TSKB Development Day

Born in Ankara in 1968, Mr. Murat Bilgiç graduated from METU - Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations and received his master’s degree in Money-Banking-Finance at the University of Birmingham. He completed the Management Program at Manchester Business School and the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Mr. Murat Bilgiç started his career in 1990 as Assistant Inspector at the Board of Inspectors of Türkiye İş Bankası. After serving as Vice Manager, Unit Manager and Head of Corporate Loans Allocation Department, he was promoted to the position of Executive Vice President of Türkiye İş Bankası on March 25, 2016. As of April 7, 2022, Mr. Murat Bilgiç serves as the CEO and a Member of the Board of Directors at TSKB.

Born in Istanbul in 1961, Hakan Güldağ completed his primary education at Oruçgazi High School in Istanbul and his secondary education at Darüşşafaka High School and Pertevniyal High School. He studied journalism at Istanbul University Press and Publication High School and history at Boğaziçi University Faculty of Basic Sciences.

In 1987, Güldağ started working at Dünya Newspaper's Foreign News Service. In the following years, he worked as the Chief of the Foreign News Service, Chief of the Stock Exchange Service and worked in the editorial offices of the same newspaper. Güldağ, who worked as a reporter, chief and director in many newspapers and broadcasting organizations, served as the Editor-in-Chief of Dünya newspaper between 2008-2019 and as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NBE Medya Haber A.Ş., which published Dünya newspaper between 2019 and 2022.

In 2011, Güldağ was elected as the Chairman of the Turkish Media and Communication Council. In addition to this position, he served as a member of the Senior Advisory Board of the Economic Journalists Association and the Professional Monitoring and Ethics Board of the Association of Journalists of Türkiye. Since 2022, he has been serving as a Board Member of the Turkish Journalists Association. Hakan Güldağ has been representing Türkiye as an Executive Board Member of the European Federation of Economic Press (EBP) since 2005.

In 2022, he became one of the co-founders of the newspaper Nasıl Bir Ekonomi and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the newspaper.

An economist and political scientist, Robinson has conducted influential research in the field of political and economic development and the relationships between political power and institutions and prosperity. His work explores the underlying causes of economic and political divergence both historically and today and uses both the mathematical and quantitative methods of economics along with the case study, qualitative and fieldwork methodologies used in other social sciences.

Robinson has a particular interest in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and is a Fellow at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka. He taught a summer school at the University of the Andes in Bogotá between 1994 and 2022. He has conducted fieldwork and collected data in Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. He has published three books co-authored with Daron Acemoglu, an Institute Professor of Economics at MIT. The first, Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, proposed a theory of the emergence of and stability of democracy and dictatorship. Their second book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (translated into 41 languages since its publication in 2012), pulled together much of their joint research on comparative development and proposed a theory of why some countries have flourished economically while others have fallen into poverty. Their most recent book, The Narrow Corridor: States, Society and the Fate of Liberty, examines the incessant and inevitable struggle between states and society, and gives an account of the deep historical processes that have shaped the modern world.

He currently holds appointments in the Harris School of Public Policy and the political science department at the University of Chicago.

Born in Germany, Ufuk Akçiğit returned to his hometown Bursa with his family when he was only four years old. He continued to study here and ranked 26th in Türkiye and won a scholarship at Koç University, Department of Economics. In 2003, he received his bachelor's degree from this department and also won the Koç University President’s Special Award. Experiencing a successful university life, Akçiğit became an assistant for some courses. This experience led him to turn to academia and to do research for his PhD degree.

Following his graduation, he applied to and was accepted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Stanford and Yale Universities, all of which are well-known and globally successful universities. Akçiğit chose Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Akçiğit had the chance to be advised by MIT Institute Professor Daron Acemoğlu and received his PhD degree from MIT in 2009 with his thesis on Industrial Policy and Economic Growth. During the same year, Akçiğit started working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and moved to the University of Chicago in 2015. He was awarded the title of Associate Professor in 2018 and the title of Professor in 2019.

He was awarded the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award for his achievements in macroeconomics in 2019. He was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and membership of the Econometric Society for his work in economics in 2021. He was awarded the Excellence Award in Global Economic Affairs by the Kiel Institute in Germany and Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award.

