PROFILE | Vasile Tofan: From Horizon Capital to Government reform
The Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) candidate for prime minister, Vasile Tofan, is an investor, entrepreneur, and a prominent figure in the business community of the Republic of Moldova. In recent years, he has been considered for significant public positions, including prime minister after the 2025 parliamentary elections and the mayor of Chisinau. However, Tofan declined the mayoral position, stating he would be "better in a national position than in a local one."
Currently, Tofan, 44, is a senior partner and member of the Investment Committee at Horizon Capital, one of the largest investment funds in Central and Eastern Europe, which manages over $1.8 billion in investments and operates in Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.
“There is money that we attract from institutional investors – from large pension funds in the world, large international financial organizations. We do it in a very transparent manner. We attract this money to invest in private companies. We help companies grow, to increase their capitalization. And, after we sell our stake, we retain part of the profit,” said Vasile Tofan, in a podcast in May of this year.
Previously, the investor worked as a consultant at Monitor Group, which later became part of Deloitte, and as a manager in the Corporate Strategy and Mergers and Acquisitions department at Philips in Amsterdam. He founded a startup specializing in digital healthcare solutions, which later became Ovia Health, which was acquired by Labcorp.
In addition to his investment activity, Vasile Tofan serves on the boards of several organisations, including the American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova, the Startup Moldova Foundation, and the Media Alternativa organisation. Since 2018, he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the commercial bank maib.
Graduate of Harvard Business School and initiator of the Europe 2028 platform
Vasile Tofan comes from a family of four children and, being the eldest, also had the responsibility of the other siblings. After school, he attended the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, where he obtained a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in Public Management.
"I went to the Netherlands practically without money. I got a scholarship as the best student in Moldova. I was a machine operator and I worked from midnight to 7 am. After that I would come back, sleep for an hour and a half and go to lessons," Tofan said in the same podcast.
In 2012, he graduated with honors from Harvard Business School. At the same time, he moved with his family to Kyiv, from where he returned to the Republic of Moldova at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, considering it more prudent for the children to be in a safer country.
Vasile Tofan is the father of four boys, the youngest of whom was born this summer.
In 2025, he was among the initiators of the “Europe 2028” platform, launched by entrepreneurs and economists to support the Republic of Moldova's accession to the European Union and to promote structural reforms.
Vasile Tofan consistently advocated streamlining state spending, simplifying relations with the business environment, attracting private investment, and developing exports.
Local public administration reform, in the vision of Vasile Tofan
In the context of the local public administration reform initiated by the authorities, representatives of the “Europe 2028” initiative group said that the intention to reduce the number of mayors from about 900 to 300 and districts from 32 to 10 will not bring about real change for the benefit of citizens.
In March this year, Vasile Tofan presented the “Baltic Formula”, proposing the establishment of 40 municipalities on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, including four on the left bank of the Nistru – Ribnita, Dubasari, Tighina and Tiraspol. These would include the localities of the current district centers.
Vasile Tofan said that districts “must be eliminated” to reduce bureaucracy, as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have done for a long time. In order for the new municipalities to not be just administrative structures on paper, but poles of real development, a fiscal decentralization is proposed through which 50% of the corporate income tax and two percentage points of VAT would remain directly in the local budgets.
At the same time, to alleviate fears about the loss of local identity, the “Baltic Formula” proposes the establishment of the praetors system. These would be local representatives, one for approximately 5,000 inhabitants, who would ensure the direct link between the villages and the central municipal administration.
The Prime Minister's Office and the proposal to run for mayor of Chisinau
Vasile Tofan's name had previously been mentioned in the context of the local elections in Chisinau. The Action and Solidarity Party proposed that he run for mayor, but he refused the candidacy, explaining that he sees the need for broader changes at the national level.
"What interests me most is some major structural changes in Moldova. And I believe that if we manage to change things in Moldova, at the macro level, in terms of economic competitiveness, Chisinau will also do well," he said.
After the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova on September 28, 2025, his name was included on the list of candidates for the position of Prime Minister, a fact later confirmed by Tofan.
He said he refused the offer due to his responsibilities in the private sector at the time and the need for an appropriate transition. Specifically, he said that he did not want to "abandon" 22 companies and a team of over 51,000 people, "leaving overnight, without a minimum of transition, from 15 years of work".
After the nomination of Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu, Vasile Tofan declared that he "has the professional experience, energy, as well as the wisdom of life to be a remarkable prime minister". He noted that Alexandru Munteanu worked at "Horizon Capital" before taking over the management of this company and that he has "the honor to continue the important things started by Mr. Munteanu".
A “Milei of Moldova”
After the resignation of Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu, Vasile Tofan wrote in a post on social networks that things in the Republic of Moldova are so complicated that the future prime minister would have “an (almost) impossible mission” ahead of him.
“Statesmen come in different shapes and colors. The peacemaker (Mandela, Havel). The political animal (Merkel, Băsescu). The reformer-surgeon (Milei, Bendukidze, Bolojan). However, things in Moldova are so complicated that we need all three in one. The peacemaker – because the country, divided and disappointed, needs to be stitched back together. The political animal – in order to somehow survive in this jungle, to be able to achieve something. The reformer – because resources are already at the limit and, without restarting the economy, the rest of the dominoes will automatically fall,” said Tofan.
According to him, if he had to choose a single profile, it would be "a Milei of Moldova", referring to Javier Milei, an Argentine politician and economist who became the president of Argentina in December 2023.
Later, Tofan clarified the profile given as an example, stating that by referring to Milei, he did not suggest adopting the Argentine economic model, but rather used his image as a symbol of a leader willing to adopt difficult measures in a period of crisis.
"When you insinuate that I propose to Moldova a "chainsaw", amputations, cutting pensions and healthcare, allow me to borrow from your language: you defy my intelligence. What did I actually say. At the crossroads that Moldova is at, if I have to choose between the archetype of the leader-politician, careful not to upset anyone, who explains beautifully, postpones elegantly and decently manages the decline, and the archetype of the leader-reformer, who has the courage to roll up his sleeves, to do things even if they are unpopular, assuming the consequences - I choose the second option", stated Vasile Tofan.
Vasile Tofan’s vision for the future of Moldova
Any transformation begins with defining a clear vision, he said, specifying that, in his opinion, this vision means a Moldova “the friendliest European country for entrepreneurs”.
Tofan stressed the importance of trust and equity and said that, “after the drama of the nephews and cousins”, in order to make the necessary reforms, it is necessary to start by “cutting where the common man wants to see more cleanliness and equity”. Capping public-sector salaries at 4-5 average salaries – including bonuses for state secrets, hard work, or other oddities – would be a first step, he said.
He also said that the country needs a much smaller, but more efficient and well-paid budget sector, noting that "a radical change" is needed, which would no longer allow harmful dismissed officials to be reinstated through court decisions. In the field of public property, Tofan says that an annual "big-4+" audit is needed for state-owned companies. As a first step towards privatization, he proposed a listing of at least 25% on the stock exchange.
"The asset is managed efficiently when there is an owner/manager. The state and collective property, in the vast majority of cases, are stupid administrators, because if an asset belongs to everyone, it belongs to no one, and the attitude is appropriate. I saw it in full in the Moldatsa case", he exemplified.
As for the tax reform, Vasile Tofan said that it is unpopular, but absolutely necessary and cannot be postponed.
"You can tax 5 things: investment, labor, capital, consumption, vices. There is consensus on vices. However, to have money for consumption, you have to encourage investment, labor, and capital accumulation. We all say we want to move from a model based on remittances and consumption to one based on investment and exports, which generates more welfare. Then we have to tax things accordingly," the candidate pointed out.
Tofan's candidacy will be submitted by the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) during consultations with President Maia Sandu, scheduled for Saturday, July 11. The announcement was made on Friday, July 10, by Igor Grosu, the President of the Parliament and leader of PAS. He stated that the decision was reached after discussions with Tofan about the vision and priorities for the future government.
Grosu emphasized that the conversations focused on priorities for the coming years. He noted that PAS shares Vasile Tofan's vision for Moldova's accession to the European Union, institutional reform, and economic growth.
