Dan Petrescu

Dan Petrescu (1953 – 3 October 2021) was a Romanian businessman and billionaire, among the richest people in Romania. Born in 1953 in Bucharest, Petrescu studied at the Politehnica University of Bucharest. After graduating, Petrescu married his wife Regina Dorotea Petrescu Balzat, with whom he had a son, Dan Ștefan Petrescu, and emigrated to West Germany. There, he met who would be his economic partner for years, Ion Țiriac, another Romanian businessman. They were involved in several businesses together and returned to Romania following the Romanian Revolution.

Petrescu later ran various businesses on his own, earning a lot of property and a total wealth of around €3 billion. He was private with his personal life, having never given an interview, and was described as humble. Petrescu, his wife and his son and some friends of his family died on 3 October 2021 following an airplane crash on San Donato Milanese, near Milan, in Italy.

Biography Dan Petrescu was born in 1953 in Bucharest. After ending his studies at the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Petrescu married and emigrated to West Germany in the 1980s, starting a business in the domain of automobiles in the country. In West Germany, Petrescu met the Romanian businessman and now former tennis player Ion Țiriac, with whom he began to collaborate in tennis-related businesses. Petrescu and Țiriac returned to Romania following the Romanian Revolution, where they continued to be economic partners.

Petrescu was notable for his confidentiality and for how little was known about him, this being the reason why he was sometimes called the "shadow billionaire" . His wealth has been estimated to have been €3 billion. The plane had eight passengers of varying nationalities (mostly Romanian and Italian), all of whom died. Dan Petrescu, his wife Regina Dorotea Petrescu Balzat and their son Dan Ștefan Petrescu died in the crash. Filippo Nascimbene, his wife Claire Stephanie Caroline Alexandrescou, their one-year-old baby boy Raphael Nascimbene and Claire's mother Miruna Anca Wanda Lozinschi, as well as Julien Brossard, a friend of Dan Ștefan Petrescu, also perished in the accident. Following the airplane crash, it was announced that the Romanian businesswoman Anca Surugiu, who had been an assistant and coordinator for all of Petrescu's companies, would take over his fortune.