Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, is a woman of many talents: she speaks seven languages, holds a PhD in particle physics, and has spent much of her career working on humanitarian projects across Africa and Europe. However, she now finds herself at the center of a controversy involving exploding pagers that have claimed 12 lives and injured over 2,000 people in Lebanon.Barsony-Arcidiacono, the Italian-Hungarian CEO of Hungary-based BAC Consulting, has denied any involvement in the deadly incident. Her company, BAC Consulting, licensed the design for the pagers from a Taiwanese manufacturer, Gold Apollo, but she insists her role was limited. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong, she told NBC News. Since making this statement, she has retreated from public view, leaving many questions unanswered.About Cristiana Barsony-ArcidiaconoBarsony-Arcidiaconos story is one of contrasts. A gifted intellectual, she earned her PhD in particle physics from University College London in the early 2000s, focusing on positrons, subatomic particles with the mass of an electron but a positive charge. Despite her academic achievements, she appears to have left the scientific community behind shortly after completing her studies.Friends and former colleagues describe her as a woman with a remarkable intellect but an unsettled career. She held a series of short-term positions, many in the non-profit sector, before founding BAC Consulting. According to Kilian Kleinschmidt, a former United Nations humanitarian administrator, Barsony-Arcidiacono was hired in 2019 to lead a Dutch-funded program in Tunisia aimed at training Libyans. However, her management style quickly led to her dismissal. “Cristiana was one of the biggest mistakes of my life,” Kleinschmidt told Reuters. It was simply awful on a personal level.Discrepancies in her resumeBarsony-Arcidiaconos professional resume, once available on BAC Consultings website, has come under scrutiny. She claimed to have held several advanced degrees and leadership roles at reputable institutions. However, many of these claims have been challenged. For instance, her resume mentioned positions at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Earth Child Institute, a New York-based environmental charity. Both organizations have since clarified that she either held a much more junior role than advertised or was never formally involved.Her Budapest apartment offers a glimpse into her eclectic personality. Neighbors describe her as kind and communicative, though she had withdrawn from social circles in recent years. Her apartment walls were adorned with pastel drawings of nudes, an artistic pursuit that seems to contrast with her portrayal as a business executive. The vestibule of her building was open earlier in the week when Reuters visited, but by Thursday, the apartment had been shuttered, with no sign of her.A growing mysteryAs authorities continue to investigate the link between BAC Consulting and the deadly pagers, Barsony-Arcidiacono remains unreachable. Neighbors and acquaintances are left to wonder about the woman who once moved confidently through the halls of academia and humanitarian work but now faces mounting questions about her involvement in a global tragedy.For now, her whereabouts remain unknown, and the mystery surrounding her role in the deadly pager explosion deepens with each passing day.