In his recent book, "The Economics of Creative Destruction," co-edited with John Van Reenen, he explores how technological innovation can drive growth and address challenges ranging from inequality to climate change. He also served as the lead academic for the World Development Report 2024, recently published by the World Bank, which focuses on addressing the challenges of the Middle-Income Trap.

As an applied psychologist, Selçuk Şirin use empirical research methods to better understand the needs of children and families, and to arm professionals and policy makers with this knowledge so as to better address the needs of the most vulnerable. The goal that unites all of his work is to enhance the lives of marginalized children using development in context as a general framework. He focuses on immigrant children in New York, Muslim youth in the US, refugees in Turkey and Norway, and students at risk in US schools.

He has published his work in top journals, such as Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Review of Educational Research, and Pediatrics, in an effort to inform scholars, practitioners, and policy makers about marginalized children. He has also made a concerted effort to get his work to a wider audience both locally and globally, as he believes strongly in “giving scientific knowledge away.” He has served on several policy committees such as the National Academy of Sciences, the Urban Institute, and the Migration Policy Institute. He has collaborated with UNESCO and Save the Children, in their efforts to improve the lives of refugee children.

Burcu Ünüvar started her career at investment banking in 2004 and worked as the Senior Economist at Is Investment until 2013. Following her investment banking career, she joined Bilkent University as a full time academic at the Department of Economics.

In April 2017 she joined TSKB as the Chief Economist and the Head of Economic Research Department. As of August 2023, she was promoted to the Director position while also continuing her research as the Chief Economist, coordinating macroeconomic content regarding markets and development themes, with a focus on ecosystem crisis.

Ms Ünüvar holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration, MSc Degree in Applied Economics and Finance from Denmark and USA, and a PhD in Economics. On a related front, she continues her research as a non-teaching academic focusing on monetary policy, central bank communication and green central banking.

Dr. Cevat Giray Aksoy is an Associate Professor of Economics at King’s College London and Deputy Director of Research at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In 2025, he was appointed as a Policy Adviser to the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, becoming the first Turkish national to be given this role. According to Research Papers in Economics (RePEc), he ranks among the top 20 most cited economists of his generation.

His research covers the fields of economic inclusion, political economy, and the economic implications of remote work. His work has been supported by prestigious institutions such as the World Bank, the International Growth Centre, the British Academy, and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Dr. Aksoy is also a co-founder of the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA), the world’s most comprehensive and only comparative study on remote work. In addition, he conducts analyses on remote and hybrid work policies in collaboration with multinational companies and contributes to identifying best practices through randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with various organizations.

His research has been featured in over 100 international media outlets, including the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. He also writes regular opinion columns for Bloomberg Businessweek Türkiye and Harvard Business Review.

Dr. Aksoy began his academic journey at the Faculty of Economics at Istanbul University and later moved to New York on a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in economics. While working as a development specialist for the New York State Government, he had the opportunity to directly observe the societal impacts of public policy — an experience that led him to focus on development economics. He completed his PhD in economics at the University of London, Royal Holloway College in 2017, though he had already started working as a Research Economist at the EBRD in 2016.

Over the course of his academic career, he has held visiting researcher positions at University College London and Stanford University, and was honored with the “Leader of Tomorrow” title by the St. Gallen Foundation.

Halil Aksu is the co-founder and CEO of Digitopia. With more than 25 years of management consulting experience, he advises leading companies on their digital transformation journey. He's most focused on Digital Maturity measurement nowadays. He studied informatics and electronics at the Technical University of Munich.

He has 5 published books in the last 10 years, the most recent one is Dijitopya. He is a regular guest speaker at many universities, and a sought-after figure who gives keynote speeches at many events, conferences and summits. He has held different consultant and managerial positions in organizations such as SAP and Gartner. He has carried out strategic projects in banking, insurance, retail, manufacturing, automotive and many other sectors, and has prepared the technology, innovation and digital transformation strategies of many organizations. Halil Aksu is also a social entrepreneur. Maker Movement, the Genetics Movement and Turkey Artificial Intelligence Initiative. TRAI continuously grows and evolves. He is mentor and angel investor to many great start-ups.

