Hungarian-Romanian businesswoman on the front page of Forbes

Hungarian-Romanian businesswoman Irina Mella Burlacu is currently featured on the cover of Italian Forbes. Burlacu develops and manufactures innovative road safety devices.

Woman of Hungarian-Romanian descent on the front page of Forbes

The cover of the January issue of the Italian edition of Forbes features Irina Mella Burlacu. Founded in 1917, the world-famous American business magazine selected Burlacu among the 100 most successful Italian women last year. She then appeared again in the magazine this year in connection with the cover story Smart Ways.

Irina Mella Burlac is half-Hungarian, thus she speaks Hungarian as a native language.

She spent most of her childhood in Miercurea Ciuc, attending the Hungarian class. His mother was a violin teacher who then relocated with her daughter to Brasov. In the Transylvanian city, Burlacu studied economics and also worked in a tire shop, writes napi.hu.

She arrived in Italy in 2006. She first worked in Rome and then in Brescia but the company went into crisis and closed down. She then founded her own firm Vita International in 2014 with her partner and former colleagues.

The boom of Vita International

Initially, 5 people worked in a 300-square-foot warehouse. Here, the products of the previous job were manufactured under license. They soon began to develop their own products as well.

Today Vita International has an annual turnover of € 12 million and is one of the market leaders in Europe.

They are mainly involved in the manufacture and installation of illuminated and environmentally friendly road barriers. Their most important product at the moment is GuardLed. This is a metal guardrail with built-in LED burners. This rail 40 inches above ground level is more energy-efficient than traditional street writing. Besides, it is more pleasant to the eye and does not dazzle drivers, writes maszol.hu. 

The default setting is white light, however, it can turn to flashing orange on dangerous road sections or in the case of temporary traffic regulations. 

A version called Levdia has been developed for GuardLed to play a role in illuminating bike lanes. Irina Mella Burlacu revealed that it is important for her to be in daily contact with her colleagues. For this reason, she does not even own an office but works in the engineering department along with her employees. In her spare time, Burlacu enjoys traveling and learning about new cultures.

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Source: napi.hu, maszol.hu