EU-Turkey High Level

Business Dialogue

IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu studied Business Administration at the University of Indiana (United States) in 1980 following the completion of his BA studies in London. He graduated from the University of Indiana in 1983 with honours. Afterwards, he completed his Master’s degree in International Finance at Butler University in 1985.
In 1986, Zeytinoğlu started working in his family enterprise. Currently, Zeytinoğlu is still working as General Director of Zeytinoğlu Feed & Pet Food  Inc.  (Yem Tarım ve Endüstriyel Ürünler A.Ş). Ayhan Zeytinoğlu is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Autoport Terminal Operators (Autoport Liman İşletmesi) which is the partner of Arkas and Zeytinoğlu Group. He is the General Coordinator of Zeytinoglu Maritime.
In 1989, he joined the Chamber of Industry of Kocaeli and he became a founding board member of the Chamber ever since its foundation. In 1995, he was appointed as Vice-Chairman and in January 2009, he was elected as the Chairman the Chamber of Industry of Kocaeli. He is serving as the Chairman of the Kocaeli Chamber of Industry since then. Ayhan Zeytinoğlu was appointed as the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Working Group within the framework of B20 during Turkey’s G20 presidency in 2015. He is currently the President of the Economic Development Foundation and vice-President in TOBB.

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 centre. Directly before joining EUROCHAMBRES, he created and for several years ran his own business providing EU advocacy support to small business associations.

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.

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.

President Dr. Christoph Leitl was born in Linz on 29 March 1949. 

After graduating in economics, Leitl worked as Managing Director of Bauhütte Leitl-Werke. From 1990 to 2000, he was Regional Economic Councillor and Deputy Governor of Upper Austria.

In June 2000, he was elected President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber. He held this position until May 2018. 

In 2018, Leitl became President of EUROCHAMBRES for the second time and now represents the interests of 20 million European businesses with 120 million employees. Leitl was a visiting professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration for several years and gives guest lectures at the best universities in the world.

In 2018, Leitl initiated the foundation European Youth Forum Neumarkt EYFON: young people should develop European spirit during encounters.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was born on 5 February 1968 in Alanya.

Mr. Çavuşoğlu received his Bachelor's Degree in International Relations from Ankara University in 1988 and completed his Master’s Degree in Economics at Long Island University in New York in 1991 and the Expertise Programme on European Union in the European Research Center at Ankara University in 1993.

He started a PhD Degree in International Relations at Bilkent University as a special student in 1993 and carried out research at the London School of Economics (LSE) between 1993 and 1995 with a Jean Monnet Fellowship.

Mr. Çavuşoğlu is a founding member of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). He was elected as Member of Parliament from Antalya for the 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th Parliamentary Terms. He was the Vice Chairman of the AK Party in charge of Foreign Affairs between January 2013-2014 and September- December 2015. He was the Chairman of the Turkey-Japan and Turkey-USA Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Caucuses.

He took on various duties between 2003 and 2010, such as the Vice Presidency of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Chairmanship of the Turkish Delegation, Chairmanship of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population, and Chairmanship of the Sub-Committee on Tourism Development. Besides, he was the Vice-Chairman and Chief Whip of the European Democrat Group (EDG).

He was the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2010 to 2012; he was the first Turkish Parliamentarian elected to this position. He was granted the title of Honorary President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 7 April 2014.

He was the PACE Representative at the Venice Commission from 27 January 2012 to 31 January 2014.

Besides his duties in the PACE, he also served as the Chairman of the Turkish Delegation to the European Security and Defence Assembly (Assembly of Western European Union) between 2007 and 2010.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu served as Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator of the Republic of Turkey between 26 December 2013 and 29 August 2014.

He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 62^nd Government of the Republic of Turkey between 29 August 2014 and 30 August 2015.

He was reappointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 64^th and 65^th Government of the Republic of Turkey.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was appointed and took office as the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Presidential System of Government on 9 July 2018.

He speaks English, German and Japanese. He is married and has one daughter.

