Dr. Laurențiu Stefan is currently the Senior Presidential Adviser for Internal Political Affairs of President Klaus Iohannis. Previously, he served as Political Specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest (2004-2015). Dr. Stefan is a graduate of political science (BA, University of Bucharest, 1996; MPhil, University of Cambridge, 1998; PhD, National School of Political and Administrative Studies, 2003). He is an associated lecturer with the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Political Sciences and a fellow of the New Europe College (Bucharest) and of the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Vienna). His research focuses on recruitment of political elites - both national and local, parliament, political parties, coalition politics and political careers. He is the author of Patterns of Political Elite Recruitment in Post-Communist Romania (2004) and Who Governs Romania? Profiles of Romanian Political Elites before and after 1989 (2012) and contributed to edited volumes, including Landmark 1989. Central and Eastern European Societies Twenty Years after System Change (LIT Verlag, Berlin, 2010),Parliamentary Elites in Central and Eastern Europe (Routledge, 2013) and Political Careers in Europe. Career Patterns in Multi-Level Systems (Nomos, 2015). He also co-authored articles in Problems of Post-Communism, Journal of Legislative Studies and East European Politics.