ADVISORY BOARD

Cem Mengi is the President and Founder of CM Capital Management Consulting Company. He started his banking career in 1988. Mengi is currently serving as Chairman in Conglomerates and as non-Executive Board Member in various large Corporates. Previously he was appointed as the Executive Board Member of Akbank T.A.S where he assumed responsibility for Credit and Loans. Before his position in Akbank T.A.S. he served in different positions in Finansbank, Interbank, Rabobank and ING as Deputy and Board Member. He also took active roles in non-governmental organizations such as TUSIAD, YASED, DEIK where he served as Board or Commitee Member. Mengi was moderator, panelist, commission member on different platforms.

Ahmet C. Bozer is President Emeritus of the American Turkish Friendship Council and a non-executive board member of Coca-Cola International. Previously he served as the Executive Vice President of Coca-Cola International, which consists of the Company’s Asia Pacific, Europe, Eurasia & Africa, and Latin America operations. Prior to that Bozer served as the President of Coca-Cola International Corp at The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola India Private Limited. Before joining Coca-Cola, Bozer served as President of Eurasia & Africa Group, where he led the Company’s business activities in more than 90 countries. Bozer also spent five years in various audit, consultancy, and management roles with Coopers & Lybrand in Atlanta. A founding member of The Coca-Cola Turkey Life Plus Foundation, Bozer also previously served as head of the US-Pakistan Business Council. He sits on the Company’s Public Policy and Corporate Reputation Council and is a member of The Coca-Cola Foundation Board.

Carl Bildt is currently Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations. He served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2014. Bildt was the leader of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999, and Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was also a mediator in the Balkan conflict, serving as the European Union’s Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia as well as the first EU High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1995 and 1997.  From 1999 to 2001, he served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Balkans.

Cem Mengi is the President and Founder of CM Capital Management Consulting Company. He started his banking career in 1988. Mengi is currently serving as Chairman in Conglomerates and as non-Executive Board Member in various large Corporates. Previously he was appointed as the Executive Board Member of Akbank T.A.S where he assumed responsibility for Credit and Loans. Before his position in Akbank T.A.S. he served in different positions in Finansbank, Interbank, Rabobank and ING as Deputy and Board Member. He also took active roles in non-governmental organizations such as TUSIAD, YASED, DEIK where he served as Board or Commitee Member. Mengi was moderator, panelist, commission member on different platforms.

Dilek Hanif, a true Turkish fashion pioneer who through her creative, brave and visionary personality has been able to translate her Anatolian cultural heritage into the world fashion scene. She was born in Istanbul in 1962. Her interest in fashion started when at a very young age she started helping with her parent’s textile business. Her father is Lütfü Demirtok, an illusionist who became famous with the name of Abracadabra. Her interest in fashion started in her early ages while she was helping her family business of textile. She got her education in Erenköy Kız Lisesi. She attended courses on charcoal pencil, design study, and fabric dyeing in Mimar Sinan Universtiy to develop herself in as many spheres as possible. She established her first brand, the Dilek Hanif line, as early as 1990 and entered the international fashion world with her first Haute Couture fashion show in 2002 in the beautiful and historical setting of the Aya İrini Church in 2002. In 2003, she was awarded Woman Fashion Designer of the Year with her spring-summer collection where she used the traditional needle embroidered figures.

Eka Tkeshelashvili is currently Head of Programs at the European Anti-Corruption Initiative to Ukraine. Ms.Tkeshelashvili previously served as the President of the Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies. Prior to this, she was Vice Prime-Minister, State Minister for Reintegration between 2010 and 2012. She previously served as the National Security Adviser to the President of Georgia and as the Secretary of the National Security Council between 2008-2010 heading the National Strategic Review Process. Earlier she held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs. She also worked as Prosecutor General and Minister of Justice. Ms. Tkeshelashvili also held the position of Chairperson of Tbilisi Appeals Court and was member of the High Council of Justice of Georgia. Before joining the government, Ms. Tkeshelashvili was a Deputy Chief of Party at IRIS Georgia implementing USAID rule of law projects.

James F. Jeffrey is Chair of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, Washington, D.C. Ambassador Jeffrey is the former Special Envoy to the Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS. He previously served as US Ambassador to Turkey from October 2008 – July 2010 and Iraq between 2010-2012. Prior to that, he served on detail to the National Security Council as the Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor. Prior to this, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the Department of State. His earlier appointments include service as senior advisor on Iraq to the secretary of state; chargé d'affaires and deputy chief of mission in Baghdad; deputy chief of mission in Ankara; and ambassador in Albania.

Kurt Volker is a leading expert in U.S. foreign and national security policy with over 35 years of experience in a variety of government, academic, and private sector capacities.
He served as U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations from 2017 to 2019, and as U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2008-2009. Ambassador Volker is President and Founder of Alliance Strategic Advisors, LLC, which provides strategic advice and services to a diverse range of business clients with interest in Central and Eastern Europe. He has previously served as a Director of CG Funds Trust and the Wall Street Fund. He also serves as Senior International Advisor at BGR Group, which provides government relations, public relations, and business advisory services to a wide array of clients. In June 2020, Amb. Volker was named a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). From 2012-2019, Ambassador Volker was the founding Executive Director of The McCain Institute for International Leadership, a part of Arizona State University based in Washington, DC. He remains a Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council; a Trustee of the American College of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France; a Founding Partner of the American University of Kyiv; a Trustee of the Hungary Initiatives Foundation; a member of the GLOBSEC International Advisory Board; and a member of the International Advisory Board of the U.S. Institute for Peace. He has taught Transatlantic Relations at The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs and is a member of that School’s Board of Advisors. He contributes regularly to public policy debates, through op-eds, articles, speeches, and television appearances for a wide variety of outlets.

