On October 24, 2019, Prime Minister-designate Ludovic Orban unveiled the composition of the Cabinet that he will submit to the Parliament for a vote. Virgil-Daniel Popescu has been picked for the position of Minister of Economy, Energy, Business Environment and Tourism.

He was born on April 25, 1968, in Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Mehedinti County. He graduated the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers of the Politechnica University of Bucharest (1991). He holds a doctor's degree in Management, the Faculty of Economic Sciences, the University of Craiova (2000), and a master's degree in Business Analysis, Diagnosis and Assessment, the Faculty of Economy and Business Management, the University of Craiova (2009).

He is also a graduate of the National Defence College of the National Defence University "Carol I" (2006) and of the National Security College of the National Intelligence Academy (2008), according to www.cdep.ro, https://pnl.ro, http://alegeriparlamentare2016.ro.

He was assistant programmer at S.S.I. Argus S.A. Drobeta Turnu Severin (1991-1993), university assistant at the University of Craiova, the Drobeta Turnu Severin University College (1993-1997), manager at S.N.P. PETROM S.A., the PECO Mehedinti Branch (1997-2001), university lecturer at the Faculty of Economy and Business Administration of the University of Craiova (2001-2008), senior lecturer at the University of Craiova, the Faculty of Economy and Business Administration (since 2008).

Moreover, he was a secretary of state with the Department for Social Dialogue of the Romanian Government (2007-2008), deputy head of the National Authority for Property Restitution (August-October 2013), secretary of state with the Ministry of Economy (November 2013-February 2014).

He represents the Mehedinti County as an elected Deputy (since December 21, 2016), he is deputy head of the Committee for industries and services of the Deputies Chamber (since 2016), vice leader of the parliamentary group of the National Liberal Party in the Deputies Chamber (since February 2018), a member in the Delegation of the Parliament of Romania to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (since September 2017), a member in the Committee of inquiry of the Deputies Chamber and the Senate for the activity of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (since 2007), according to www.cdep.ro and to the Website of University of Craiova, http://feaa.ucv.ro.

He is also the deputy head of the National Council for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises of Romania - CNIPMMR (since 2012), according to www.cnipmmr.ro, a member of the Association of Economists and Engineers in Romania, a member of the National Foundation of Young Managers - FNTM, a manager at Vilaro Design.

His teaching and research activity include: 12 books and university textbooks, which he either authored or co-authored, 17 articles published in specialized magazines and volume of conferences, quoted in international databases, 35 articles published in magazines and renown volumes at national level. AGERPRES (Documentation - Cerasela Badita, editor: Roxana Mihordescu; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)