External Advisory Board

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.

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.

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.

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.

Serdar Sayan

After earning his bachelor’s degree from the Department of Economics at METU and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Ohio State University, Prof. Dr. Serdar Sayan served as a faculty member at Bilkent University from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he also served as a Visiting Professor at Ohio State University (2003–2004) and as a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington. Serdar Sayan, who has been working at TOBB University of Economics and Technology since 2006, has also held various positions at TEPAV (Turkish Economic Policies Research Foundation) during this time; he also served as an advisor to the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade under the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey from 2006 to 2009.

Serdar Sayan’s primary research areas include international economics, econometrics, development economics, and demography. Throughout his career, he has held various editorial responsibilities for national and international academic journals; he served on the Board of Directors of the Turkish Economic Association from 2001 to 2003; From 2007 to 2009, he served as Secretary-General of the Middle East Economic Association, a U.S. based international professional organization, and was subsequently elected President of the organization for the 2010–2012 term.

Serdar Sayan currently teaches at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, in addition to serving as Director of the Institute of Social Sciences and Director of the Center for Social Policy Research and Application (commonly known as SPM).

Avni Sönmezyıldız

Avni Sönmezyıldız began his carrier in Deloitte Türkiye 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. Sönmezyildiz was 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.

Irmak Pınar Tercan

After graduating from the Department of Economics at Marmara University and completing the Executive MBA program at Boğaziçi University, Irmak Pınar began her professional career in 2008 at Enerjisa Elektrik Toptan Satış A.Ş. and has over 17 years of experience in market and credit risk management, corporate risk management, strategic planning, process management, business continuity, and sustainability. Throughout her career, she has held strategic responsibilities at various management levels.

She currently serves as the Sustainability Director at Enerjisa Energy Inc., where she is responsible for defining and implementing the sustainability strategy, ESG reporting, net zero transition programs, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, as well as representing the company at national and international climate platforms. In this capacity, she leads just transition projects that align corporate impact with long-term value creation and continues her work on corporate transformation and sustainability-focused business models.

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 Boğaziçi University and Boston College, respectively, and has authored various articles on the Turkish economy, including a book on the 2001 Turkish crisis.