Financial globe trotter

Financial transactions regarding contracts, payments, and invoices are part of the many day-to-day activities that enable the ITER project to advance. Alexis Fiorentino joined ITER last October as financial controller in the Finance and Budget Division directed by Hans Spoor. Alexis' main tasks involve the compilation and monitoring of the ITER budget.

The young Belgian has always been interested in finance. After studying accountancy, he obtained a Master's degree in Economy, at Mons University, Belgium. His first steps in professional life were as Administrative Assistant in the Directorate General of External Relations at the European Commission. After this first experience, in 2001, he had the exciting opportunity to join the European Agency for Reconstruction in Thessaloniki to ensure the administrative and budgetary monitoring of the 180 local staff working in Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece and Kosovo. Two and a half years later, he moved to Macedonia to become the Head of Finance of the operational centre in Skopje.

After passing the exams to become an EU official in September 2005, he returned to Brussels to resume his duties within the European Data Protection Supervision Institution. He then took over the responsibility of budgetary implementation and evaluation at the European Railway Agency located in Valenciennes, France.

After six years of professional life spent between Belgium and the Balkans, he crossed Europe again to take up his position as Financial Controller in ITER. During the last six months, Alexis' activities have been based on preparing and implementing the ITER administration work flow procedures. The priority of Alexis Fiorentino: "All legal commitments, employment contracts, service contracts, purchase orders, and invoices must be within the annual budget of ITER as allocated to each department."