Strategic Growth Forum, Turkey

Ali Babacan

Deputy Prime Minister, Republic of Turkey

Ali Babacan was born in Ankara in 1967.

He graduated first in the Class of 1985 from the TED Ankara High School.

In 1989, he received a Bachelor of Science Degree (BS) in Industrial Engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, where he ranked first among the graduates of that year.

In 1990, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and attended the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing, Organizational Behavior and International Business in 1992.

From 1992 to 1994, he worked at a Chicago-based company providing financial consulting services to top executives of major banks in the United States.

Subsequently, he returned to Ankara to run his family business from 1994 until 2002.

In 2001, he became a Founding Member and Board Member of the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), a position which he still retains.

In November 2002, he was elected to Parliament and appointed as the Minister of Treasury, a cabinet position he retained until August 2007.

In addition to his tenure as Minister of Treasury, in June 2005, Mr. Babacan was appointed as the first Chief Negotiator for Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Union.

Between August 2007-May 2009, he served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey.

He has been serving as the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs since May 2009.

He is also a member of National Security Council.

Mr. Babacan is married with three children.

Prof. Dr. Mehmet Yörükoğlu

Deputy Governer, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey

Born in İzmir in 1969, Dr. Yörükoğlu graduated from the Industrial Engineering Department of Bilkent University in 1991 with high honors. He received a Ph.D. degree in Economics at the University of Rochester in 1996. Later that year, Dr. Yörükoğlu started to work as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. In the 1998-1999 academic year, Dr. Yörükoğlu lectured in the Finance Department of Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania as a visiting professor. Between 1996 and 2003, he taught at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago and lectured in the fields of macroeconomics, money theory and policies, economic growth and development theories, macroeconomic dynamic general equilibrium theory and models at masters and doctoral levels, Back in Turkey, Dr. Yörükoğlu joined Sabancı University in 2003 to work as a lecturer at the Department of Economics and worked there until his appointment as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) in 2006. Dr. Yörükoğlu's papers have been published in periodicals such as the Journal of Monetary Economics, American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and Review of Economic Dynamics. Dr. Yörükoğlu was rewarded with the Outstanding Young Scientist Award of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) in 2004. He was elected a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences in 2012.

Mr. Yörükoğlu has been acting as Deputy Governor of the CBRT since 3 June 2006.

Murat Çetinkaya

Deputy Governor, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey

Born in 1976, Murat Çetinkaya received a double major degree from Boğaziçi University in Political Science and International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and in Sociology at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Çetinkaya holds an MA degree from the Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences at the Boğaziçi University, and continues his doctoral studies in the field of international finance/economics-politics at the same university.

Mr. Çetinkaya started his banking career at Albaraka Turk Participation Bank, where he served in various departments responsible for international banking and treasury services. In 2003, he joined Halkbank, where he served as the Director of International Banking and Structured Finance Department and as the Deputy General Manager responsible for International Banking and Investor Relations. Mr. Çetinkaya who assumed posts in several subsidiaries of Halkbank acted as a member of the Board of Directors of Halk Yatırım Menkul Değerler A.Ş during his last two years at the institution.

Murat Çetinkaya served as the Executive Vice President responsible for Treasury, International Banking and Investment Banking at Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank Inc. from 2008 until mid-2012. He has been serving as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey as from 29 June 2012.

Mukim Öztekin

Chairman, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency

Mr. Mukim ÖZTEKİN was born in Pasinler, Erzurum in 1965. He has graduated from Management Department of Ankara University Political Science Faculty. 

He started to work as Assistant Inspector in T. Garanti Bank in 1988. From March 1993 until May 2006 he worked respectively at Albaraka Türk Özel Finans Kurumu A.Ş., Asya Finans Kurumu A.Ş. and Pamuk Yatırım Menkul Değerler A.Ş. He was General Manager of Ziraat Leasing between May 2004 and September 2009, at the same time he was Acting Chairman of Board of Directors at Ziraat Bank (Moscow) Cjsc. Between October 2009 and January 2010 he was Board Member at BRSA. After that he was Board Member at Savings Deposit Insurance Fund between February 2010 and June 2012. Starting from June 2012 he is the Chairman of Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency.

He is married and has got 3 children.

Alim Murat Özgen

CEO, İş Private Equity Investment Trust

Mr. A. Murat Özgen, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager at Is Girisim Sermayesi Yatirim Ortakligi A.S., has graduated from Istanbul University as Bachelor and finalized his studies on Mercer University in Atlanta, earning an MBA Degree. He has started his career working as Senior Accountant at The Facility Group Inc., moving on to Commerzbank AG’s New York branch as Credit Analyst in the Risk and Portfolio Management Department. Following to that, Mr. Ozgen has worked for Kocbank’s Project & Investment Finance Group as Division Manager. Since February 2002, Mr. Ozgen has been working for Is Private Equity Investment Trust, a generalist mid-market fund, mainly focusing on growth equity transactions and selectively on buy-outs. Is Private Equity is the leading private equity house in its segment with a strong and consistent track record of 15 investments and 9 successful exits in Turkey as of 31.12.2012.

Alp Güler

Vice President, The Carlyle Group

Alp Güler is a Vice President with Carlyle’s MENA Fund, focusing on buyouts and strategic investments throughout Turkey. Mr. Güler has been actively involved with Carlyle’s investments in current portfolio companies Medical Park and Penti. Prior to Carlyle, Mr. Güler was with MKM Longboat in London and Lazard in London and New York. Mr. Güler received an M.B.A. with distinction from INSEAD and a B.S. magna cum laude with distinction in electrical engineering and economics from Yale University.

