TEBD SME SURVEY LAUNCH EVENT

Oya ERSÖZ has been working as the TEBD Team Leader & Project Director at EUROCHAMBRES. Oya previously spent 9 years working for TOBB in Ankara, where she was responsible for developing and managing various EU-funded projects in collaboration with different stakeholders. She has also carried out lobbying and networking activities in relation to a wide range of EU policies and programmes, while working at TuR&Bo in Brussels. Oya hold a post graduate degree in Investment and Finance from Queen Mary University of London and double bachelor degrees in Mathematics and Business Administration from TOBB University of Economics and Technology.

Ben Butters has been with EUROCHAMBRES, the European association of Chambers of Commerce & Industry, since 2008 and was appointed CEO in 2020. Prior to this, he acquired experience in both the European Commission and the European Parliament, as well as working for a network of innovation centres. Directly before joining EUROCHAMBRES, he created and for several years ran his own business providing EU advocacy support to small business associations.

Cigdem Nas is the Secretary-General of the Economic Development Foundation (IKV), an NGO specialized on Turkey-EU relations. She is also an associate professor of international relations and a member of staff at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul. She graduated from the Political Sicence Department of Bosphorous University in 1988, completed her Masters on European Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and her Doctorate athe Marmara University EU Institute on the minority rights regime in Europe in 2000. She worked as a researcher at the Istanbul Chamber of Industry between 1992-94, then joined the EU Institute of the Marmara University as a research assistant. She became an associate professor in 2007 and transferred to the Yildiz Technical University. She is the author or several books and articles on the EU and Turkey-EU relations including Turkey and the EU: Processes of Europeanization ve Turkey and EU Integration: Achievements and Obstacles published by Routledge. She is a member of the Turkish University Studies Association on EU Studies (TUNAECS), Academic Network of European Studies in Turkey (A-NEST), the Europe Team of the Delegation of the EU in Ankara, Jean Monnet Scholars Association, Global Relations Forum, and International Political Science Association (IPSA). 

M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu earned his B.A. degree in Economics and Management from Gazi University in Ankara. After completing his undergraduate degree, his career started in family business and currently he is the Chairman of Eskihisar Group of Companies, which operates in the fields of construction, construction materials, export and import, investments, land development, food industry and automotive sector.

After a one year vice-presidency period at The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), the largest non-profit business organization in Turkey, covering 365 Chambers and Commodity Exchanges and representing 1.5 million companies, Hisarcıklıoğlu was elected as the President of TOBB in 2001 and was re-elected respectively in 2002, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2018.

Luc Frieden is President of Eurochambres, the Federation of the European Chambers of commerce,
industry and services. He also serves as Chairman of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce.
Luc Frieden is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) S.A.,
Luxembourg’s oldest bank. In addition, he is a qualified lawyer (avocat à la Cour) and a partner with
Elvinger Hoss, one of the largest Luxembourg law firms, where he advises on international corporate
and banking matters. He further sits on the Board of Directors of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
From 2016 to 2019, he served as Chairman of the Board of the media group Saint Paul Luxembourg
SA, the publisher of the leading Luxembourg newspaper. From 2014 to 2016, Luc Frieden was Vice-
Chairman of Deutsche Bank Group in London and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche
Bank Luxembourg.
For most of his professional career, from 1998 to 2013, Luc Frieden was a cabinet minister in the
Luxembourg Government. He served as Minister of Finance, Minister of Defence as well as Minister
of Justice.
During his ministerial tenure, he was Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Justice of the European
Union (2005) and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the IMF and the World Bank (2013). He
was a member of the Eurogroup and Ecofin Council of Ministers.
Luc Frieden was visiting professor in business law at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and has
published numerous articles on legal and political topics. He is the co-author of the book Europa 5.0
on economic growth in Europe.
He sits on the board of the Luxembourg Red Cross, the Luxembourg Bankers Association and is a
member of the Trilateral Commission.
Luc Frieden graduated in law from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and holds LLM
degrees from the University of Cambridge and Harvard Law School. He speaks English, French,
German and Luxembourgish fluently.

