Radu Irimescu

Who was Radu Irimescu?

Radu Irimescu was a Romanian businessman, politician, and diplomat.

The son of an admiral, Irimescu joined the Romanian Navy and, being first in his class, was sent to Germany, as a pre-World War I Romanian-German convention provided. Based in Kiel, he was a cadet in the Imperial German Navy and, again at the head of his class, was appointed a German naval officer, serving two years on a man of war, then being obliged to return to Romania. Admiral von Tirpitz himself held Irimescu in high esteem. However, he became dissatisfied with his career in the Romanian Navy: after cruising the world on a German man of war, commanding a Danube monitor or a Black Sea torpedo boat was not very attractive to him and he left the navy after two years. He was then granted leave to attend courses at the Royal Technical College of Charlottenburg, from where he graduated with excellent marks.

During World War I, Major Irimescu served in the Romanian Air Forces and showed great skill as a pilot and as an organizer. He received a degree in engineering from Columbia University in 1920.

After the war, Jean Chrissoveloni, a Bucharest banker, tasked Irimescu with organizing the Chrissoveloni Bank in New York City. He ran the bank from 1921 to 1928, successfully closing the branch because he sensed a financial crisis coming and because operating a foreign bank tended to be unprofitable because more burdensome business regulations were placed on such institutions. At the time, it was the only Romanian banking institution in the United States. After it closed on April 1, 1928, Irimescu, formerly agent and manager, stayed on for a time as its representative on Wall Street.