Ayşegül Molu

Director General, Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies, Advertising Education Foundation

Aysegul Molu got her license degree from Bosphorus University, Faculty of Administartive Sciences, Dept. of Political Science. After assuming various positions in the advertising sector for about 20 years, she was appointed as the Director General for Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies and Advertising Education Foundation (TAAA) in 2005. She works for the quantitative and qualitative growth of the marketing communications industry - with an annual ad spend over 3.5 billion USD.

Academic endeavors: she designed a graduate school of marketing communications in 2006, AdSchool Istanbul at Istanbul Bilgi University, acted as the Programme Director at AdSchool Istanbul, provided advisory for the Rectorate at Istanbul Bilgi University, served as a full time instructor at Istanbul Bilgi University and Mimar Sinan Faculty of Fine Arts respectively.

Barış Oran

Head of Finance, Sabancı Holding

Barış Oran, currently leading the Finance Function of Sabancı Holding as the Head of Finance, has extensive experience in international finance management, executive leadership and capital markets. Having graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Business Administration and completed the MBA program at the University of Georgia, he started his career as an auditor at Price Waterhouse Coopers. From 1998 to 2003, he worked for Sara Lee Corp. in Chicago, IL first as an auditor and afterwards in corporate finance and treasury/capital markets. Later he served as Senior Manager at Ernst and Young at Minneapolis, MN and in EMEA and India regions.

From 2006 to 2011 he led the establishment of a global finance function in Kordsa Global after the business was acquired by Sabancı Holding from Du Pont. His final role in Kordsa Global was CFO and Executive Team Member.

He is also a Board of Directors member at Brisa, Enerjisa Generation, Teknosa, Temsa and Yünsa.

Ben van Gils

Global Power & Utilities Leader, Ernst & Young

Based in Düsseldorf, Ben coordinates our services for power and utility clients worldwide. He has been involved in many of the unbundling activities and corporate reorganizations which have shaped the industry in recent years. He regularly advises governments, political parties in the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on restructuring in the sector.

Carlo Vivaldi

Executive Director & Deputy CEO, Yapı Kredi

After graduating from the University of Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Department of Business Administration, Carlo Vivaldi started his career in 1991 as teller in Cassamarca, one of the four banks which merged into UniCredit in 1998. At that time he moved in Group’s Planning and Control and then after a brief experience in contributing to the development of Group’s internet strategy, in 2000 he moved under the newly established New Europe Division as responsible for Planning and Control, contributing to the expansion of UniCredit in the region. At the end of 2002, he moved to Turkey and pursued the position of Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President at KFS and Yapi Kredi in addition to memberships of the Board of Directors at some group subsidiaries until September 2007. At that time he actively contributed to the largest merger in the Turkish banking history between Kocbank and the newly acquired Yapi Kredi Bank. In October 2007, he was appointed as Member of the Management Board and Chief Financial Officer at UniCredit Bank Austria AG (covering Austria and the CEE countries of UniCredit) and started to serve in several other Supervisory Boards in CEE subsidiaries of UniCredit Group (UniCredit Bank Czech Republic A.S. as Chairman, Zagrebacka Banka D.D., UniCredit Tiriac Bank S.A., JSC ATF Bank Kazakhstan, and UGIS). Since May 2009, Carlo Vivaldi has been a member of the Board of Directors at Yapi Kredi. As of January 2011, he has been appointed as UniCredit representative for Turkey in the position of Executive Director and Deputy CEO in Yapi Kredi (4th Turkish private bank with € 55bn of assets, 6,5m customers, 950 branches and 17.500 employees). Vivaldi also serves as Executive Director and Deputy CEO of Koc Financial Services and Vice Chairman in all Yapi Kredi subsidiaries (Asset Management, Invest, Leasing, Factoring, Insurance, Pension Fund, Bank Nederland, Bank Azerbaijan, Bank Moscow and Yapi Kredi Cultural Activities, Arts and Publishing). He is also a member of Board of Directors of Yapi Kredi Koray Real Estate Investment Trust. Vivaldi is married and he has two daughters.

Didem Arslanoğlu

Anchor, Bloomberg HT

Didem Arslan graduated from Marmara University, Department of Business Adminstration (English) in 1992 and received an MBA degree from the same university in International Finance in 1998. She served as public relations/marketing expert, faculty member, Director of international capital markets, TV/radio program producer/host/interpreter and master of ceremonies during her 21-year career life. Didem Arslan speaks English (advanced) and French (intermediate). She is married and has two children.

She is serving as an Anchor at Bloomberg HT since October 2010.

Dimitris Tsitsiragos

Vice President, IFC

Mr. Dimitris Tsitsiragos leads investments and advisory services for the IFC (International Finance corporation) across 52 countries, and oversees an integrated strategy that aims to create jobs, plug infrastructure gaps, increase access to finance, and tackle climate change.

Previously, Mr. Tsitsiragos was the Director of the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe department in the IFC and has also worked in South Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe, where he held several leadership positions. He spent two years in New Delhi as IFC’s Director of the South Asia department, where he doubled commitments for the region in all sectors.

