Press Release on the Appointment of CBRT Deputy Governors (2023-30)
No: 2023-30
28 July 2023
Press Release on the Appointment of CBRT Deputy Governors
With a decree published in the Official Gazette No. 32262 dated 28 July 2023, Osman Cevdet Akçay, Fatih Karahan and Hatice Karahan have been appointed as CBRT deputy governors.
Osman Cevdet Akçay, Ph.D.
Born in 1961 in Trabzon, Osman Cevdet Akçay graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Economics in 1983. He received his M.Phil degree (1990) and Ph.D. (1992) in economics from The City University of New York, The Graduate School and University Center.
Mr. Akçay started his professional career in 1985 as a doctoral assistant at The City University of New York, The Graduate School and University Center and worked as a senior lecturer at Hunter College and Baruch College between 1986 and 1990. He was a visiting scholar at Manhattan College, New York from 1990 to 1991. In 1992, he joined Boğaziçi University as an assistant professor and became associate professor in the Department of Economics at the same university before moving to Koç University as a full-time faculty member in 2001.
While working as a senior lecturer, Mr. Akçay served also as chief economist first at Koçbank and then at Yapı ve Kredi Bank until 2009. Then he served solely as chief economist between 2009 and 2018 until his resignation from the bank. He worked as a consultant at the Ministry of Treasury and Finance of the Republic of Türkiye in July-October 2018, and at Fiba Group, Holding and Bank between 2018 and 2023.
Mr. Akçay was appointed as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye on 28 July 2023.
Fatih Karahan, Ph.D.
Fatih Karahan was born in 1982 in Eskişehir and graduated from Boğaziçi University, Departments of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering in 2006. After earning a master's degree, he completed a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012.
Mr. Karahan started his career as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2012 and served as the Team Leader of Labor and Product Market Studies and also a monetary policy advisor at the Bank until 2022.
He also taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia University and New York University. Then, Mr. Karahan became a senior economist at Amazon in 2022 and was appointed principal economist there in November 2022.
Mr. Karahan was appointed as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye on 28 July 2023.
Prof. Hatice Karahan
Born in 1978 in Istanbul, Hatice Karahan graduated from the Business Administration Department of Boğaziçi University in 1999. After receiving her master’s degree in economics from Boğaziçi University in 2001, she went to the USA to pursue academic studies. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from Syracuse University in 2006, and conducted research at the Center for Policy Research at the same university.
In addition to giving lectures at various universities after returning to Türkiye, Ms. Karahan served as an advisor at the Technological and Scientific Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK). She also worked as an economic consultant for many years at leading business organizations such as the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM), the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Türkiye (DEIK), and the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI).
Ms. Karahan started serving as the founding chair of the Department of Economics and Finance at Istanbul Medipol University in 2015. She received the title of professor in 2020.
In July 2017, Ms. Karahan was appointed as Senior Advisor to the President of the Republic of Türkiye. Between 2021 and 2023, she was also a visiting scholar of economics at Harvard University and Columbia University, respectively.
Ms. Karahan was appointed as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye on 28 July 2023.
Contact
For further information, please send an e-mail to basin@tcmb.gov.tr.