Professor Murat Yülek (Ph.D.)

Prof. Dr. Murat YÜLEK is a member of advisory councils, various national and international economic and business institutions. He holds and has held high level executive responsibilities in financial and non-financial corporations including as director and chairman. He has held developmental and business responsibilities including macroeconomics, project finance, corporate finance in various countries in Europe, Africa, North America and Asia with tenures at institutions including the International Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank and the Turkish Prime Ministry. He undertook consultancy assignments at the World Bank, EBRD, UNCTAD and advised public and private institutions in various countries. He has authored or led financial, macroeconomic, sectoral studies, impact, feasibility and financial valuation studies.

 rektorluk@ostimteknik.edu.tr

 +90 312 386 10 92 / 1902 

Professor J.G. (Hans) Wissema (Ph.D.)

Hans Johan Gooitzen Wissema is Professor Emeritus of innovation and entrepreneurship at the University o Technology in Delft, the Netherlands, and managing director of Wissema Consulting Ltd. He is educated in chemical engineering and control engineering in the UK and the Netherlands. He is management consultant in strategy, organization, R&D management and innovation. His areas of specialization are management of universities and professional service firms; higher education policy, creation of new technology-based firms, academic entrepreneurship, innovation policy in government and management of innovation in enterprises, strategy, organizational structure, and management of change. He is the author of sixteen professional books (plus reprints and translations) and numerous articles. His latest book is Towards the Third Generation University, published in English, Turkish, Polish, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Russian. His current research focus is on the impact of artificial intelligence on learning. He is a regular international speaker in the fields of higher education and entrepreneurship. He is the co-­founder of YesDelft, the incubator of TU Delft, now one of the largest in Europe. He established entrepreneurship centers in a number of countries. He is a seasoned coach and counsel of entrepreneurs-­to-­be and start-­ups.

Assoc. Prof. Bahar Erdal (Ph.D.) (Department Head) 

Associate Professor Doctor Bahar Erdal is a faculty member of the Economics Department of the Ostim Technical University. She has taken her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Middle East Technical University. She has taken her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from the University of Delaware. The title of her Ph.D. dissertation is “Real Exchange Rate Volatility and Investment in Manufacturing Industries: Empirical Evidence from European Countries and the United States”. She has worked different departments of the Central Bank of Turkey as specialist and director. As a part-time lecturer, she thought “Macroeconomics Theory” and “Introduction to Economics-1” at the Atılım University, “Money and Banking” and “Money and Financial Institutions” at the Başkent University and “Banking and Financial Institutions” and “International Financial System” at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences. Her research interests are macroeconomics, money and banking, monetary policy and international economics. She has books and articles published by international and national publishers and journals.

 bahar.erdal@ostimteknik.edu.tr

Assoc. Prof. Fikret Kartal (Ph.D.) 

Assoc. Prof. Fikret KARTAL received his bachelor degree in business administration from Istanbul University, School of Business in 1997. He started his professional career as a bank auditor and served in the banks taken over by Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), held positions as auditor and Deputy Head of Audit Department until 2013. He has worked in private sector as head of audit and board member in some companies in Turkey as well as management board member in the banking sector abroad responsible for risk management, finance, banking operation and audit. In parallel with professional life, he also pursued academic career and completed his master degree in politics of economy with thesis on “Independent Regulatory Agencies in Turkey” from Maltepe University in 2004 and PhD degree in finance and banking from Kadir Has University  with thesis on “Turkish  Banking Sector in the Inflation Targeting Environment” in 2009. He got Associate Professor title in finance in 2015 and has many national and international academic works mainly focused on finance and banking. He has Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licence. 

  fikret.kartal@ostimteknik.edu.tr

Assoc. Prof. Rıza Bayrak (Ph.D.)

Rıza Bayrak graduated from the System Engineering Programme. Then, he received his M.Sc. degree in Human Resource Management, and his Ph.D. in Economics. He conducted many important defense industry projects as a Project Manager Professional throughout his public service career. Additionally, he worked as a Human Resource Manager and Project Manager ofTraining and Education Department in NATO Mission of Resolution Support TAAC-C/Afghanistan. He lectured Micro-economics, Macro-economics, Introduction to Economics, and Turkey’s Economy at National Defense University between 2017-2018. Moreover, he studied "Economics of Terrorism" as a research assistant in NATO COE-DAT in 2019. Rıza Bayrak has published many articles in Employment/Youth Unemployment, Growth, Development, and Defense Economics. He has been also specialized in the efficiency and productivity of various sectors that produce commodities and services .

  riza.bayrak@ostimteknik.edu.tr

Assist. Prof. Büşra Ağan Çelik (Ph.D.) 

