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About me
I was born in 1986, in Călărași, where I lived for a short time with my family. I spent my childhood until the age of 8 in the village of Sfântu Ilie, Suceava County, then I lived in an apartment building in the Obcini neighborhood, on Dornelor Street.
I attended primary school at School No. 9, „Ion Creangă.”
I graduated from the „Petru Rareș” National College in Suceava, with a focus on Social Sciences. I enrolled in the Law Faculty at the „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
I received a grade of 10 for my graduation thesis titled „Sovereignty,” and I worked hard for each exam. The level and standards were very high.
During law school, I also completed a course in film directing and screenwriting, and I began a vast process of financial self-education because I was eager to make money. Therefore, from high school until the end of my university studies, during vacations (and not only), I tried my luck with 8-10 business attempts, all of which failed, but from which I learned a great deal.
I completed a master’s degree in Criminal Sciences (dissertation graded 10), and then graduated from the „National Institute for the Preparation and Training of Lawyers,” eventually becoming a licensed lawyer in the Suceava Bar.
Since I had a different dream, to become wealthy, I decided to quit practicing law after two years. I hung up my robe and made a pact: I wouldn’t return to it until I became a millionaire (at the time, I couldn’t believe I would quit the profession for good).
In 2011, I opened a patisserie-type fast food business, which I later failed. Shortly after, on August 8, 2012, I opened the first Spartan location in Suceava. I was 26 years old.
I enrolled in seminars, sought to connect with prosperous people, started reading extensively, and embarked on a journey of self-education and self-discovery.
Great dreams require sacrifices! That’s why, if you want to achieve success, you must not sleep at night for your dreams. That’s what I did.
Thus, I built, from scratch, in ten years, the largest fast-food franchise in the history of Romania.
In 2018, I inaugurated a hotel that I designed and built from the ground up. Hotel Mandachi became, in just four years since its opening, the highest-rated four-star hotel in Romania, being the first hotel in Suceava County to win this prestigious award.
In 2016, I graduated from the „New York Film Academy” in California, USA. I directed two short films and two feature-length documentaries.
In 2018, I founded the Jeni Mandachi Humanitarian Association, through which I began a philanthropic process with great results.
In 2019, I initiated the #șîeu protest, a movement against all Governments and Presidents who have led Romania since 1989, responsible for the lack of highways in our country. „Romania wants highways” sparked a colossal social effect among millions of Romanians. The impact far exceeded all my predictions.
In 2020, I achieved the largest fundraising ever done by an individual in Romania: I raised 1.5 million euros for the victims/hospitals of Covid in Romania. I donated tens of thousands of Spartan menus in my restaurants, as well as money and services worth hundreds of thousands of euros.
I fully, gratuitously, and without any compensation offered Hotel Mandachi to medical and military personnel involved in the fight against Covid-19. Through the 1CM highway campaign, I acquired a mobile intensive care unit worth 700,000 euros, and later I contributed 500,000 euros towards building a small hospital in Gura Humorului.
In 2020, I was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Suceava, the most important distinction I have ever received. At that time, I was the youngest person to be granted this title in our city.
In 2021, I achieved a historic ruling in court against the State: the first „pro-stray dogs” ruling, in which a Romanian citizen was compensated.
That same year, I built a well in Africa (a project that started from a high school dream), a project through which I convinced several donors to get involved. By September 2024, we had reached over 200 wells.
In 2022, I hosted 5,000 Ukrainians and 1,000 dogs and cats at Mandachi Hotel & Spa.
Between February and April 2022, I turned Mandachi Hotel into one of the largest private refugee camps during the war. Together with 200 volunteers and my hotel team, we provided free transport to over 20,000 refugees, hosted at least one night free of charge for over 5,000 refugees (food, accommodation, shower, transport), and 1,000 dogs and cats. A photo from Mandachi Hotel made it to the front page of the New York Times.
Another action that nourishes my soul: I have neutered over 4,000 dogs for free and found homes for over 300 abandoned dogs in ravines, at the edge of roads, by the rivers, in fields, and forests.
At home, I have 4 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 pigs.
I love the mountains, I have climbed Kilimanjaro and Moldoveanu. I love Bucovina. I admire intelligent people, with whom I try to surround myself.