The Romanian Communist Party functionary Ion Iliescu (born 1930) rose to full membership on the Central Committee of the party before falling out of favor with Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1970s. Following the collapse of the Ceausescu regime in late 1989, Iliescu was elected president of Romania in May 1990.

Ion Iliescu was born in Oltenita, Romania, on March 3, 1930. His father was a railway worker who was active in the workers'(communist) movement prior to his death, at the age of 45, in the early 1950s. Ion Iliescu pursued advanced studies in the Soviet Union specializing in electro-technical engineering.

Even before the rise to power of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1965, Iliescu held important posts in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, the most important being that of deputy chief of the education and health section. In 1965, upon Ceausescu's recommendation, Iliescu, who had been active in the Communist youth...