach allows me to integrate diverse perspectives, develop innovative solutions, and bring individuals from all walks of life into dialogue and collaboration.