Joost Korte was appointed Director General on the 16 March 2018. 
Joost Korte was Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Trade Department on January 1, 2017. Previously, the Dutch national served as Deputy Director-General in the Agriculture and Rural Development Department as well as in the Enlargement Department. Furthermore, Mr. Korte spent several years in the Commission’s Secretariat General as Director responsible for the relations with the Council of Ministers and gained extensive experience in the Private offices of Sir Leon Brittan, Chris Patten and Danuta Hübner. These professional experiences within the European institutions allowed him to develop a profound understanding of EU decision-making. 
A lawyer by training, Joost Korte joined the Commission in 1991, following eight years of academic work on European law at the Universities of Utrecht and Edinburgh.

Bendevi PALANDÖKEN was born in 1949 in Malatya. He went into his profession as a grocer’s at Cebeci district of Ankara currently he keeps at his job at the same grocery store.
Bendevi PALANDÖKEN was the member of the supervisory board of Ankara Union of Grocers and Vendors then vice president and chairman of the supervisory board in addition to this he became the member and vice president of the board of management of The Federation of Grocers and Vendors. He maintained his job as a member and also vice president of the board of management of The Confederation of Turkish Tradesman and Craftsmen. 
Bendevi PALANDÖKEN holds the presidency of the Chamber of Ankara  Grocers and Vendors, Ankara Grocers and Vendors and Craftsmen Cooperative besides he also holds the presidency of the Federation of Grocers and Vendors and the general presidency of The Confederation of Turkish Tradesmen and Craftsmen.  He maintains the membership of Craft and SMes in Europe (SmeUnited), the membership of European Union and Turkey Joint Advisory Committee (AB-TR KİK), the membership of Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK),  the membership of the executive committee of Small and Medium Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB), the membership of board of members of Social Security Institution (SGK) and the membership of board of members of Vocational Qualification Authority (MYK).

Nurten Öztürk, who was born in Mengen in 1949, started to work as a Biology teacher at Akşehir Teacher Training School in 1971. She left teaching in 1984 to work in the family company  Öztürkler Petroleum Ltd founded in 1980.

In 1992, together with her husband  Fikret Öztürk she established OPET Petroleum in Istanbul. The social responsibility projects undertaken by Nurten Öztürk, who has been working in every department since the establishment of the company, are studies designed to solve social problems. Nurten Öztürk is the idea leader and manager of the "Clean Toilet Campaign", "Green Road Project", "Exemplary Village Project", "Respect for History Project" and "Traffic Detectives Project" that make a difference in the sector and touched the lives of more than 20 million people. In 2002, she became a shareholder of 50% of Koç Holding Energy Group. 

Continuing her duty as the Founding Member of the OPET Board of Directors, Nurten Öztürk is also interested in poetry branches of literature and the art of photography. Öztürk is the mother of two boys and a daughter.

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

Mr. Auguste T. Kouamé is the World Bank Country Director for the Republic of Turkey.

Prior to taking this role in May 2019, Dr. Kouamé was Director of the department of Human Development and Economic Management at the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank Group from January 2017 to April 2019. He oversaw independent evaluations in economic management and country programs as well as independent evaluations in human development and corporate strategies. Prior to joining IEG, he had consecutively been Practice Manager for Middle East and North America and Practice Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean countries in the Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management Global Practice of the World Bank from 2014 to 2017. From 2008 to 2014, he held the positions of Sector Manager for Economic Policy, Sector Leader, and Lead Economist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit and served as acting Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. From 2005 to 2008, he held the position of Assistant to the World Bank Group President. Prior to this corporate level assignment, Dr. Kouamé took field assignments during 2002-05 as Senior Country Economist based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and subsequently as World Bank representative in Haiti.  Dr. Kouamé was a core team member of the World Bank’s 1998/99 World Development Report on Knowledge for Development. Prior to joining the World Bank as Young Professional in 1996, Dr. Kouamé worked at the United Nations Development Program and taught Applied Economics in Côte d’Ivoire and France. Dr. Kouamé is a national of Côte d’Ivoire. 