Büşra Ağan graduated from Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Economics in 2014. She has a master’s degree in Economics from Dokuz Eylul University in 2017. She received her Ph.D. from the Eastern Mediterranean University Department of Economics in 2023 with her thesis titled “Connectness of Commodity Markets: A Dynamic Study on the Effects of Market Crashes and Sentiments” and also worked as a research assistant throughout her education process. She also completed her second PhD degree at Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Business Administration, Department of Economics in English with her doctoral dissertation titled “An Empirical Analysis of Green Technology Diffusion and Climate Change Adaptation on Green Growth”. She studies energy and environmental economics, technology and innovation, behavioral economics, commodity markets, and financial markets. She has published books, chapters in books, national and international academic publications in these fields .

 busra.agan@ostimteknik.edu.tr

Jorge Tavares Borges (Ph.D.)

Dr. Jorge Tavares Borges is an economist and academic with a strong background in research, teaching, and leadership. He is the founder and vice president of the Cabo Verde Association of Young Economists, supporting dialogue and emerging scholars in the region. He earned his BA in Economics from the University of Cabo Verde and completed his Master’s and Ph.D. in Economics with a focus on East Asian Studies at Yamaguchi University, Japan. He has lectured in Turkey and Japan, covering subjects from Macroeconomics to Innovation Management. His research has been published in top journals, addressing environmental policy, carbon taxation, and tourism’s economic effects, and he has presented at international conferences in Japan and Turkey.

 jorge.borges@ostimteknik.edu.tr

Research Assistant  Huzeyfe Erkam Candan

Huzeyfe Erkam Candan completed his undergraduate education in Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Finance and completed his master's degree in Mülkiye. He is currently continuing his doctoral studies at Mülkiye and worked as a volunteer coordinator in training programs and organizations on economic integrations.  He is interested in international foreign policy, international economic policies, financial markets, development economics, monetary policy and policy instruments. He researchs the effects of economic integraton on development, particulary in Turkey. He still continues his academic studies on the first term of industrial policies of the republic. 

 huzeyfe.candan@ostimteknik.edu.tr

Professor Aziz Akgül (Ph.D)

He graduated from the Turkish Military Academy Department of Business Administration. He earned his MBA degree from Department of Business Administration at the Middle East Technical University, Turkey and his MS degree from US Naval Postgraduate School. He completed his Ph.D. at the Department of Business Administration at Ankara University, Turkey. He served as the President of KOSGEB (Turkish Small Business Administration), Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey and Member of the Turkish Parliament. He is the pioneer of the Turkish Grameen Microfinance Program which provides microcredit to financially challenged people and also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Turkish Foundation for Waste Reduction. He has published 17 books and many articles on diverse topics that range from Business Management, Operational Research, Statistics, Defense Industry and Happytalism.

Professor Mehmet Balcılar (Ph.D)

Mehmet Balcilar is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, North Cyprus; Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa; Affiliated Professor at the Montpellier Business School, Montpellier, France; part time instructor at the Ostim Technical University; and Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum, Cairo, Egypt. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Wayne State University, MA degrees from Cukurova University and Cleveland State University and bachelor’s degree from Dokuz Eylul University. He was an advisor at the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) in Turkey and consultant at the Undersecretariat of the Prime Ministry of Turkey. He also worked as consultant to serve international organizations including the World Health Organization, World Bank, UNICEF, and the United Nations. His academic interests are mainly macroeconomics, financial markets, risk modelling, health economics, economic growth, and industrial policy.

Professor Hakkı Ozan Eruygur (Ph.D) 

H. Ozan Eruygur is currently Professor of Economics at the Ankara Haci Bayram Veli (AHBV) University in Ankara, Turkey. He obtained his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Economics from METU (Middle East Technical Univerisity), Ankara. He also holds an M.S. degree in Economics of Natural Resources and Agricultural Exploitations from CIHEAM-IAM Montpellier, France. His research focuses mainly on the analysis of the impact of policy changes and economic growth in domestic and international agricultural sectors. The partial (agricultural sector models) and general equilibrium (CGE models) modeling together with time series and panel data econometrics are the main approaches used in his studies.

Professor Aylin Ege (Ph.D.)  