Erhan Usta

Deputy Undersecretary, Ministry of Development of the Republic of Turkey

Erhan Usta was born in Havza, Samsun in 1966. He graduated from the Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Public Finance in 1988. He started his career as Deputy Expert at the State Planning Organization in March 1989. He was appointed as a Planning Expert in November 1993 with his thesis on “The Analysis of Local Administrations’ Incomes, Expenditures and Employment”.

In 1998, Erhan Usta received his masters degree from Northeastern University, Department of Economic Policy and Planning ranking first in the department. He was appointed as the Finance Department Head under Annual Programs and Conjunctural Evaluation General Directorate (November 1999), Annual Programs and Conjunctural Evaluation General Director (November 2001), and Deputy Undersecretary (June 2009) of the State Planning Organization Undersecreteriat. The State Planning Organization was reorganized as the Ministry of Development on June 2011. Erhan Usta continues to serve as Deputy Undersecratary at the Ministry of Development at present.

Alongside his tenure at the Ministry, Mr. Usta also assumes membership roles at various boards and commissions. He currently continues with his post-graduate studies at Celal Bayar University, Department of Economics (thesis stage).

Mr. Usta speaks English; he is married and has three children.

Gülsüm Azeri

CEO, OMV Petrol Ofisi

Gulsum Azeri is a graduate of Boğaziçi University, Department of Chemical Engineering with an MS Degree in Industrial Engineering also from the same university. She speaks German and English fluently due to her education at Austrian High School and Robert College High School. Azeri is married and mother of two sons.

Gulsum Azeri worked at Şişecam taking top executive positions during a major part of her career. She was Şişecam Group President of Chemicals between 1994–1998, Şişecam Group President of Glassware between 1999–2007 and Şişecam Group President of Flat Glass between 2007–2011. She also served as a member of the Şişecam Executive Committee during 1994–2011. She presently serves as the CEO and a member of the Board at OMV Petrol Ofisi AS and OMV Gaz ve Enerji Holding AS as well as the Chairperson of OMV Petrol Ofisi Holding AS. Between 2004 and 2008 she was the Chairperson of European Glass Federation’s Glass Tableware Committee, and a member of the Board of “Glass for Europe”, an association of European flat glass producers from 2009 to 2011. 

She has been a Board member of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO), an Executive Board member of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM), a Board member and Executive Board member of DEİK (Foreign Economic Relations Council of TOBB, the Union of Chambers & Commodity Exchanges in Turkey). She represented the private sector in the Board of the Ethic Council of Prime Ministry of Turkey from 2005 to 2011. Gülsüm Azeri was elected member of the Board of THY (Turkish Airlines) on April 2011, she serves as a non-executive Board member at present. 

Hakam Kanafani

CEO, Türk Telekom Group

Kanafani is Türk Telekom Group’s CEO and member of Türk Telekom’s Board of Directors. He serves on the boards of Türk Telekom Group’s broadband communications unit “TTNET” and mobile communications unit “AVEA”; and also as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Türk Telekom Group subsidiaries: Pantel International Group, Argela, AssisTT, Innova and Sebit. Before that he was the Chief Business Development and Synergy Officer for Oger Telecom.

Previously he was the CEO of JAWWAL, Palestine's first private cellular network. Kanafani started his career at NASA, Goddard Space flight center. Kanafani is a University Trustee Scholar and holds Beta Gamma Sigma honors from the USA. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park. He was a founding member of Young Global Leaders and Young Arab Leader. He is a Member of the Board of Directors for SAMENA, ETNO and GSMA. Kanafani is in GTB’s Power100 list for Telco executives worldwide and named Best CEO for Investor Relations in Turkey in 2012.

Hakan Akbaş

Managing Director, Albright Stonebridge Group

Hakan Akbas has more than 20 years of progressively responsible international experience directing as many as 5,000 employees domestically and in emerging markets with revenues in excess of $2.5 billion in consumer, retail, high, financial services, cement and building materials, energy & power, renewables, venture capital, e-business, IT services sectors. He has broad operations and P&L experience in USA, Europe, China, Turkey and the Middle East.

Hakan is currently a Senior Director leading Albright Stonebridge Group’s (founded by Clinton Administration’s former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) business in Turkey with head offices in Washington DC, a Global Commercial Diplomacy firm. Among his significant positions, he served as Executive Vice President in charge of Corporate Strategy & Business Development and several portfolio companies of Sabanci Holding, one of Europe’s leading diversified firms with 55,000 employees and $15 billion in sales. Mr. Akbas also advised Güler Sabanci, chairperson of Sabanci Group and one of world’s top 3 most powerful women by Financial Times in 2011.

Earlier, Mr. Akbas lived in the US for 15 years and he was Senior Corporate Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of US-listed Document Sciences Corporation, a $40 million market-leading global provider of enterprise software, solutions and China-based offshore services that was later acquired by EMC. Previously, Hakan headed new business development operations at Xerox Global Services as a co-founder of the division and instrumental in its acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) to transform a hardware business into a global enterprise services and solutions business - Xerox Global Services is today a $10 billion division of Xerox Corporation. Akbas was also a strategy director at Accenture and Xerox Corporation’s high-profile start-up venture and previously served as trusted advisor to ex-CEOs of Xerox Corporation and his senior team on planning and implementing corporate initiatives.

Hakan Akbas holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree from Bosphorus University in Turkey and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from University of Rochester – William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration in Rochester, NY. Hakan completed executive programs at Kellogg School, Center For Creative Leadership and The Wharton School.

