Ali Babacan

Ali Babacan is the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey responsible for the Economy. He is a member of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). On August 29, 2007, he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs of in the cabinet of re-elected Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Education
Babacan attended the Middle East Technical University in Ankara and in 1989 was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering with the highest marks. He went to the U.S. on a Fulbright Scholarship to do postgraduate studies and in 1992 received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University 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, Ilinois, 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
He entered politics in 2001 as a co-founder and a Board member of the Justice and Development Party and was elected to parliament as deputy for Ankara on November 3, 2002. He was appointed Minister of Economy on November 18, 2002 and became the youngest member of the cabinet, then at the age of 35.

Babacan was responsible for the Turkish economic reform program, which was backed by multi-billion-dollar International Monetary Fund loans. On May 24, 2005, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his appointment as chief negotiator in Turkey's accession talks with the European Union, which started on October 3, 2005.

On May 1, 2009, Babacan was appointed as minister responsible for the economy by Prime Minister Erdoğan, and with additional responsibility for the Treasury.

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