Aylin Ege is a professor of economics at the Department of Economics of OSTİM Technical University.  She has a Bachelor’s Degree in management from the Middle East Technical University (METU), a Master’s Degree in Economics from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, another Master’s Degree in Economics and a PhD in economics from the University of Kent (UK). She worked at different departments of the State Planning Organization of Turkey during the 1972-1993 period. She served as the head of economic policies group of the Directorate General for EU Affairs in the same organization between 1988 and 1993, where she was responsible for coordination of the work on Turkey’s adaptation to the EU economic system and policies and was a member of the Turkish delegation in various negotiations with the EU. She worked at the Department of Economics of METU during the 1993-2017 period and additionally she was an executive board member of the Center for European Studies of METU for 16 years. She is experienced in teaching economics of European integration, macroeconomics and microeconomics courses. Her interest areas are economics of European integration, globalization and regional economic integration. She has numerous international and national publications, conference presentations and was involved in many projects.  

Professor Sübidey Togan (Ph.D)  

Sübidey Togan has received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Prior to joining Bilkent University in 1987 he taught at Texas A&M University, Clarkson University and Middle East Technical University. At Bilkent he served as Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for International Economics until his retirement in 2017. His area of interest is International Economics.

Sübidey Togan’s publications include Foreign Trade Regime and Trade Liberalization in Turkey during the 1980's published by Avebury in 1994,  The Economy of Turkey since Liberalization published by Macmillan Press Ltd in 1996 (co-editor V. N. Balasubramanyam), Turkey and Central and Eastern European Countries in Transition: Towards Membership of the EU published by Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. in 2001 (co-editor V.N. Balasubramanyam), Turkey: Economic Reform & Accession to the European Union published by the World Bank and Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in 2005 (co-editor B. Hoekman), Macroeconomic Policies for EU Accession published by Edward Elgar Publishing  in 2007 (co-editors E. Başçı ve J. von Hagen), Economic Liberalization and Turkey published  by Routledge in 2010, and The Liberalization of Transportion Services in the EU and Turkey published by Oxford University Press in 2016.

Professor Ufuk Tutan (Ph.D)

Prof. Dr. Ufuk Tutan holds a B.Sc. degree in Economics and a B.A.degree in International Relations from Middle East Technical University (METU). He earned three master’s degrees, which include a degree in International Relations from Bilkent University, a degree in Science and Technology Policy Studies from METU, and a degree in Economics from the University of Utah. He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Utah. He made research visits to the University of Sussex’s Science Policy Research Unit with the support of the British Council Chevening-TÜBİTAK Fellowship. Professor Tutan specializes in several areas including political economy, economic crises, economic history, history of economic thoughts, technology, and family-owned businesses. Besides, Professor Tutan has worked as an adviser to many corporate and family-owned firms for over 15 years.  

Assoc. Prof. Attila Aydemir (Ph.D)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Attila Aydemir received BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in geophysics. He has industrial experience more than 35 years in the oil & gas, and geothermal exploration. He is also one of the pioneers investigating the “unconventional resources” potential in Turkey and in the Middle East region.Assoc. Prof. Dr. Attila Aydemir has been a part-time instructor in the Atılım University, Department of Energy Systems Engineering and in ODTU-NCC, Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering for many years. He has also been teaching in the “Energy Correspondency” program of News and Broadcasting Academy of Anatolia News Agency in contribution with TIKA for the last 5 years. Dr. Attila Aydemir started teaching in the Ostim Technical University (Ostim Tech) and Ankara Bilim University in 2023.Dr. Aydemir has been one of associate editors of the “Journal of (Geoenergy) Petroleum Science and Engineering” since 2014. He is also a member in the editorial board of Turkish Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin since 2006. He published about 50 papers (almost all of them were published in the journals included in the SCI and SCI-Expanded lists). He also contributed and participated in many scientific projects supported by the universities’ support programs and TUBITAK 

Assist. Prof. Haluk Akdoğan (Ph.D.)  