He is a member of Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP), Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Endeavor Global, M.I.T. Enterprise Forum, Corporate Governance Association of Turkey, Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) and Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD). He served on the European Advisory Board of CMO Council and European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). He is currently a professional board member of Marketing A.Ş. at Galatasaray Soccer Club, AK Enerji A.Ş. and regional advisory board member of Accenture. He is married and father of three girls. He speaks Turkish, English and French.

Hakan Gürdal

General Manager, Akçansa

Born in 1968, after graduating from Yıldız Technical University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, he completed his post graduate studies at the Istanbul University, Department of International Business, in business and economics.

Hakan Gürdal, has more than 20 years of experience in cement production industry. He began his career in Çanakkale Çimento in 1992 and after performing various duties in Akçansa he was appointed as Assistant General Manager in 1997 and as General Manager in 2008.

Besides his various management roles in industry initiatives, Hakan Gürdal performs as the Board Member of Turkish Cement Producers’ Association(TCMA) and Chairperson of Sustainability Working Group. Also, performs as the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Association of Turkish Building Material Producers (IMSAD) and Chairperson of Sustainability Committee.

Hasan Ali Yardımcı

Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development, Arçelik A.Ş.

As Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development for Arcelik, Hasan Ali Yardimci is responsible for the development and implementation of growth initiatives for the fast growing major appliance company. In his current capacity, in addition to overseeing annual strategy development processes, he spearheads projects across the globe ranging from organic market entry to acquisitions and strategic partnerships to subsidiary turnarounds.

Prior to Arcelik, Mr. Yardimci held leadership roles with McKinsey & Co, Sears Holdings, Miller Brewing and CashNetUSA.

Mr. Yardimci holds an MBA degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bogazici University.

Hasan Ersel

Served as a faculty member until 1983 at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1971. Later, he worked for Capital Market Board, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and Yapi Kredi Bank. Presently he is teaching part-time at the Sabanci University, Istanbul. He has publications in economics, political science and mathematics.

Hasan Süel

Chairman, Vodafone Turkey Foundation

Hasan Süel worked as a Corporate Affairs and Communication Director for JTI International between the years 2005-2009. He worked as a Regulatory Affairs Manager for Aria between 2001-2004 and as the Department Head responsible for the Telecommunications Industry in the Prime Ministry Privatization Administration between 1993-2001. Hasan Süel got a bachelor's degree in Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, an MBA from the Bilkent University and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Ankara University - Faculty of Political Sciences. He has also worked as a part-time professor giving lessons on Telecommunications Policy in Istanbul Bilgi University and Bilkent University and has academic experience in this area. He has been chairman of Vodafone Turkey Foundation since 2010.

Hülya Kurt

Head of Engineering Department, TSKB

Hulusi Belgü

CEO, Multi Development Turkey

Hulusi Belgü completed his undergraduate studies in Business Administration at Istanbul University in 1988 before enrolling in the MBA program at State University of San Diego in the US. Having received his MBA in 1990, Belgü had long started his professional career while attending college, in the national and international transportation sector.

He served at senior management capacity at various companies such as Çukurova Nakliyat, Ekpar Uluslararası İnşaat ve Taahüt A.Ş., Ektrans Uluslararası Nakliyat ve Ticaret A.Ş, Ekinciler Uluslararası Ticaret during this time. Belgü then moved over to the travel sector with Etur Turizm, before serving in the metal trading business with Uluslararası Demir Ticaret A.Ş. Achieving notable succes both in the national as well as the international business world, Belgü furthered his accomplishments he made in the real estate sector with Safir Gayrimenkul later at Multi Development Türkiye.

Throughout his illustrious professional spanning a quarter of a century, Hulusi Belgü has always regarded success not as merely as “raising the bar”, but rather as obliterating it all together, and has clearly demonstrated the difference between “managing to get through the days” and “taking the helm” while transforming projects he had taken up from scratch into an international force employing a colossal workforce, raising the company performance by 150%, or, managing investments in billions of Euros, spanning out to the farthest corners of the country.

Hulusi Belgü has since 2010 held the CEO position at Multi Development Turkiye, an affiliate of the Netherlands based Multi Corporation in Turkey, developing and managing the entire spectrum of Forum Shopping Malls in the country. He is married with three children.

Hüseyin Murat Akın

President of International Operations, Coca Cola İçecek

Effective January 2010, Hüseyin Akın was appointed President of CCI International Operations. Mr. Akın holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University, and an MBA in Marketing, Finance and International Business from the University of Chicago. He joined The Coca-Cola System in 1989, working at different managerial positions such as Marketing Manager of Caucasus & Central Asia Region and Commercial Director of CCI. Mr. Akın also served as President of CCI Turkey Region from 2006 to 2010. Prior to joining The Coca-Cola System, Mr. Akın worked for Procter & Gamble as a Brand Manager and for Madra-Akın Edible Oil and Soap Company as Regional Sales Manager and Finance Director. Mr. Akın is the Chairman of DEIK/Turkish-Pakistan Business Council and the President of TÜSİAD Work Group on Fight Against Informal Economy and has 31 years of work experience.

Hüseyin Zafer

Advisor to Chairman, Borsa Istanbul

Born in 1958, Mr. Zafer obtained his BSc in Quantitative Economics from Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey in 1980 and his MA degree from the Northeastern University, Boston, USA in 1988. He completed both programs by ranking first.

He started to work in the Foreign Exchange Department at the Central Bank of Turkey in 1981. He worked in several departments such as Secretariat General and Banking and Financial Institutions. He worked as Fund Accounting Manager in Saving Deposit Insurance Fund between September 1994 and September 1998.

Mr. Zafer was promoted to Deputy Executive Director of Statistics Department in September 1998. In July 2001, he was appointed as Chief Representative to New York Representative Office of the Central Bank of Turkey. Having served as Advisor between July 2004 and January 2009, Mr. Hüseyin Zafer was appointed as Executive Director of Communications and Foreign Relations Department in January 2009 and as Executive Director of Statistics Department in April 2012, respectively. He joined Borsa Istanbul as Advisor to Chairman in April 2013.

Kamesh Rao Bhamidi

Director, Sabiha Gokcen International Airport

Mr. Kamesh Rao is currently based in Istanbul in the capacity of Board Member, Sabiha Gokcen International Airport. He has over 33 years of rich and varied experience in the field of Infrastructure, Project and Construction Management across the globe, managing projects varying from Luxury hotels, Universities, Car plants, Hydro power station, Roads and now Airports. He has been with the GMR Group in the Airports Sector for close to 9 years, since 2004.

He has a Masters as well as bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras, India. On the family front he is married to Vijaya and has a son and a daughter.

Prof. Dr. Kamil Yılmaz

Professor of Economics, Koç University

Kamil Yılmaz is currently a Professor of Economics at Koç University, where he joined in 1994. He received a B.A. degree in economics from Boğaziçi University in 1987 and a Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1992. He was the Director of Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum from 2007 to 2009. He was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2003-2004 and 2020-2011 academic years. His areas of research include international trade and finance, macroeconomics and the Turkish economy. 
He has published numerous scientific articles in international and national journals and books. In 2003, he received the Encouragement Award in the Social Sciences and Humanities from the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA).

Kanat Emiroğlu

Chairman of the Board, Global Enerji

Kanat Emiroglu is the Chairman of the Board for Global Enerji, a private equity (ISE: GLYHO) held and growing portfolio including a thermal power plant project, a coal mine, a market leading CNG business, a co-generation business, a solar business and a Feldspar mine. He lived in the UK for 14 years and was the CEO of British Gas Business before moving to Turkey. Prior to that Mr. Emiroglu worked in Procter & Gamble and Kimberly Clark in Germany, Belgium and the UK. He holds an MBA from INSEAD in France and an engineering degree from ODTU as well as having studied masters level Economics in the USA. Mr. Emiroglu also serves as Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting Group's world-wide energy practice.

Kemal Madenoğlu

Undersecretary, Ministry of Development of the Republic of Turkey 

Kemal MADENOĞLU was born in Seydişehir in 1964. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the Middle East Technical University in 1988. He started his professional career in Turkey as an assistant expert at the State Planning Organization (SPO) in 1989. He received his Master of Science Degree from the Sociology Department at the University of Colorado, USA in 1994. He served as the Undersecretary of SPO between June 2009 and June 2011. He was appointed as the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Development in June 2011. Besides this assignment, he is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University since July 2009, and the Coordinator of Istanbul International Finance Center since October 2009.

Prof. Dr. Kerem Alkin

Istanbul Commerce University

Kerem Alkin started his career in academics at Istanbul University as a professor in economics, and since 2011 he continues at Istanbul Commerce University on the same field. He is engaged in media activities alongside his career in the university, and Bloomberg HT is the third channel that he took part during the set-up phase. He serves as voluntary advisor for a number of NGO’s.

He is the President of MOBILSIAD – the association of technology SMEs providing mobile value-added services. He also serves at the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications’ Internet Development Board. He has been and is teaching at both graduate and undergraduate levels in several universities and at the Turkish War Colleges Command. His areas of competency cover economic policy, globalization, international economic relations, monetary policy and banking. He is a columnist at the daily Habertürk writing twice a week.

Kerim Türkmen

Partner & Head of Istanbul Office, Mid Europa Partners

Kerim is a Partner of Mid Europa Partners and head of the Istanbul Office, responsible for sourcing, executing and monitoring investments in Turkey.

Prior to joining Mid Europa in 2007, he was a Principal of GMT Communications Partners, a private equity fund specialising in the communications sector. Previously he was with Merrill Lynch, in its Investment Banking Division in London.

Kerim received his B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College and his M.Sc. in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.

Dr. Martin Steinbach

Head of IPO and Listing Services GSA and EMEIA, Ernst & Young GmbH

Martin´s area of expertise includes IPO’s and SPO’s, M&A transactions, Investor Relations and Private Equity deals.

His unique professional background brings together experience from the investor, issuer, banking, advisor and from a leading securities exchange point of view.

In April 2011 he joined Ernst & Young responsible for IPO and listing services in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Since 2012 he is IPO leader for Europe, Middle east, India and Africa.

After spending over 18 years in the Corporate Finance field, e held different management positions in the Investment Banking (Head, GZ Bank AG), Private Equity (General Manager, SG Capital), the IT industry (Head of Corporate Finance and IR, entory AG) and Securities Exchange (Head of Issuer and Investor Markets, Deutsche Börse AG) sector.

From 2002-2011 Martin was Executive Director, Head of Issuer & Investor Markets of Deutsche Börse AG

Responsible for sales, marketing and product development in the IPO and listing business and campaign management towards Retail and Institutional Investors.

By internationalizing of the IPO platform of Deutsche Börse he has experience in Emerging Markets working across China, Russia/CIS and India.

