H.E. Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Finance, Republic of Turkey
Minister Mehmet Simşek was born in Arıca (Kefre), a village of Batman. He completed primary education in Batman and high school education in Gercüs, a town of Batman. He graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences Department of Economics in 1988 with high honors.
After working as a research assistant in Ankara University for a year, he was awarded a government scholarship granted by the Ministry of Education, he moved to the UK for his master’s degree. After earning his MSc degree in finance and economics at Exeter University in 1993, he returned to Ankara and worked in Etibank for three months.
Subsequently, he served as a senior economist at the US Embassy in Ankara for almost four years. Mr Simşek spent about a year in New York where he worked for UBS Securities in 1997. From 1998 to 2000 he worked as a senior economist and bank analyst for Deutsche-Bender Securities in Istanbul. Afterwards, he joined Merrill Lynch, one of the leading investment banks in the world, and moved back to UK.
At the first stage of his Merrill Lynch career, Minister Simşek was responsible for Mediterranean region, including Turkey, Greece, Egypt and Israel. In the second half of 2001, emerging European countries such as Russia, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic were added to his portfolio. At the end of 2005, Mr. Simşek was appointed as the head of Europe, Middle East and Africa Regions Economic and Strategic Research Department.
Mr. Simşek left his office in Merrill Lynch on May 2007 and ran for Turkish Grand National Assembly. He was elected as the MP of Gaziantep from the Justice and Development Party on July 22, 2007 and served as the state minister for economic affairs during August 2007 to April 2009. After the cabinet change in May 2009, he was appointed as the minister of finance. In the general elections held on June 12, 2011, Mr. Simşek was elected as the MP of Batman at the first rank and reappointed as the minister of finance.
Minister Simşek also serves as the member of Supreme Planning Board, Supreme Privatization Board, Supreme Council for Defense Industry Coordination, Economic Coordination Council, Money Credit Coordination Council, and Supreme Council for Science and Technology since 2007. Furthermore, Minister Simşek was the IMF and World Bank governor of Turkey from 2007 to 2009 and member of Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Coordination Board from 2008 to 2011.
Mr Simşek is fluent in English.