Haluk Akdoğan is the founder and managing partner of Gaussian Holdings LLC, United States since 2015 to present. He graduated from Hacettepe University with a major in economics and a minor in  econometrics. He has a PhD in financial economics from the City University of New York. He taught economics/finance as an adjunct lecturer at several colleges while pursuing PhD. He worked as an assistant professor of economics and finance at Bilkent University, Department of Economics and as an assistant professor of finance at Boston University, School of Management, USA. He has academic articles on portfolio choice, international investments and international integration of capital markets published in various refereed journals, as well as a book titled Integration of Capital Markets: Theory and Empirical Evidence, published by Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. Before establishing Gaussian Holdings LLC, he worked at Citi London as director, EMEA analyst; at ING Barings, London as managing director/global head of EM Equity Research, where he had overseen no.1 ranked research team; and at Wood & Co., London and New York as managing director

Assist. Prof. Çağlayan Aslan (Ph.D.)   

Çağlayan Aslan started his career as a trade expert at the Republic of Turkiye Ministry of Trade, the institution he currently works for. He works at the Ministry of Trade in compiling and analyzing Turkey's foreign trade statistics within the scope of international standards. He completed his undergraduate education at the Department of Statistics at Middle East Technical University (METU), and his master's and doctoral studies at the Department of Econometrics at Gazi University. In his academic life, he concentrated on the connections between uncertainties (economic policy and exchange rate uncertainties) and foreign trade flows, and also made publications in the fields of Agricultural Economics and Banking. He implemented panel data and time series analysis in his studies and has made national and international publications by combining these approaches with foreign trade demand models. He has recently worked on the compilation and analysis of cross-border electronic commerce statistics and participates in international meetings on this subject on behalf of our country.

Assoc. Prof. Erdem Bulut (Ph.D.)

Started his career as Tax Inspector at the Ministry of Finance, Erdem Bulut holds Chief Trade Inspector title at the Ministry of Trade. He is currently seconded as Rapporteur (Inspector/Auditor) at the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye. Erdem Bulut completed his undergraduate education at Kırıkkale University, Department of Economics. He obtained his master's degrees in economics at Kırıkkale University and Hacettepe University respectively. He received his Ph.D. degrees in auditing from Kırıkkale University and in economics from İstanbul University. He served as Deputy Head of the Group at the Department of Inspection in Ministry of Trade. He represented Türkiye during OECD meetings in Paris. He was a part-time lecturer at Turkish Aeronautical Association University and OSTİM Technical University where he lectured on auditing, international economic organizations and foreign trade. His main academic interests are the economics of agricultural supports, impact of agricultural supports on foreign trade, agricultural negotiations in the World Trade Organization and foreign trade policy.  Erdem Bulut has many indexed publications in various databases including web of science.

Assist. Prof. Faruk Cömert (Ph.D)  

Faruk CÖMERT graduated from Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul as a Mechanical Engineer receiving his Master’s Degree from Gazi University, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Department of Industrial Engineering, Ankara and had his PhD from Istanbul University Institute of Social Sciences on Social Policy. He also completed a course on “Business Management Training for Engineers” at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences.Formerly he was a construction (mold) engineer at GAMAK Electric Motors Inc. in Istanbul, project and maintenance engineer at Black Sea Copper Enterprises Inc., project evaluation and privatization expert at Privatization Administration, chief of division and treasury expert at General Directorate of Foreign Investment, Undersecretariat of Treasury, and foreign trade expert at the Ministry of Economy. Furthermore. he served as a member of the board of directors and auditors in behalf of the public in various companies and as an additional task, member of the Automotive Preparation Group in Turkish Standards Institution (TSE) and as a technical expert in Turkish Accreditation Agency (TURKAK).

More recently, he served as the vice president, member of board and acting chairman of the board at the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) (Telecommunications Authority) and following that served as a commercial consellor in Luanda (Angola) and Budapest (Hungary) at the Turkish Embassies. His expertise is mainly on foreign capital investment, privatization, foreign trade, supporting of investments, and regulations on telecommunications (information technologies and communication).

Assist. Prof. Piergiuseppe Fortunato (Ph.D.)  

Piergiuseppe Fortunato is currently an economist at the United Nation Conference for Trade and Development where he leads projects on economic integration and Global Value Chains. He has worked at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva. In the past he held academic positions at the University of Bologna and the Universitè de Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne). His research interests include economic development, political economics and international trade. In these fields he has published in journals like the Journal of Economic Growth, The Economic Journal and the European Economic Review. He is also heavily involved in policy-oriented research; he edited a volume on post-conflict recovery for Bloomsbury Academic, published on policy journals like Global Policy and regularly contributes to several blogs.

