Ruhsar Pekcan

Ruhsar Pekcan (born 1958) is an electrical engineer who became the Minister of Trade for Turkey in 2018.

Private life

Ruhsar Pekcan was born in Manisa, Turkey in 1958. She was educated in electrical engineering at Istanbul Technical University. Following her Bachelor's degree, she obtained a Master's degree from the same faculty.^[1]

She is married and they have two children.^[1]

Professional career

Pekcan started her professional career joining the development and investment bank, Türkiye Sınai Kalkınma Bankası. After working at different positions in several companies, she became a member of executive boards. In 2005, she co-founded an engineering company, which supplies pipelines for drinking water, irrigation, petroleum and natural gas. She was the managing director of the company.^[1]

She was chairperson of the Turkey-Syria business councils of the Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Corporation (Turkish: Dış Ekonomik İlişkiler Kurumu, DEİK) on three occasions. She served as the chairperson of the Turkey-Jordan business council, and as a member of the executive boards of the Turkey-Iraq and Turkey-Libya business councils of the same corporation. She served as deputy chairperson of the women entrepreneurs committee at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), and as a member of women entrepreneurs committee at the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) as well as some other business organizations.^[1]

Pekcan is recipient of the IWEC 2010 Award, and she was named Global Ambassador of IWEC.^[1]

Politician career

On July 9, 2018, the newly elected President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his cabinet of the new Turkish political system. Ruhsar Pekcan was appointed Minister of Trade.^[2]

References