Prof. Dr. Itır Erhart studied English Literature and Philosophy at Boğaziçi University. She received her M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge and completed her Ph.D. at Boğaziçi University. She currently teaches courses on gender studies, human rights, media, and social movements at Istanbul Bilgi University, where she also serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Communication.

In 2008, together with five friends, she co-founded Adım Adım, a social initiative that now has over 130,000 members and has raised more than 355 million TL for NGOs through sports-based fundraising. She is also a co-founder of the transparency platform Açık Açık and Açık Açık Social Enterprise.

In recognition of her contributions to civil society, she was featured in the “Changemakers” program and was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2014.

Prof. Erhart is a board member of Inogar, the Circle of Impact Foundation, the Zehra Yıldız Foundation for Culture and Arts, and a trustee at the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV). She also serves on the advisory boards of Esas Social, Yanındayız Association, the Theatre Cooperative, and the İyi Ki Philanthropy Foundation.

She has served as a jury member for several prestigious awards, including the Afife Theatre Awards, Sardis Awards, Golden Compass Public Relations Awards, Felis Awards, Sustainable Brands, and the Women of the Earth Competition.

Prof. Erhart is also a regular contributor to GQ Turkey and Onedio. She has published two books: "Ben Neyim?" and "Koşaradım – Notes from a Life", as well as a children’s book titled "Have You Ever Seen Children Dancing Around a Water Well?" She is an avid marathon and ultra-marathon runner.

Dr. Dilek Turan was born in 1984 in Bursa, Turkey. She completed her undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering at METU (Middle East Technical University), her master’s degree in Business Administration at METU, and her PhD in Business Adm./Marketing at Anadolu University.

Since her master’s studies, she has worked in areas such as international project writing and management, quality management, and social compliance at METU Technopark, Formin Denge, and Yeşim Textile, respectively. Between 2012 and 2021, she worked at the VitrA Innovation Center, where she coordinated the process from product idea to market launch. She led the Innovation Projects Management Office and collaborated with many different teams within the company and across the innovation ecosystem.

During the spring semesters of the 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 academic years, she taught the Innovation Management course at Anadolu University’s Department of Business Administration. From 2021 to 2024, through her company ReCode Training and Consultancy Services, which she founded, she supported institutions on their transformation journeys through R&D and innovation with both training and consultancy services.

As of July 2024, she serves as the co-founder and CEO of the Good Sanitation Company, which aims to make clean water, sanitation, and hygiene technologies accessible to everyone, especially under temporary conditions such as disasters.

Since 2007, she has continued to contribute both academically and professionally in the fields of R&D, innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic management. She has six publications and four patent applications.

Murat Ugiş is one of the founding members of WeWALK, a technology initiative developed to meet the needs of visually impaired people. The venture was recognized by TIME magazine as one of the “Best Inventions of the Year” and was honored with the UK’s prestigious King’s Award for Innovation. Ugiş leads WeWALK’s global growth, strategic partnerships, and marketing efforts.

He previously held senior executive roles at multinational companies including Eczacıbaşı Beiersdorf and Unilever. In his last corporate position at Unilever, he was responsible for marketing and brand development across 36 countries, covering Turkey, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.

A long-time volunteer at the Young Guru Academy (YGA), where he also served as Vice President, Ugiş played a key role in launching several technology driven social ventures under its umbrella, including WeWALK, Twin, and Piri.

A graduate of Middle East Technical University’s Business Administration program, Ugiş continues to develop next-generation business models that unite commercial success with social impact.

Ulaş Kayır graduated from Istanbul Technical University with a degree in Food Engineering. He worked at Unilever Turkey for five years in the R&D department, taking on various roles including process development, capability building and technical consumer insights.

Driven by his interest in sustainability he joined Fazla Gıda, an impact-driven startup. Over the course of five years—from seed funding to Series A—he worked across multiple functions such as business development, sales, operations, and project management.

To share his growing expertise in waste management and the circular economy, he began mentoring early-stage startups. During this time, he met his future co-founders and together they launched Wastespresso, the first and only startup in Turkey providing a solution for coffee waste. He is currently focused on expanding their circular material solutions to global markets.