Dr. Kouamé is a graduate from the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique (ENSAE) in Paris, France and holds a PhD in Economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris and the DELTA research center (now Paris School of Economics).

Chairman of the Board of Directors of ODE Insulation, which is Turkey’s biggest insulation firm with 100 percent local capital, Orhan Turan graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Yıldız Technical University in 1981. Orhan Turan completed his MBA at Marmara University and has put great emphasis on participating in non-governmental organizations throughout his business life. Accordingly, he played an active role in the foundation of the Association of Heat, Sound and Fire Insulation Investors (IZODER). Turan served as the Board Chairman of IZODER in 1997-1999, and of the Association of Construction Material Producers (IMSAD) for two terms from 2007 to 2011. Turan has played active roles in several NGOs, serving as the Head of Supervisory Board at the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD) in 2017-2019 and currently as the Board Chairman of the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation (TURKONFED). Having actively engaged in the NGOs for 27 years, Turan has delivered graduate classes in Sabancı University, Koç University, Marmara University and Yıldız Technical University. In 2008, Orhan Turan was recognized as the “Entrepreneur of the Year” at the Entrepreneur of the Year competition held jointly by Milliyet daily and Ernst & Young and represented Turkey at the “Entrepreneur of the Year in the World” competition in Monte Carlo. Turan is married, has one child and speaks English fluently.

Eliot leads CISL’s team that bridges between business and policy makers to bring about a more sustainable economy. He is the current Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group, which brings together businesses to work towards a step change in policy and action on climate change, and of the EU Green Growth Platform, which creates a common space for governments, businesses and parliamentarians to collaborate in support of a greener EU economy.

Gianpiero Nacci is the Deputy Director of Energy Efficiency and Climate Change team at the EBRD where he is responsible for work on climate finance, corporate sector energy efficiency, climate resilience investments and circular economy.
He has 25 years experience in climate policies, sustainable manufacturing, resource efficiency and clean energy with a particular focus on emerging markets.
An Italian national, he holds a MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and a MSc in Renewable Energy from the University of Oldenburg (Germany).

Anita heads the Department of Central and South Eastern Europe at the Operations Directorate of the EIB.

Prior to this, she worked as Director of the Western Europe Department and as Director of the Baltic Sea Department. She also held the position of Head of Division of Private Sector Operations in Germany and worked as Credit Officer in the Credit Risk Department of EIB.

Before joining the Bank in 1995, her focus was on Project Finance with positions in New York and Vienna.

Anita received her MBA from Insead, France, and her economics degree from the University of Economics and Business in Vienna.

Alban Maggiar chairs SMEunited since January 2020. He was previously Vice-chair in charge of its Economic and Fiscal Committee (2016), representing CPME, the French Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises. 

Prior to that, he was President of SYNADIET, the French organisation that united the French food supplement industry, from 2005 to February 2015 and of EHPM (European federation of associations of Health Product Manufacturers) from March 2013 till March 2016. For 30 years, Alban Maggiar was the head of the French company CARRARE Laboratory that specialises in yeasts, probiotics and botanical based food supplements. He now runs ADELANTI, a consulting company. 
Maggiar holds a Master’s degree in Business Law, an Advanced Master’s degree in Tax Law, and a Bachelor’s degree in Literature. He also holds qualifications in the fields of accounting, finance and political science.

Tatjana Babrauskienė was elected Quaestor of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in October 2020, and has been an active member of the institution since 2015. Her work has focused on education and social affairs. She has been a rapporteur and co-rapporteur for numerous EESC opinions, such as:

• - EU Competence Framework for Green Skills
• - Updated skills agenda
• - Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee
• - Promoting skills for a more just, cohesive, sustainable, digital and resilient society
• - Sustainable funding for lifelong learning and development of skills
• - Education about the European Union

Tatjana Babrauskienė has been working and representing Lithuanian trade unions at the European level in the field of VET and adult learning since 2004, when Lithuania became member of the EU on 1 May 2004.