Mehmet Hacıkamiloğlu

General Manager, Çimsa

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Boğaziçi University, Mehmet Hacıkamiloğlu completed the International Business Specialization Program at Istanbul University and the Executive-MBA program at Sabancı.

University. Mr Hacıkamiloğlu then joined Sabancı as the Facility Manager of Betonsa, moving on to become the company’s Investment and Planning Specialist. From 1997 to 1999, Mr Hacıkamiloğlu was Akçansa's Strategy Development and Planning Manager and Agregasa’s Company Manager from 1999 to 2001. After a further two years as Akçansa’s Financial Coordinator, he joined Çimsa as the Assistant General Manager for Financial and Administrative Affairs. He was appointed as Çimsa's General Manager on June 1, 2006. Mehmet Hacıkamiloğlu still serves as Çimsa's General Manager.

Mehmet Selahattin Hakman

Group President, Energy, Sabancı Holding

Selahattin Hakman was born in Istanbul in 1953. He graduated from Karlsruhe Technical University as an Electrical Engineer(MSc). He entered his business life at Siemens AG Germany in 1980. In 1984 he joined in Siemens A.S. in Turkey where he worked as the Director of the Power Generation Group for 12 years and of the Communication Systems Group for 2 years.

In 2006 he joined Sabancı Group as the President of Energy Group.

Prof. Dr. Melsa Ararat

Director of Corporate Governance Forum, Sabancı University

Melsa held senior executive and board positions in the Asia Pacific, Japan and Europe, focusing on business development through strategic alliances and joint ventures. She is currently professor of Management and Strategy and the director of the Corporate Governance Forum at Sabanci University’s School of Management. Melsa is a consultant to the World Bank since 2003 and quoted by Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. Melsa is also the director of CDP Turkey and Independent Women Directors Project.

Mete Güney

General Manager, MasterCard South East Europe 

Mr. Guney joined MasterCard in 2005 as a product sales specialist, supporting customers in Southern Europe to develop new consumer credit products and improve performance of existing portfolios. After two years, he became an account manager and contributed to the growth of MasterCard across the region.

Prior to MasterCard, Mr. Guney worked as a management consultant in various parts of the world and accumulated 6 years of experience in strategic planning and customer relations in a wide range of industries covering financial services, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication.

Mr. Guney holds a double major degree of Industrial and Civil Engineering from Boğaziçi University. He continued his education at INSEAD, France to study for a MBA where his focus was on marketing, particularly marketing of pharmaceutical products. He also speaks English and Turkish fluently. He is married and he enjoys cooking, photography and sailing.

Murat Kırkgöz

Finance Vice President, Türk Telekom

He graduated from Bogazici University, Mechanical Engineering Department in 1996. He started his career at Koç Group in 1996. He joined Aria in 2001 and he served in various roles in finance department until merger of the company with Aycell forming Avea in 2004. He served as Budget & Control Director (2005) Interim Chief Financial Officer (2009) and Finance Transformation Director (2010) in Avea. Afterwards, he was transferred to Oger Telecom in 2011 as Deputy CFO, Group Financial Controller. He has been appointed as Türk Telekom CFO effective as October 9, 2012.

Naim Hakim

Assistant General Manager in charge of Finance & CFO, Odea Bank

Born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1971, Mr. Hakim obtained in 1992 his bachelor degree in Economics from Univesité Saint-Joseph in Beirut and completed his master degree at Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Nice-Sophia-Antipolis/Ceram in France between 1992 and 1994, majoring in corporate finance. He obtained the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA institute in the USA in 2004. He started his banking career at Banque Saradar sal in 1995 occupying several managerial positions in the bank’s branches. In 2000 he founded the Financial control department in Banque Saradar sal and became the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the bank in 2002. After the merger-acquisition of Banque Saradar sal with Banque Audi sal, Mr. Hakim moved to Banque Audi sal in 2004 where he established the Management Information System (MIS) department and headed it till mid-2012. As of June 2012, he has been working as Assistant General Manager in charge of Finance in Odea Bank A.Ş.

Nurtaç Ziyal

General Manager of M&A, Business Development & Investor Relations, Yıldız Holding

General Manager of M&A, Business Development & Investor Relations, Yıldız Holding

Nurtaç Ziyal started her career in Strategy and Process Department at Arthur Andersen. Until 2003, she fulfilled her duties as Senior Manager.

Between 2003 and 2005, she worked as an Associate Partner and Head of Strategy & Marketing Service at Accenture.

Nurtaç Ziyal had worked as the Head of Strategy & Regulatory Affairs department at Avea between 2005 to 2006 and developed the business strategy, operating plan and corporate performance monitoring system for the company.

In 2006, Nurtaç Ziyal became a member of Yıldız Holding. She was appointed as the General Manager of Corporate Strategy at Yıldız Holding until 2010. Since 2010 she has been serving as General Manager of Yıldız Holding M&A, Business Development & Investor Relations.

In addition to her responsibilities, she was the board member of the leading BOPP packaging company; Polinas during 2008-2010 periods and currently she is the board member of the leading solid plastics packaging company; Farmamak.

Nurtaç Ziyal is the writer of “Benchmarking” and “Digital Economy in Turkey”. In addition, her articles were published in various Business Magazines including Capital, Ekonomist.
Nurtaç Ziyal is active in Turkish Corporate Governance Association and Investor Relations Association.

Nurtaç Ziyal is fluent in English, German and Turkish.