Date of birth: 9 July 1960
Place of birth: Düsseldorf, Germany
Nationality: German

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

01.09.2020 | present
Ambassador
Head of the European Union Delegation to Turkey

27.07.2015 | 31.08.2020
German Ambassador to France and Monaco
Head of the German Embassy

01.02.2011 | 01.07.2015
Director General for European Affairs at the Federal Chancellery
Chief EU Adviser of Chancellor Merkel

01.05.2006 | 31.01.2011
Deputy Director General for European Affairs at the Federal Chancellery
Deputy EU Adviser of Chancellor Merkel

01.09.2003 | 30.04.2006
Head of the EU Policy Division at the Federal Foreign Office
Responsible for EU Coordination within in the German Government

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

1987 | 1988
Doctorate in history
University of Cologne, Germany
Thesis on: France and the German Unity. French Reactions to the proposals made by Stalin in 1952.

1981 | 1987
“Magister” of History and German philology
University of Cologne, Germany
Thesis on: The rise of early absolutism in modern Spain under Charles V.

PERSONAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCES

• Mother tongue: German
• Other languages: English, French, Spanish
• Other missions: Spokesperson of the German EU Mission 1999 – 2002 | Spokesperson of the European Convention 2002 – 2003 | Speechwriter for the President of the European Convention Valery Giscard d’Estaing and the German Federal Chancellor

Deputy MOFA Kaymakcı was born on 21 March 1968 in Tosya, Kastamonu, Turkey. Graduated from the Economics Department of the Faculty of Political Science of Ankara University, he had two Master’s Degrees from the London School of Economics and College of Europe (Brugge) in the field of economics and politics of the European Union respectively.

He worked at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara at the Directorate General (DG) Balkan States (1994-95), DG for International Economic Organizations (1995-96), DG Policy Planning (2002-03) and DG European Union (2008).  Abroad, he served at the Turkish Embassy in Tripoli (1997-99), at the NATO Senior Civilian Representative’s Office in Kabul (2004-05) and three times at the Turkish Permanent Delegation to the EU in Brussels (1999-02, 2005-08 and 2017-2018). He was the Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to Turkey’s EU Minister and Chief Negotiator and Director for EU Communication at the EU Ministry (2008-11). He served as the Consul General of Turkey in Basra from 2011 to 2013. In October 2013 he was appointed as the Ambassador of Turkey to Iraq where he remained in office until January 2017.  He was the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the European Union, between February 2017 and August 2018. He was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs & Director for EU Affairs on 7 August 2018. Deputy MOFA Kaymakcı is a holder of NATO Medal for his service in Afghanistan and was selected one of the three Alumnus of the Year 2007 of the College of Europe.

He worked as a senior researcher at the Capital Markets Board of Turkey, as a faculty member of the Department of Public Finance at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University and  as an external founding member of the Monetary Policy Council of the Central Bank of Turkey. He became Professor of Public Economics in 2003. In 2006, he was transferred to the newly established TOBB University of Economics and Technology (TOBB ETÜ).

He was the founding managing director of Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) in 2004 which is the first and only economic policy  think tank in Turkey. Area Studies Program of TEPAV has been active in private sector development projects, entrepreneurship and SME support programs in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.  Güven Sak co-chaired the Migration Task Force of  Think 20 (T20) during the German, Japanese, Argentinian and Saudi Arabian Presidencies of the  G20.

He is currently the MD of TEPAV in Ankara, Turkey and President/CEO of TEPAV Global, Washington, DC, USA.