She has a long experience in advocating for skills development at the European level, including as a member of Cedefop and the EC advisory committee on vocational education (ACVT). In 2010, when the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in Education was established, she was appointed as the Lithuanian delegate of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in Education (ESSDE). She is also an expert of the European trade union confederation (ETUC) and the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE).

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 centre. Directly before joining EUROCHAMBRES, he created and for several years ran his own business providing EU advocacy support to small business associations.

Carlo Monticelli has been Vice-Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) since November 2015. 

Before joining the CEB, he served for more than a decade at the Italian Treasury, representing Italy in a wide spectrum of international fora and institutions, including as EFC member, G7 Deputy, G8 Financial Sous-Sherpa, G20 Deputy, IMFC Deputy, FSB member and OCDE WP3 member. 

In his capacity as Head of International Financial Relations, he was for many years alternate governor for Italy at the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and served on the Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank and the Italian Export Credit Insurance Agency (SACE). 

Before joining the Treasury, his career straddled both private and public sectors, including as Head of European Economics, Global Markets Research, at the Deutsche Bank, London, and Deputy Director in the Research Department of the Bank of Italy. 

Dr Monticelli, holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Ancona and a M.Sc. in Economics from the University of York, and has carried out post graduate studies at Oxford University (Brasenose College). He has been a visiting professor in the International Economics Department at the Graduate Institute in Geneva and a visiting scholar in the Economics Department of the MIT. Over the years he has delivered seminars and lectures in various other universities, participated in numerous academic and policy conferences, published articles in several international academic journals, a book with Oxford University Press and, in 2019, Reforming Global Economic Governance, with Routledge. 

Born in Istanbul in 1959, Emine Perviz Erdem graduated from Notre Dame de Sion French High School and has a degree in Law and a M.Sc. in Business Administration from Istanbul University. A lawyer by profession, she is a Board Member of Erdem Holding since 1985 and served as a Chamber Counsel for Turkish Airlines between 1990 and 2017 until her retirement. She is the President of KAGIDER where she has been a Board Member since 2013. Successively, she worked as the President of Soroptimist International of Turkey (2008-2010), Board Member (2013-2017) and Vice President (2015-2017) of Soroptimist International of Europe and President of Soroptimist International Convention (2015.) She has been appointed as Senator for Turkey at World Business Angels Investment Forum in August 2020. She is the Vice President of SEDEFED, one of the founders of UNESCO-Istanbul Center for Global Ethics and Sustainable Development and a member of the Advisory Board of Association of Women Candidates. She is a member of UNESCO Turkish National Commission Gender Equality Monitoring Committee. She has also worked as the Assistant Coordinator of Istanbul Women’s Platform, and her other civil society memberships include International Federation of University Women and Foundation of Turkish Women in Legal Profession. She has been a spokesperson at several international meetings such as International Federation of University Women Conference (2013), 6th World Water Forum (2012) and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Equality Commission Meeting (2009). She speaks French and English.

Adam Gajek has worked as a Policy Advisor on Skills and Entrepreneurship at EUROCHAMBRES since 2020. His responsibilities cover EU policies in the fields of education & training, migration and employment. Before that, he served as a President of the European Students’ Union and was involved in higher education and youth policies.

Frederico Martins is EUROCHAMBRES’ advisor in charge of SME and Economic policies. Frederico has previously worked as an assistant for a Member of the European Parliament as well as for different EU business organisations, representing SMEs’ interests in issues such as capital markets, corporate governance and access to finance. Frederico holds a post graduate degree in International Cooperation and Development from the University Institute of Lisbon and a bachelor’s degree in History with a specialisation in Political Science and International Relations from NOVA University Lisbon and the Catholic University of Leuven.

H.Çağrı GÜRGÜR started his career as an Assistant Treasury Expert at Undersecretariat of Treasury of Turkey. He worked and specialized in corporate finance and trade finance at an international bank and joined TOBB-Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in 2004 working as chief advisor to the President of TOBB since 2012.

