Ali Ercan Özgür

Ali Ercan Özgür holds a PhD in Local Governments and Decentralization Department from Marmara University with a doctoral dissertation on “Development Agencies in Turkey under the Auspices of the EU”. He is a graduate of Political Science and International Relations Department (Marmara University, İstanbul) and holds a MSc degree in Governance and Development Management from University of Birmingham, UK with a Master’s thesis on “Aid Coordination and Effectiveness in Turkey”. He is British Foreign & Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholar for Master’s degree, Marshall Memorial Fellow of German Marshall Fund of the United States and Black Sea Young Reformer. He is the co-author of the book “Local Governments System in Turkey, France, Spain, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic”.

Ali Ercan Özgür is the Co-founder and Managing Director of IDEMA International Development Partners (www.idema.com.tr). Previously he worked as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Turkey. He started civil society work at Youth for Habitat International Network (now Habitat Governance and Development Center) as International Relations Coordinator in 2001. Then he worked as the Local Governance Fund Manager at United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Branch (UCLG-MEWA), the Projects Coordinator at Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV), the Projects Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey (CSR-Turkey) and the Good Governance Program Manager at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV). Ali Ercan Özgür coordinated research and social projects with the United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the World Bank and private sector. Özgür is the Member of Board and the Secretary General of the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey. Özgür’s fields of work and consultancy are international partnerships, regionalism, regional development, governance, development management, local administrations, corporate social responsibility, non-governmental organizations and international reliefs and funds.