Dr. SLEVOGT started his career in 1997 at Deutsche Bank AG Hamburg and continued first in Frankfurt and later - between 1998 and 1999 - at Deutsche Bank S.A. in Switzerland. Transferred to Turkey as Representative in 1999, Dr. SLEVOGT was promoted as Deutsche Bank AG’s Senior Country Representative for Turkey in 2002. In 2008, he moved to ING Bank S.A. in Switzerland as Regional Market Manager and transferred to ING Bank A.Ş. Turkey in 2010 as Managing Director, responsible for Wealth Management.

2012 he started as an Independent Board Member in Türk Demir Döküm A.Ş. (Vaillant Group) and BSH Bosch Siemens Ev Aletleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., assignments he completed successfully in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

In early 2013 he was asked to join the Board of the Turkish-Italian family business Organik Holding A.Ş. (Specialty Chemicals). He concluded his tasks in October 2018.

Today, Dr. SLEVOGT is Board Member in the Turkish family business Erciyas Çelik Boru A.Ş. (Industry, Energy, Services) as much as an Independent Board Member in Akçansa Çimento Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. (Joint Venture between HeidelbergCement and Sabancı Holding) and Amarkon Group Danışmanlık ve Ticaret A.Ş. (Family Office, Family Business Consultancy).

He is President of the German-Turkish Chamber of Industry and Commerce and a member of TÜSİAD (Turkish Industry & Business Association), where he served for many years as TÜSİAD International Vice President and President of the Germany Working Group.

In addition to his business responsibilities, Dr. SLEVOGT is faculty member of BAU Bahçeşehir University’s Faculty of Economics, Administrative & Social Sciences and Director of BAU’s Finance Research Center (BFRC). From 2015 to 2021, he served as Board Member of BAU Bahçeşehir University’s Graduate School of Business.

Dr. SLEVOGT holds a Diploma Degree in Economics from University of Kent at Canterbury (UK), a Master and PhD degree from the business administration faculty of Philipps University, Marburg, Germany, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Management from ESMT – European School of Management and Technology, Berlin, Germany. In addition, he received executive training from NYU Stern School of Business, New York, USA.

Having almost 20 years of experience in Project Management and Implementation, Bülent ÖZCAN has been working as the Director-General for Financial Cooperation and Project Implementation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate for EU Affairs in Turkey since December 2018. Prior to this position, he served as assistant expert, expert, coordinator and Director within the same institution.

After having a Bachelor’s Degree in the Department of International Relations at Middle East Technical University in 1999, he completed the Master’s Programme on the European Union Economy at the EU Institute of Marmara University. Last but not least, he attended Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Education Programme in 2011.

Mr. ÖZCAN is responsible for the overall coordination, monitoring and evaluation of Instrument for Pre-Acession Assistance (IPA) Funds provided to Turkey by the EU. In that vein, he takes responsibility in management of Bulgaria-Turkey IPA Cross Border Cooperation Programme and Black Sea Basin Cross Border Cooperation Programme. He also coordinates the work on participation of Turkey in EU Programmes and Agencies such as Erasmus + and Horizon 2020.

Mr. ÖZCAN delivers lectures on a part-time basis in the “Project Management” MBA programme in TOBB Economy and Technology University. He has several books and studies on “Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance to Turkey”, “EU Grant Programmes and Supports to Civil Society Organisations” and “Project Preparation and Implementation”.

Nele Eichhorn is a Head of Unit in the European Commission DG TRADE.E2 - Trade relations with the Southern neighbours, Middle East, Turkey, Russia and Central Asia. Prior to being appointed to her current position in February 2021, Ms Eichhorn was a Member of Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager where her tasks included trade, industrial policy, 5G, internal market and SMEs. During the tenure of the previous Commission in 2014–2019, Ms Eichhorn was a Member of Cabinet of Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. Between the two Cabinet appointments, she worked as a Deputy Head of Unit in the Secretariat General of the Commission responsible for defence, security and foreign policy implementation coordination. Ms Eichhorn has been an official of the European Commission since 2005. Prior to joining the Commission, she served as a diplomat in the Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU with a focus on internal market, services and telecommunications files.