Assist. Prof. Coşkun Şerefoğlu (Ph.D)

Coşkun Şerefoğlu (Ph.D.) received his bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Atatürk University and completed his graduate and doctorate studies in the fields of agricultural policy and extension from the same university. He earned his master's degree in agri-environmental economics and policy from the University of Kent, England. Also, he completed his master's degree on human and economic geography from Ankara University. He worked as a field specialist in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Erzurum Sustainable Rural Development Project in 2005. He worked as EU Expert in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He specifically worked on IPARD 2007-2013 program by taking part in negotiations and processes carried out with the European Union on rural development, red meat sector analysis, the establishment of the Agriculture and Rural Development Support Institution and UN negotiations on climate change between 2005-2011. He worked as an intern at the European Commission for five months in 2008. He was selected as a climate advocate by the British Council in 2010 and participated in awareness raising activities on climate change. He worked as a Specialist and Head of Business Development and Strategy Unit since 2011, and he worked as a lead consultant in the United Nations Development Program in the national food systems project in 2021. He served as a project coordinator in the European Union project carried out jointly with the Hungarian Innovation Agency. He also conducted Ankara Regional Innovation Strategy as a project coordinator. In addition, He is currently implementing an agri-food model in Ankara as an expert. Şerefoğlu, participating in many national and international trainings, workshops and conferences, has carried out specific studies on regional development, agriculture and rural development, regional plans, regional innovation strategy and the European Union.

Assist. Prof. Murat Turgut (Ph.D.)  

Murat Turgut is a Faculty Member at OSTİM Technical University at Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. He previously gave lectures at undergraduate and graduate levels in macroeconomics and international finance at Nişantaşı University and Istanbul Commerce University. In his professional life, he served as a senior consultant and manager at institutions such as Türk Telekom, TMSF, TRT, and served as General Manager and Board of Directors at the Central Registry Agency within Borsa Istanbul. He made his PhD thesis on “Effects of Global Liquidity More on National Economies” and also made academic contributions on “Complaint Management”, “Rating Institutions”, “Securitization” in parallel with his professional life. He has made current economic comments in many media outlets and has several seminars on technical analysis.  

Rehan Chaudhri 

Rehan Chaudhri is CEO of Peak XV Advisors and is a global investor in the technology. health care, and emerging energy sectors. He is a retired principal and former portfolio manager. at Altrinsic Global Advisors. Prior to Altrinsic. he was a portfolio manager for Lazard Asset Management, on its $30 billion investment fund. His previous investment experience includes Brandywine Asset Management’s (Legg Mason group company) global and international funds as a Managing Director as well as a telecommunications equity research analyst for Morgan Stanley. He began his career as a technology and strategy management consultant and worked for Booz. Ailen & Hamilton. A graduate of McGilI University in Montreal, and he received his M.B.A. from the Wharton School.  

Bayram TUNCER (M.Sc.) 

In 1983, he received his Master's Degree in Applied Economics from American University, Washington DC, USA. In 1979, he graduated from George Washington University, Washington DC, USA, from the Department of Business Administration (Finance). Between 1984 and 1990, he worked as a Financial Expert and Investment Specialist at Islamic Development Bank (Jeddah-Saudi Arabia). He worked as Finance Director in a private company between 1990-1994 and International Finance and Banking Consultancy in Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. Between 1994 and 2017, he served as the General Manager, Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Executive Board and Managing Partnership, responsible for the Finance and Bank Relations fields of several large companies in Izmir and Istanbul. He currently serves as the Chief Executive of Finance at Grand Medikal Grup A.G. and teaches courses in economics as a part-time lecturer.

Contributing Professors

Assist. Prof. Serkan Bürken (Ph.D.)

Serkan Bürken graduated from Dokuz Eylul University, Mechanical Engineering Department in 2004. In the same year, he began his MSc. in Middle East Technical University in the department of Science and Technology Policy Studies where he subsequently took his PhD in 2014 with his dissertation, namely "Technology development in Turkish Automotive Industry: A case of Middle Technology Trap". He worked for Technology Development Foundation of Turkey while he edited two non-academic books in the same period, namely “TTGV’de 20 Yıl” and "Cumhuriyet Türkiyesi'nin Sanayileşme Öyküsü", on the subject of technological development in Turkey. After having led technology transfer offices in two different universities, he is now working for OSTIM Technical University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and as the manager of the Industrial Policy and Development Center at the same university; and giving lectures on economy, innovation management and entrepreneurship. His main areas of interest are R&D funding, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, technological networks and clusters, technological development, industrial policy and international political economy.