Elena Udrea

Elena Udrea
Udrea at the 2013 PD-L convention
Minister of Regional Development and Tourism
In office 23 December 2009 – 9 February 2012
Prime Minister	Emil Boc
Preceded by	Vasile Blaga (Regional Development) Herself (Tourism)
Succeeded by	Cristian Petrescu
Minister of Tourism
In office 22 December 2008 – 23 December 2009
Prime Minister	Emil Boc
Preceded by	Matei-Agathon Dan (2000-2003)
Succeeded by	Herself (Regional Development and Tourism)
Personal details
Born	(1973-12-26) 26 December 1973 (age 43) Buzău, Romania
Political party	National Liberal Party (2002–2005) Democratic Liberal Party (2006–2014) People's Movement Party (2014–present)
Alma mater	Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University Carol I National Defence University

Elena Gabriela Udrea (Romanian pronunciation: [eˈlena ˈudre̯a]; born December 26, 1973) is a Romanian politician. A member of the People's Movement Party (PMP), she was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies from 2008 to 2016. In successive Emil Boc cabinets, she served as Tourism Minister from 2008 to 2009 and as Regional Development and Tourism Minister from 2009 to 2012.

Udrea was born in Buzău and completed secondary studies at the city's Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu National College. She then attended the faculty of Law and Public Administration at Bucharest's Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, graduating in 1996.

In 2005, Udrea began studies at the Carol I National Defence University, receiving a master's degree in Military Science in 2007. She began work on a doctorate in the same field, but abandoned the endeavor in 2012. Udrea worked as a lawyer in Bucharest from 1997 to February 2005, resuming the practice of law that December. At Dimitrie Cantemir, she began teaching political systems in autumn 2007, and she has authored or co-authored five works on geopolitics and globalisation. Some of her activities as a lawyer have drawn criticism from the non-governmental Political Investigation Group: for instance, it has questioned the fact that while an opposition city councillor in 2004, she represented the government-run Department for State Heritage Administration (RA-APPS), at one point receiving public contracts worth 710 million lei during a single week.

Udrea began her political activity in 2002 as a legal adviser to the Social Democratic Party (PSD). She joined the National Liberal Party (PNL) that year, becoming a Bucharest city councillor in June 2004, during the period of the Justice and Truth Alliance. She held that office until the following February, and during that time was president of the council's committee on law and discipline. In October 2005 she resigned from the PNL, joining the Democratic Party (PD; precursor to today's PD-L) in February 2006. In December, she was elected the party's executive secretary, becoming a vice-president of the PD-L a year later. In these capacities, she promoted the party and spoke approvingly of the president, for instance ahead of the 2008 local election.