External Advisory Board

Ümit Özlale

After finishing his Ph.D. in Boston College in 2001, Ümit Özlale started his academic career in Bilkent University. He continued his academic studies at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, where he became full professor in 2011. He also served as the founding chair of International Entrepreneurship Department and advisor to the Rector’s Office on project management and international affairs. In addition to his academic research, Professor Ümit Özlale served as an advisor to the president of the Central Bank of Republic of Turkey (CBRT) since 2003, where he worked extensively with the Monetary Policy and Economic Research Department. He supervised several research projects within CBRT including output gap estimation, exchange rate pass-through, foreign exchange interventions, inflation targeting and unorthodox monetary policy, monetary and fiscal policy coordination and oil price dynamics. Ümit Özlale’s main research fields are applied macroeconomics, monetary policy and fiscal policy. In addition to CBRT, he also served as senior key expert in various World Bank projects, as an executive committee member of European Association of Development Research Institutes (EADI) and as the director of Training and Research Institute of Public Policy (TRIPP) in TEPAV. In 2012, Professor Özlale has been awarded with “The Young Investigator Award” by TÜBİAK, which has been given to outstanding academicians under 40 years old.

Murat Üçer

Murat Üçer serves as Global Source's consultant in Turkey, is co-founder of Turkey Data Monitor, and a senior lecturer at Koç University in Istanbul. As a consultant, he provides macroeconomic expertise to commercial banks, multinational corporations and public sector organizations, and gives training programs and seminars on Turkish as well as global macroeconomic developments. Formerly, he worked as an economist at the Institute of International Finance, Credit Suisse and the International Monetary Fund and was an advisor to the Minister of Treasury at the Turkish Treasury in 2001 and the Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey in 1997. Üçer received his B.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Boğazici University and Boston College, respectively, and has authored various articles on the Turkish economy, including a book on the 2001 Turkish crisis.

Ezgi Karğan

Ezgi Karğan got her B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Boğaziçi University and her M.A. degree in Sociology from Galatasaray University. In 2004, she started her career at Danone as a brand manager where she managed brands such as Activia, Danette and Danino. In 2013, Karğan started working for Vodafone Turkey as a senior marketing manager where she managed the youth segment, Vodafone Freezone. She also led the launch of youth segments in 11 countries in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Pacific region. Since September 2017, she has been leading the marketing and brand management teams at Kariyer.net.

Hakan Avdan

Dr. Avdan has over 20 years of experience in finance industry as an executive, which has been predominantly in investment and securities brokerage area. He specialized in equity trading for foreign institutional clients, forex transactions, corporate finance. His career started in New York as a stockbroker, which followed by working in leading brokerage houses of Turkey. He completed large number of IPOs and gained extensive experience in asset management. He also worked in EU projects. He’s been the CEO and Board Member of Invest AZ Investment & Brokerage company since its establishment in 2012. He is currently Board Member of Invest AZ since March 2018. He also serves as Board Member in several NGOs. Hakan Avdan is Ankara University, Law School graduate, received MBA from Adelphi University, N.Y., U.S.A. and PhD degree from Marmara University, Banking & Insurance Institute. He is a lecturer in universities, teaching; Money & Banking, Banking & Financial Institutions, Industrial Economics, Investment Instruments & Strategies, and Capital Markets Law.

Avni Sönmezyıldız

Avni Sönmezyıldız began his carrier in Deloitte Turkiye in 2001 as an auditor, following his graduation from the Business Administration at Boğaziçi University. He worked at San Francisco office of Deloitte between 2005 and 2007. Mr. Sonmezyildizwas appointed as audit manager in Deloitte Turkiye in 2007. He started working at Ereğli Demir ve Çelik Fabrikaları T.A.Ş. (Erdemir) as Financial Control and Reporting Manager in 2010. Mr. Sönmezyıldız was appointed as Erdemir Group Financial Control and Reporting Director in 2013. With more than 15 years of experience in finance, Mr. Sönmezyıldız also has SMMM (CPA) license.

Kerim Acar

Kerim Acar is one of the first graduates MEF University Economics deparment and he graduated first in his class. He is currently working in Ernst & Young as a consultant. He is experienced in credit risk, market risk and derivative products. He is a data science enthusiast and he is doing master's degree in Big Data Analytics at MEF University.

Ayça Ebru Giritligil

Assoc. Prof. Ayça Ebru Giritligil received her BA degree in Economics (Eng.) from Marmara University, and her MA and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Boğaziçi University. Between 2001 and 2004, she was a faculty member at Işık University, and taught graduate courses at İstanbul Technical University and Sabancı University. From 2004 to 2006, she worked for El Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas as a research fellow of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities in Spain. Between 2006 and 2008, she worked as a researcher at Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica. In 2008, she taught at the graduate programs of ESADE (Ramon Llull University). Dr.Giritligil has been a faculty member of the Department of Economics at İstanbul Bilgi University since 2008.

Dr.Giritligil is the director of BELIS (Bilgi Economics Lab of Istanbul) which she founded in 2010 as the first experimental economics laboratory in Turkey, and the Murat Sertel Advanced Economic Studies. Dr.Giritligil served as the president of the Southern European Experimentalists Team from 2016 to 2018, and currently is the country representative of the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics in Turkey, director of the Graduate Programs in Economics at Istanbul Bilgi University, and a member of the editorial board of İstanbul Bilgi University Press.