Omar Syed

Managing Director, The Abraaj Group

Omar Syed is focused on developing operations in Turkey, Iraq and Central Asia for The Abraaj Group, which he joined in 2007. Mr Syed was part of the acquisition team for Acibadem Healthcare. He has also worked with a number of The Abraaj Group’s partner companies and holds a Board position at Biolab.

He has more than 15 years of private equity and consulting experience. Before joining The Abraaj Group, Mr Syed was a Vice President at American Capital (ACAS) and spent six years at ACAS. He began his career with PwC.

Dr. Ömer Bolat

CEO, Albayrak Group

Dr. Ömer Bolat was born in Istanbul on August 30, 1963. He completed his elementary, middle and commercial high school education in Istanbul and graduated from the Marmara University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Economic Relations in 1984. He holds a masters degree in European Integration from the University of Amsterdam European Institute. He completed a second masters program in international economics and business administration at the World Economics Institute of Kiel University in Germany. Dr. Bolat received his PhD degree from Marmara University European Union Institute with his thesis on “The European Monetary System”. He completed his military service in 1989 in Gölcük.

Dr. Bolat worked as a research fellow at the Economic Development Foundation of Turkey (İKV) during 1981–1993 after which he has become the General Secretary of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (MÜSİAD). During his 15 years of presence as a Board member in MÜSİAD, he also served as the General Secretary for seven years, Vice President for four years, and as President between 2004 and 2008 for four years. Dr. Bolat left the office at the organization’s General Assembly held on April 19, 2008. Between 2006 and 2008 he also assumed membership at the Board of Directors and the Executive Board of DEİK (Foreign Economic Relations Board).

He was elected as a member to the Central Decision and Administrative Board of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) during the regular General Assembly meeting convened on 30 September 2012.

Since May 2000, Dr. Bolat assumes responsibility as the General Coordinator of Albayrak Holding AS. He has attended to numerious seminars, training programs and symposiums both in Turkey and abroad. He has published books, about 30 reports and 110 articles. His two books, one titled “Medeniyet İdeali” (Ideal Of Civilization) was published by Küre Publishing House on April 2007 and the other “Liderlik Gönül İşidir” (Leadership Is An Affair Of The Heart) was published by Hayat Publishing House on August 2009. Dr. Bolat speaks English and German.

He is married and has two children.

Ö. Özgür Tort

CEO, MİGROS GROUP Turkey

Ö. Özgür Tort joined Migros Group in 1996 at Business Development Department. He leaded the services of Project Management, International Investments Coordination and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). He worked in Russia as COO of Migros’ subsidiary between 2002 and 2006.

In 2006 moved back to Migros Turk as Deputy General Manager responsible of Human Resources & Industrial Relations. Regarding his career of mastering all the dimensions of retail management, he became the CEO in Migros Group in 2008. He holds an MS degree specializing in Engineering Management Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Pedro de Mello

Vice President and Member of Executive Committee, JOSÉ DE MELLO GROUP

Pedro de Mello was born in Lisbon on 14 August 1958 and has a degree in Textile Engineering.

Started his professional career in 1983 and currently is Vice President and Member of Executive Committee OF JOSÉ DE MELLO SGPS; VICE President of JOSÉ DE MELLO SAÚDE SGPS AND Chairman of M DADOS.

Peter Englisch

Partner - Global Family Business Leader, Ernst & Young GmbH

Peter Englisch *1964, master degree at the University of Münster, qualification Diplom-Kaufmann. Accountant, tax advisor and US-CPA (Certified Public Accountant).

With Ernst & Young since 1 October 1992 and appointed as Partner as of 1 January 2001.

From 2002 until 2010 partner in charge of the Ruhr region offices of Ernst and Young GmbH. Peter Englisch also leads and coordinates activities for Family Business at Ernst & Young Germany since 2004 and was appointed as Lead Partner for Strategic Growth Markets and Family Business in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 2010. He was appointed as Global Leader for Family Business in 2011.

He is for many years author of various Ernst & Young regarding Family Business and Middle Market Companies, like the annual "Mittelstandsbarometer" and various survey´s in Cooperation with the Center of Family Business of the University of St. Gallen.

Alongside his extensive experience as a client serving partner in the area of assurance and advisory business services for both international and national companies, Peter Englisch supports SMEs and family-owend businesses in matters of succession and strategy and invented the Ernst & Young Junior Academy, a global program for young successors in Family Business.

Reg Athwal

Managing Director, RAW Group

Author, presenter and conference chairman, Reg Athwal is Mr. Unleash Your DNA. Having started his first business at the age of 17 and then having to face bankruptcy at aged 21, he turned his life around to make his first million dollars at the age of 26, going on further to build a US$20million company from an initial $14,000 investment. Since then he has built numerous start-up companies and is a non-executive director and shareholder of three different companies.

Sertaç F. Karaağaoğlu

Head of Listing Department, Borsa İstanbul A.Ş.

Sertaç F. Karaağaoğlu, is Director of Listing at Borsa Istanbul. He has a banking career in some national and multinational banks for more than 15 years. After serving at sales and marketing departments in various regions and branches in Turkey, he worked for Fortis Turkey as the Director of Eastern Mediterranean region between 2005-2008; as the SME Credits Director and Credit Committee member in Fortis and TEB (BNP Paribas) between 2008-2012. Karaagaoglu is leading the IPO Campaign of Borsa Istanbul.

