Executive Board
Prof.
Volkan Ş. Ediger, Chairman
Upon
graduating from the Geological Engineering Department of the Middle East
Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey in 1976, Volkan Ş. Ediger went on
to receive his MS degree from the same university and his PhD degree from the
Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in State College in USA with summa cum
laude.
Prof.
Ediger's professional career has been shaped by research, teaching, and
consultancy simultaneously carried out at industry, university, and government.
His industrial experience was gained primarily from participating, directing,
and advising several domestic and international R&D projects from 1977 to
1998 at the Research Center of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO).
Between 1998 and 2010, he was the first person to hold the newly created
position of the Energy Advisor to the President of the Republic of Turkey,
where he had the chance to work with three successive presidents. He started
his academic career as a teaching assistant at METU in 1976-1977 and continued
as research/teaching assistant and laboratory coordinator at PSU between 1982
and 1985. Later he taught courses and supervised graduate theses at METU
between 1987 and 2010. In 2010, Prof. Ediger received his professorship in
energy economics at İzmir University of Economics, where he also served as
Director of Research and Graduate Policies and directed a master's and a
certificate program on energy until August 2011. He is currently the Head of
Energy Systems Engineering Department and Coordinator of Strategy Development
and Research at the Kadir Has University.
Volkan
Ş. Ediger is the holder of several distinguished awards, including Turkish
Journalist Association's Sedat Simavi Social Sciences Award, Turkish
Association of Petroleum Geologists' Cevat Eyüp Taşman Award, and METU's Best
Thesis Supervisor Award. He serves as president, executive member, commission
and committee member, and representative at several scientific societies and
NGOs; including World Energy Council Turkish National Committee, International
Association for Energy Economics and Turkish Association for Energy Economics,
and Turkish Council of Foreign Relations. He is also referee, editor, evaluator
or scientific committee member of several national and international
scientific-technical publications, such as Energy Policy, Energy Conversion and
Management, Energy Economics, ComptesRendu and JSSM Journal of Service Science
and Management.
Uygar Özesmi, Ph.D., Vice Chairman
Three
years ago, Uygar Özesmi founded Turkey's first ethical lifestyles platform
Good4Trust.org. In the same year, he founded Change.org in Turkey, of which he
is currently the Eastern Europe and West Asia Director. For the last
two terms, he has also been an elected board member of CIVICUS - Global
Alliance for Citizen Participation.
Formerly,
he was the Executive Director of Greenpeace and the General Director
of TEMA Foundation. In 2002, he was the founding board chair of BirdLife in
Turkey - Doğa Derneği and founding member of STGM - Civil Society Development
Center. In addition to his civil society involvement, he was also the advisor
to Adnan Kahveci, the Minister of State. Özesmi was also the founder of
Erciyes University Environmental Engineering Department and worked as an
environmental specialist at United Nations Development Program in New
York.
In
addition to Good4Trust.org, he founded kusbank.org, the first crowd-sourcing site in Turkey, in 2001. Özesmi, who has more than 100 scientific publications, also has 2 daily
programs in the morning and evening on Açık Radyo 94.9.
Murat
Yazıcı, Auditor
Murat
Yazıcı graduated from the Department of Law from Ankara University in Turkey in
1970. Between 1974 and 1989, he worked as executive and legal consultant at
Shell, the Turkish Petroleum Cooperation (TPAO), and Exxon. In 1989, he
established the Yazıcı Law Offices and became its executive partner. He taught
courses on the Turkish legal system at the Middle East Technical University
(METU) in Ankara and gave graduate seminars on petroleum law at the Universita
Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore in Milan in Italy.
Mr.
Yazıcı is the founder of the Petroleum Platform Foundation (PETFORM), where he
still serves as consultant. He is also a member of the Ankara Bar Association,
the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, the International Bar
Association, and the Swiss-Turkish Businessmen Association.
Asst.
Prof. Gökhan Kirkil, Member
Dr.
Gökhan Kirkil received his BS degree in civil engineering from the Middle East
Technical University and his MS and PhD degrees in civil and environmental
engineering from the University of Iowa.
He
has expertise in renewable energy and environmental issues such as wind energy
and dispersion of contaminants in atmosphere and rivers. He has published
several papers in important wind energy and water resources journals in recent
years. Between 2009-2012, he worked as a research staff member on wind energy
at US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
He
is the recipient of 2011 Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Award from American Society
of Civil Engineers. He is also a member of various societies such as American
Society of Civil Engineers, American Meteorological Society and American
Geophysical Union. He is currently an assistant professor in Department of
Energy Systems Engineering at Kadir Has University.
Asst. Prof. İstemi Berk, Member
Dr. Berk received his BSc degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from Middle East Technical University, his MA degree in Financial Economics from Izmir University of Economics and his PhD degree in Energy Economics from University of Cologne, Germany.
After receiving his PhD degree in 2014, Dr. Berk worked as a post-doctoral research associate for almost one year at the Institute of Energy Economics (EWI) in Cologne, Germany. In October 2015, Dr. Berk started to work as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir, Turkey.
Dr. Berk has written a number of articles in the field of energy economics and his main research areas include energy and economic development, energy pricing mechanisms and energy market modelling.