Sinan Ülgen
Founder & Managing Partner
A founding partner of Istanbul Economics, he is also the chairman of the think tank Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM). In the early 1990s, he joined the Turkish Foreign Service as a career diplomat and worked for two years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara at the United Nations desk. He was posted to the Turkish Permanent Delegation to the European Union in Brussels where he became a member of the Turkish negotiations team for the Turkey-EU Customs Union. He is a regular contributor to Turkish dailies and his opinion pieces have also been published by international media such as The International New York Times, Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Mithat Özbek
Managing Partner
A managing partner of Istanbul Economics, he was the deputy director general at Puccinelli, a company operating in the food and beverage industry and then the managing director of the UK based paper and packaging company David S. Smith in Turkey. He worked for 10 years for David S. Smith in this capacity. Following the acquisition of the local branch of the company by Sabanci/International Paper owned Olmuksa, he joined the senior management of Olmuksa. He is a member of several leading NGOs. Mithat Özbek holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Hacettepe University and an MBA from the joint program of Istanbul Technical University and Exeter University.
Naz Değirmenci
Senior Counsel, Legal Affairs & Public Policy
Naz Değirmenci graduated from Bilkent University Faculty of Law in 2012 and joined the Istanbul Bar Association in 2013. She earned the European Privacy Certification (CIPP/E) from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) in 2015. Through working at leading law firms, namely ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law and BTS&Partners, she specialized in information technology, media and communications law with a focus on social media, privacy and personal data protection. As EDAM's Google Policy Fellow, she published papers on disruptive technologies, personal data protection, international transfer of data, social media law and freedom of speech. She joined Istanbul Economics in 2019 as Senior Counsel, advising multinational and local companies operating in the technology and media/entertainment sector by providing legal compliance, public policy and government relations.
Yeşil Sakaoğlu
Senior Policy Manager
Before joining Istanbul Economics, Yeşil Sakaoğlu was Government Affairs Manager at AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce) Turkey, leading all public affairs and positive communication strategies for more than 100 U.S. companies operating in Turkey. She advised companies from various sectors, including healthcare, technology and FMCG. She previously worked at the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM) and international organizations, including the World Bank and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), and has published papers on cyber rights and EU-Turkey relations. Yeşil Sakaoğlu completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a focus on development. Her finishing dissertation delivered a comparative analysis on FDI for different investor equations.
Mert Küçük
Associate
Mert Küçük received his bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia on Economy and Political Sciences, where he concentrated on international economics, Middle East politics as well as U.S – Russian relations. After working in the finance sector on Corporate Finance and Debt Capital Markets departments, he joined Istanbul Economics in September 2018. Mert Küçük delivers public policy consulting and market analysis, for which he works directly with and represents various multinational firms both in Istanbul and Ankara. He also contributes to numerous reports on public policy, stakeholder, market entry and impact analysis.
Ebru Altunkum
Office Manager
With more than 15 years of professional experience, Ebru Altunkum supports and oversees all administration and procedures to ensure organizational effectiveness and efficiency.
