Operator · Bucharest, Romania

Dorin Sterie

General Manager  ·  Country Manager  ·  Cloud, FinTech & Tech B2B

Full-time  ·  In-house  ·  One operation at a time

I get called in when it's broken, or when it doesn't exist yet.

General Manager and Country Manager, 13+ years across telecom, retail, FinTech and cloud.

Get in touch LinkedIn →
0+
Years Commercial Ownership
Full P&L at ALTEX and Aforti; full commercial ownership throughout
0
Core Sectors
Cloud, FinTech, Tech B2B
0+
People Led
Built and run across all operations
0
Operations Since 2020
Entered, turned around, or scaled, one at a time
Cloud ·
Payments ·
Retail ·
FX ·
Telecom ·
Distribution ·
Cloud ·
Payments ·
Retail ·
FX ·
Telecom ·
Distribution ·
Cloud ·
Payments ·
Retail ·
FX ·
Telecom ·
Distribution ·
Cloud ·
Payments ·
Retail ·
FX ·
Telecom ·
Distribution ·
Cloud ·
Payments ·
Retail ·
FX ·
Telecom ·
Distribution ·
Cloud ·
Payments ·
Retail ·
FX ·
Telecom ·
Distribution ·
Cloud ·
Payments ·
Retail ·
FX ·
Telecom ·
Distribution ·
Cloud ·
Payments ·
Retail ·
FX ·
Telecom ·
Distribution ·
Dorin Sterie · General Manager · GroundSet
13+
Years Commercial Ownership

The operator

13+ years.
From inside the business.

Every business I joined was either starting from zero or trying to restart growth.
The industry changed. The operating challenge didn't.

For 13+ years I've led commercial operations across telecom, retail, FinTech and cloud. I've built businesses from zero, entered new markets, and rebuilt commercial operations that had stalled.

Since 2020, I've taken full-time leadership roles, one operation at a time, across Cloud, FinTech and Tech B2B, entering or scaling businesses across Romania and CEE.

Earlier in my career, I spent 5+ years with full P&L ownership as Managing Director and Country Manager. Before that, I held Chief Commercial Officer responsibility, and spent seven years building B2B business at Orange.

I build commercial organisations around clear ownership, disciplined execution and measurable outcomes.

Market entry. Commercial growth. One operation at a time.
Google Cloud Sales Credentials · 2025
Claude API, Agent Skills & MCP, Anthropic · 2026

The work

How I work

The approach is the same every time. What changes is where the business is when I arrive.

→
Market Entry
Build the operation from zero: ICP, GTM, team, pipeline, first clients. From a standing start.
→
Turnaround
Find what is actually broken, rebuild the commercial model, restart growth. A pipeline that converts and a team that performs.
→
Repositioning
Shift the business model and the margin without stopping the operation. New segments opened, the team restructured around them.
→
Stabilisation & Scale
Take control of a disrupted or stalled operation. Stabilise first, then scale. Full authority over commercial, ops and team.
GroundSet
General Manager · Country Manager · Cloud, FinTech & Tech B2B

Full-time and exclusive, one operation at a time. Market entry and commercial growth for cloud and fintech companies.

Market Entry Commercial Growth Cloud FinTech Full-time & Exclusive

Operations delivered

Track Record

Market entry and commercial growth, one operation at a time.

ALTEX · Orange Retail Division | Managing Director
Full P&L

Full P&L general management. Converted 16 shop-in-shop locations to a standalone franchise model. 4 new stores built from zero. Team of 33 across operations, sales, finance and location management. First franchise store cleared €1M in under 12 months.

TEAM OF 33 · €1M FIRST STORE
Aforti Exchange | Country Manager
FinTech · FX

Full P&L over 3 years. FX payments and factoring from zero. 800 SME clients. €155M transaction volume. 15-person team. Payment Institution licence file coordinated with PwC at the National Bank of Romania.

BUILT FROM ZERO · 800 SME CLIENTS
FOTC · Google Cloud Premier Partner | Country Manager
CEE

Ran the CEE operation of a €40M reseller. Implemented the shift toward a high-margin own-services line (around 70% gross margin after discount) alongside low-margin licence resale, shifting the revenue mix toward services. €5M+ enterprise pipeline. 4 government and 2 corporate enterprise accounts opened. Team of 14 across sales, engineering, presales and marketing.

€40M REPOSITIONED · OWN-SERVICES MARGIN ~70%
Neopay · FinTech Payments | Commercial Director
PSD2

Romania operation built from zero. Regulatory (AML/KYC, PSD2) and commercial model built in parallel. 10+ PSD2 banking partnerships signed. €2M qualified pipeline.

10+ PSD2 PARTNERS · €2M PIPELINE

The thinking behind these operations, in writing.

Read Insights →

What people say

In the room.

The people who worked with me say the same thing: he fixes the operation by fixing the people, and the results follow.

"

He understood what the market required, built the commercial model around it, and executed across multiple geographies at the same time. I recommend him for senior commercial leadership in cloud and technology.

Liviu Gherman
Head of Channel, CEE
Google Cloud
"

Dorin played a vital role in restructuring our approach to the Romanian market and laying the groundwork for a more structured, resilient team. He focused heavily on introducing solid operational routines and building sustainable internal frameworks from scratch.

Łukasz Kowalczyk
Sales Director, CEE/CIS Markets
FOTC · Google Cloud Premier Partner
€40M REPOSITIONED · OWN-SERVICES MARGIN ~70%
"

Highly solution-oriented, able to navigate complex situations, and consistently finds the best possible outcomes. Deep knowledge of the Romanian market and a natural ability to build relationships with new partners.

Vytautas Oleskevicius
International Growth Partner · Former C-level Executive
Neopay · FinTech Payments
"

A strong, hands-on leader with sharp go-to-market instincts. He knows how to turn strategy into execution, align teams fast, and drive growth in competitive markets.

Cătălin Purcaru
International Growth Director
Bobnet · Retail Automation SaaS

Writing

Insights

On commercial operations, market entry, and what AI does and doesn't change in the work.

Commercial Leadership
Stop hiring a Head of Sales. Fix this first.

A capable person in a broken system delivers the same results as a weak person in a broken system. Four things to build before you make the hire.

June 10, 2026 Read →
AI & Operations
AI in CEE go-to-market: what it accelerates, what it can't

18 months using AI hard in real commercial operations. What changed, what didn't, from someone who has run a P&L.

April 26, 2026 Read →
Get in touch

Direct conversation

Get in touch

No form. No scheduler. Direct line.

Writing

Inside the P&L: commercial leadership, market entry and AI in operations.

Follow on LinkedIn →
Direct

Email lands with me, not a team.

ds@groundset.eu →
linkedin.com/in/dorinsterie +40 741 282 775