Ambassador Bozay was born in 1966 in Ankara (Turkey). He has a degree in International Relations. By 1989 he started the junior career diplomat, at the Directorate General (DG) for Gulf States. After few years in different Turkish Embassies (Tehran, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, etc) and Ministries, he arrived in Brussels in January 2019, as Ambassador at the Permanent Delegate to Turkey to the European Union.

IKV Chairman and Chairman of Kocaeli Chamber of Industry Ayhan Zeytinoğlu studied Business Administration at the University of Indiana (United States) in 1980 following the completion of his BA studies in London. He graduated from the University of Indiana in 1983 with honours. Afterwards, he completed his Master’s degree in International Finance at Butler University in 1985.

In 1986, Zeytinoğlu started working in his family enterprise. Currently, Zeytinoğlu is still working as General Director of Zeytinoğlu Feed & Pet Food  Inc.  (Yem Tarım ve Endüstriyel Ürünler A.Ş). Ayhan Zeytinoğlu is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Autoport Terminal Operators (Autoport Liman İşletmesi) which is the partner of Arkas and Zeytinoğlu Group. He is the General Coordinator of Zeytinoglu Maritime. In 1989, he joined the Chamber of Industry of Kocaeli and he became a founding board member of the Chamber ever since its foundation. In 1995, he was appointed as Vice-Chairman and in January 2009, he was elected as the Chairman the Chamber of Industry of Kocaeli. He is serving as the Chairman of the Kocaeli Chamber of Industry since then. Ayhan Zeytinoğlu was appointed as the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Working Group within the framework of B20 during Turkey’s G20 presidency in 2015. He is currently the President of the Economic Development Foundation and vice-President in TOBB.

Davor Percan has more than 20 years of operational and managerial experience in international environmental relations and development assistance. Prior to joining the European Commission in 2006, he worked in the energy sector, researching energy efficiency and renewable energy policies and managing related international assistance in Zagreb, Croatia. Upon joining the EC, Davor followed Croatia’s alignment with the EU’s body of legislation and managed EU accession-related financial assistance in two chapters: environment and energy. After Croatia’s accession to the EU, he continued his career in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement, later to become the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR). After a short assignment as Financial Officer, he managed the EU’s annual financial assistance programmes for Kosovo in the Western Balkans directorate. Davor joined DG Environment in 2018 as head of unit for bilateral and regional environmental cooperation in the Global Sustainable Development directorate. Davor has a Bachelor’s degree in geography and Master’s degrees in environmental management, and energy and environmental management from Oxford Brookes University, UK and Scuola Superiore Enrico Mattei, Italy. He specialised in strategic environmental assessment, environmental impact assessment and environmental management. He is a Croatian citizen.

Gonca YILMAZ BATUR was born in Konya, in 1970. After graduation from Ankara Science High School in 1988, she received a BSc degree in Industrial Engineering in Bilkent University. Until the graduation in 1994, during her MBA studies in the same university, she worked as a teaching assistant. After school, she took senior managerial positions in global audit and consulting companies, Arthur Andersen and Accenture. Then again for approximately 10 years she worked for Turkcell group in senior executive positions. Ms. YILMAZ BATUR was working as the President of Group Procurement for Kibar Holding since 2015, when she was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Trade on August 18, 2018. She is married with two children. She is fluent in English.

He graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration. He completed his MBA in Finance at Virginia Commonwealth University and has a PhD from Ankara University, Faculty of Business Administration. At 1989 he started his career at the Ministry of Finance as a Junior Financial Auditor and served as a Financial Auditor and Chief Financial Auditor. He worked as a lecturer in Hacettepe, Bilkent and Atılım Universities between 1998-2002. He joined the Koç Group in 2002 and worked as the Coordinator of the Finance Group and continued as the Coordinator of Audit Group between 2004-2005. In April 2005 he was assigned as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Arçelik AS. From February 2015, he serves as President of Consumer Durables at Koç Holding AS. Mr. Ebiçlioğlu is also a Member of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD and Turkish Exporters Association (TİM).