Marc Pierini is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, where his research focuses on developments in the Middle East and Turkey from a European perspective. Ambassador Pierini was a career EU diplomat from December 1976 to April 2012. He was EU ambassador and head of delegation to Turkey (2006–2011) and ambassador to Tunisia and Libya (2002–2006), Syria (1998–2002), and Morocco (1991–1995). He also served as the first coordinator for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, or the Barcelona Process, from 1995 to 1998 and was the main negotiator for the release of the Bulgarian hostages from Libya from 2004 to 2007. Pierini served as counselor in the cabinet of two European commissioners: Claude Cheysson, from 1979 to 1981, and Abel Matutes, from 1989 to 1991. Pierini is a member of the International Council of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations in Marseille.

Marc Rotenberg is the President and Founder of the Center for AI and Digital Policy. He is a leading expert in data protection, open government, and AI policy. He has served on many international advisory panels for digital policy, including the OECD AI Group of Experts. Marc helped draft the Universal Guidelines for AI, a widely endorsed human rights framework for the regulation of Artificial Intelligence. Marc is the author of several textbooks including the 2020 AI Policy Sourcebook and Privacy and Society (West Academic 2016). He teaches privacy law and the GDPR at Georgetown Law. Marc has spoken frequently before the US Congress, the European Parliament, the OECD, UNESCO, judicial conferences, and international organizations. Marc has directed international comparative law studies on Privacy and Human Rights, Cryptography and Liberty, and Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Values. Marc is a graduate of Harvard College, Stanford Law School, and Georgetown Law.

Merve Hickok is the Chair of the Board of Directors and Senior Research Director of the Center for AI and Digital Policy. She is also the founder of AIethicist.org. She is a leading expert on Artificial Intelligence Ethics. Her work on AI is focused on bias, social justice, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, public benefit and participatory development and governance. Merve is a Data Ethics lecturer at University of Michigan, School of Information; Member of the Founding Editorial Board at Springer Nature AI & Ethics journal; Advisor at The Civic Data Library of Context; Member at IEEE work groups on AI standard setting and Open Community for Ethics in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (OCEANIS) alongside national institutions. Merve's work intersects both AI ethics and AI policy and regulation. She has been recognized by several organizations - most recently as one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ 2021.

Peter Gordon MacKay is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2015 and has served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2013–2015), Minister of National Defence (2007–2013), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006–2007) in the Cabinet of Canada under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. MacKay was the final leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC Party), and he agreed to merge the party with Stephen Harper's Canadian Alliance in 2003, forming the Conservative Party of Canada and making MacKay one of the co-founders of the current conservative wing of Canadian politics.

Peter Van Praagh is the founding President of Halifax International Security Forum. Van Praagh previously served as the Senior Director for Foreign Policy at the Marshall Fund of the United States. He also served as the Deputy Vice President of Programs at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C. Between 2006 and 2007, he served as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada.

Richard Burt is managing partner at McLarthy Associates and has led the firm’s work in Europe & Eurasia since 2007. Ambassador Burt is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of the Center for the National Interest, and a member of the executive board of the Atlantic Council. He also serves as senior adviser to Center for Strategic & International Studies. Prior to that, Ambassador Burt served as ambassador and chief negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks with the former Soviet Union, and as US ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from 1985 to 1989, during the preliminary stages of German reunification. Before serving in Germany, he was assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs from 1983 to 1985. Burt has also worked as the national security correspondent for the New York Times and at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Tayfun Bayazıt began his banking career with Citibank in 1983. He then worked as a Senior Vice President and Member of the Executive Board at Yapı Kredi, CEO at Interbank, and President and CEO of Banque de Commerce et de Placements S.A. in Switzerland. In 1999, he was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Doğan Holding and the Executive Director of Dışbank. In 2001, he assumed the position of CEO at Dışbank. He was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2003 and was asked to continue as CEO of Fortis Turkey in July 2005, after Fortis bought the majority shares of Dışbank. He was subsequently elected Chairman of the Board of Fortis in 2006. Bayazıt returned to Yapı Kredi in 2007 as CEO, a joint venture of Yapı Kredi, UniCredit and Koç Group, and was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2 years. He was the chairman of all Yapı Kredi subsidiaries for four years, including Yapı Kredi Insurance (property and accident insurance) and Yapı Kredi Emeklilik (personal pension and life insurance). Bayazıt left this post in August 2011 to set up his own firm “Bayazit Consulting Services.” He was then elected as the Country Chairman for Marsh McLennan Group (Marsh, Mercer and Oliver Wyman) in September 2012 and serves on the board of directors of Hepsiburada (e-commerce, Nasdaq), MLP Care (healthcare) and Coca Cola Icecek (bottling and distribution) as an independent board member. He is also a board member at Aydem Energy and Boyner companies. Bayazıt is a member of the High Advisory Board of the TUSIAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association) , and takes an active role in non-governmental organizations such as the World Resources Institute and the Corporate Governance Association of Turkey (TKYD). He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Boğaziçi University and the Education Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV).