Özgür Pehlivan

Mr. Pehlivan had more than 25 years’ experience in Government. He held high level management positions at the Treasury Department of Government of Turkey. He was in charge of public projects financing including innovative financing instruments like PPP models and led the departments in charge of project financing, PPP and International Financial and Development Institutions. In 2011, he was assigned as Deputy Permanent Representative in Permanent Mission of Turkey to UN in New York in charge of financial, budgetary and administrative affairs. 

Since 2014, he has been providing consultant services to public and private sectors in the area of finance and business development in the country and the abroad. In this context, he has been providing financial advisory services to Ministry of Health of Republic of Turkey for PPP Program of Integrated Health Campus Projects.

Mr. Pehlivan engaged in all phases of project financing cycles, including identification, appraisal, financing, implementation and supervision of projects. He have taken active role in the process of identification of public projects in need of foreign financing and being leading figure for matching financing needs with appropriate financing sources.

He has great experience in concluding and structuring the financing package of those projects that funded from several sources including commercial banks syndication loan/club deals, export credit, international financial institutions loans and concessional financing from bilateral government development agencies (namely, IBRD, IFC, EIB, EBRD,CEB, IDB, ECOBANK, UNDP, KfW, JICA and AfD) as well as conducting and managing the negotiations of financial terms-conditions and documentations of all loan agreements towards conclusion of financial transactions. Covering all sectors including energy, infrastructure, education facilities, irrigation, defence, transport, health and municipal sector. He conducted and concluded financing transactions in amount of USD 5 billion on annual average with a cumulative amount up to USD 47.7 billion.

Mr. Pehlivan led and conducted several studies and operations on facilitating small and medium scale municipalities’ access to financing. In close collaboration with international donors, he took active role in design and establishment and operation of municipal investment funds that extent long term financing to municipal projects like water supply, sewerage, waste water treatment, solid waste and urban transport projects. Conduct an initiative and prepared the legal base to enforce municipalities who consider foreign borrowing to set up an escrow account for securing their debt services from the income generated by financed projects thus improving their accessibility to foreign funds.

Mr. Pehlivan was also served in the Finance Working Group under WFCC negotiation team. Conduct several initiatives for establishing innovative and sustainable financing mechanism for the mitigation and adaptation activities addressing GHG emission problems, including carbon trade and access to bilateral and multilateral climate investment funds. He led and managed resources mobilization efforts to support mitigation and adaptation projects in amount of 1,8 billion TL in nine separate operations. In 2013, Mr. Pehlivan was elected as a Member of Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) in UN.

Mr. Pehlivan has taken leading and active role in the promotion and development of public private partnership models in Turkey for years by participating and conducting several studies for the assessment of main impediments for the smooth implementation of PPP projects in terms of institutional and legal constraints. He has carried out the evaluation of project proposals that designed, financed and constructed/operated under PPP models. Mr. Pehlivan administered and managed the extension of Treasury Investment Guarantees for ensuring effective risk sharing between public and private sectors. He involved in financial closure of two leading mega transport projects via BOT model, namely Gebze-İzmir Motorway Project (including İzmir Bay Crossing) in amount of USD 7 billion and Eurasia Bosphorus Tube Crossing in amount of USD 900 million. He is a founding Member of Board of PPP Platform in Turkey.

He participated in the preparation of primary and secondary pieces of legislation regarding foreign financing and PPP regulation. During his term at Treasury, he also drove and supervised several consultancy studies and training modules on the Comparative Analysis of Project Financing Proposals, Financial Modelling for Municipal Investment Project, and Assessment of Enabling Environment for Implementation of PPP Projects in Turkey.

He represented Government of Turkey at the governing bodies of International Financial and Development Institutions including IBRD, IDA, IDB, GEF and ECB. In this respect, Mr. Pehlivan represented Government of Turkey in the replenishment/shareholder and Administrative Board Meetings of those Institutions;

• - Council of European Bank (CEB) Administrative Board Meetings, in the capacity of Alternate Director,

• - IDA Replenishment Meeting, in the capacity of Deputy Governor,

• - GEF Council Meeting , in the capacity of Political Focal Point,

• - ECO Bank Board Meeting, in the capacity of Deputy Director,

• - Climate Investment Trust Fund Committee, in the capacity of member of Trust Fund Committee ,

Having served in those positions, Mr. Pehlivan accumulated deep knowledge of governance and operation structure of all International Development and Financial Institutions regarding project appraisal, funding and procurement /disbursement rules and procedures.

He has extensive link and access to a network along the Government and international development and financing institutions and corporate sector in the context of business development through project identification and funding process.