Ali Babacan (; born 4 April 1967) is a Turkish politician, economist, and engineer. He is the founder and current leader of the

Democracy and Progress Party The Democracy and Progress Party ( tr, Demokrasi ve Atılım Partisi, DEVA, lit. Democracy and Enterprise Party) is a Turkish political party founded on 9 March 2020 under the leadership of Ali Babacan, a former economy minister under the AK ...

(DEVA). He served 13 years as the

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

Minister of Economy A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

, Chief Negotiator for the EU and

Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey The Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey is the abolished official deputy of the head of government of Turkey. Conventionally all of the junior partners in a coalition get one deputy, and they are ranked according to the size of their respective par ...

from 2002 to 2015. He was a member of the parliament as well. He first served as the Minister of State in charge of economic affairs in the 58th cabinet from the Justice and Development Party (AKP). He retained this position throughout the 58th and 59th Governments of the

Republic of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. On 29 August 2007 he was appointed as the

of the 60th Government of the Republic of Turkey. During 2009–2015, he served as the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs of Turkey. Ali Babacan had the duty of steering a harsh economic reform program, which was backed by multibillion-dollar IMF loans; under his leadership, the

Turkish economy Turkey has an emerging market economy, as defined by the International Monetary Fund. The country is a founding member of the OECD (1961) and the G-20 major economies (1999). Since 1995, Turkey is a party to the European Union–Turkey Custom ...

achieved a remarkable recovery after two severe crises. He mostly stayed away from the Turkish political arena and focused on economic reforms, acting more like a technocrat. In 2019, Babacan left the AKP, citing "deep differences" over the party's direction as a reason and founded the

(DEVA) in 2020. Babacan, who also speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, is married and has three children.

Early life and career

Ali Babacan - World Economic Forum Turkey 2008

Education

Ali Babacan graduated from TED Ankara College ranking first among the class of 1985. He attended the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara and in 1989 was awarded a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in Industrial Engineering with the highest marks (''4.00 point out of 4.00''). Babacan went to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

on a Fulbright Scholarship to do postgraduate studies and in 1992 received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

Kellogg School of Management The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (also known as Kellogg) is the business school of Northwestern University, a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1908, Kellogg is one of the oldest and most p ...

at Northwestern University in Evanston,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, with majors in marketing, organizational behavior and international business.

Career in finance

Babacan worked then for two years as an associate at QRM, Inc. in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, a company doing financial consulting to the top executives of major banks in the United States. He returned to Turkey in 1994 and, served as chief advisor to the mayor of Ankara the same year. He was the chairman of his family owned textile company between 1994 and 2002.

Political life

Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Economy (2002–2015)

He entered politics in 2001 as a co-founder and a board member of the Justice and Development Party and was elected to

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

as deputy for

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

on 3 November 2002. He was appointed

on 18 November 2002 and became the youngest member of the cabinet, then at the age of 35. Ali Babacan - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012 crop

On 24 May 2005 Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

announced his appointment as chief negotiator in Turkey's accession talks with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, which started on 3 October 2005. As government minister Babacan attended several international meetings including the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

Davos , neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Bergün/Bravuogn, Klosters-Serneus, Langwies, S-chanf, Susch , twintowns = } Davos (, ; or ; rm, ; archaic it, Tavate) is an Alpine resort town and a municipality in the Prättigau/Davos R ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and the

Bilderberg Group The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defin ...

. In 2019, Babacan left the ruling AKP, citing "deep differences" over the party's direction as a reason.

Leader of the DEVA (2020–present)

Babacan confirmed his intent to form this party in a late 2019 interview with journalist Şirin Payzın of T24, and expects his party to be a "mainstream party" with particular focuses on minority rights, a return to Turkey's parliamentary system, fair processes in courts and legislation, and restoring freedom of speech and expression. Babacan is quoted as saying that "the nation will give our party its name". On 9 March 2020, he founded

, abbreviated as "DEVA" or "remedy" in Turkish. The DEVA Party held its first meeting of the Board of Founders on 10 March 2020, where he was unanimously elected Chairman.

References

External links

* * *
Biography
at Biyografi.info * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Babacan, Ali 1967 births Living people Deputies of Ankara Deputy Prime Ministers of Turkey Kellogg School of Management alumni Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Democracy and Progress Party politicians Middle East Technical University alumni Ministers of Economic Affairs of Turkey Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Turkey People from Ankara TED Ankara College Foundation Schools alumni Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 23rd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 22nd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Ministers of State of Turkey Members of the 60th government of Turkey Turkish political party founders