Dr. Shihab Kuran

President, SunEdison Advanced Solutions

Suleyman Gasimov

Vice President of Economic Issues, SOCAR

Qasimov Suleyman Mehrali was born in 1961 in Bolnisi region of the Republic of Georgia. In 1982 he graduated from Azerbaijan State Economic University (major – accounting) and in 2003 Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 1982 he started his career in Oil and Gas Production Association of State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic. In 1984-1991 he served as Economist and Deputy Chief Accountant at Neft Dashlari.

During 1991-2003 he was Chief Accountant of ‘Khazardanizneftgas’ and ‘Offshore Oil and Gas Extraction’ Production Associations of ‘Azerneft’ Oil and Gas Production Head Office. During 2004-2006 he was Division Head, Deputy Head of Department, and Head of the Economic and Accounting at the Head Office of State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic. Since 2006 he became a Vice-President of State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic on Economic Matters. He was awarded a ‘Tereggi’ Medal in 2006 and the Order of Honor in 2011. He is a Doctor of Economics, the author of 1 scientific paper and more than 15 scientific articles.

Süleyman Orakçıoğlu

CEO, Orka Group

Dr. Şükrü Bozluolçay

Chairman of the Board, Bozlu Holding

Born in 1958, in Samsun, Dr. Şükrü Bozluolçay attended İstanbul Cerrahpaşa Medical School and completed his specialization in Nuclear Medicine during 1975-1989. In 1989, Bozluolçay founded his first company MNT. He is the Chairman of Bozlu Holding of which affiliated companies have been serving in the healthcare sector as equipment and radiopharmaceutic manufacturers and service providers for more than 20 years. Dr.. Şükrü Bozluolçay was named the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012. Married with two children, Bozluolçay chairs TUSIAD’s “Healthcare Working Group".

Tarkan Maner

President and CEO, Dell Wyse

Tarkan Maner is one of the leading serial entrepreneurs and investors in the hi-tech industry, with a focus on social, mobile, virtual, converged and contextual cloud technologies. He is the former CEO at Wyse, the global leader in Cloud Computing. Wyse was acquired by Dell in 2012. He built innovative and transformative businesses at Dell, CA, IBM, Quest and Sterling. Graduating from Istanbul Technical University with a degree in Engineering Management, he received his MBA degree at Midwestern State University, Texas, and attended the invitation-only Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He leads projects at World Economic Forum, Council of Americas, Project Skolkovo, and eLearning Africa, while advising leading IT start-up companies.

Uschi Schreiber

Managing Partner - Global GPS Industry Centre, Ernst & Young

Uschi Schreiber is Ernst and Young’s Global Government and Public Sector Leader. She is a former Director-General, Deputy Director-General and Cabinet Secretary of delivery and central agency Government departments in Australia.

Uschi leads Ernst & Young's global Government and Public Sector practice of more than 7,000 people across mature and emerging markets providing advisory, audit, transactional and taxation services to clients in many countries. Uschi is based in Hong Kong from where she works with Government clients all over the world on solving complex problems.

Throughout her career she has been passionate about making a difference through strategic policy development and transformation, and through driving the concept of shared value across social, environmental and economic dimensions. Through her leadership role, Uschi is committed to making EY’s aspiration of “Building a better working world” a reality. She is also an active contributor to EY’s Diversity & Inclusiveness programs.

Vasileios Fourlis

Executive Chairman, Fourlis Holdings S.A.

Born in Athens in 1960. Holds a Masters Degree in Economic Development and Regional Planning from University of California/Berkeley and a Masters Degree in International Business from Boston University/Brussels.

He is Executive Chairman of Fourlis Holdings (franchisee of IKEA and Intersport) and a member of the Boards of Directors of Piraeus Bank, Titan S.A., OTE S.A. and Frigoglass S.A.
He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) and of the Hellenic Corporate Governance Council.

Received “Businessman of the Year” Award from the President of the Hellenic Republic in 2004.

Vural Çakır

CEO, Ipsos Turkey

Graduated from METU - Department of Economics and after a short experience of advertising and banking, Vural Çakır took place in the foundation of Zet Research Company. After the merger with ACNielsen in 1993, he became the trading partner and the general manager of the company till 2000. He founded KMG Marketing Services Group in 2001 and acted as president of this group till 2007. In 2007, a partnership was established with Ipsos which is the second largest research company of the world. Vural Çakır is still the CEO of Ipsos which has also acquired Synovate in 2011, he is also member of Ipsos Global Management Council and lecturer at Bilgi University, Adschool Marketing Communications Master Programme.

Having many articles published in many business magazines, Vural Çakır is the author of two books named “Geleceğe Dokunuş” (Touching the Future) and “İş Hayatının - Okulda Öğretilmeyen - 21 Gizli Kuralı” (21 Secret Rules – Not Taught in School - of Business Life). He is also among the creators of “The Guide to Understand Turkey” TV Programme.

Will Whitehorn

Chairman, Speed Communications

As Brand Development & Corporate Affairs Director, Will was Branson’s right hand man. He also oversaw projects like the Atlantic Global Flyer before leading the breakthrough space tourism venture. 2013 sees the first commercial Galactic flights. Now serving on the Science & Technology Facilities Council, amongst other projects, Will inspires audiences around the world with his stories of Virgin’s progress from Sex Pistols record label to aviation pioneer and explains the distinction between innovation and invention.

Zeki Konukoğlu

Vice President of the Board of Directors, SANKO Holding