REC Board of Directors

RİFAT ÜNAL SAYMAN

Dr. Sayman has over 20 years of progressive professional experience and built broad knowledge on circular economy, climate change and other environmental topics through active involvement in more than fifty projects. He developed sound decision-making and strong leadership skills and mastered assessing key points and numerical information for policy analysis. He developed specific expertise on climate change and circular economy. He extensively involved in the transition of the EU Environmental Acquis to Türkiye, including cost and benefit analysis of the impacts of specific EU directives on different stakeholders and their implementation plans in the environment sector. He is the author or co-author of several reports and articles.

He has a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Hacettepe University and a master’s degree in international relations from Middle East Technical University, and a doctoral degree in political science and public administration on waste management and circular economy. He was a fellow at Georgetown University, and he has a certificate in climate change from Cornell University. He is married with two children.

GÖNÜL ERTÜRER

Ertürer has thirty years of experience in the environmental sector. She has served as a team leader in European Union-supported projects and as a senior environmental expert in international projects. She possesses extensive experience in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment. Throughout her projects, she has collaborated with various stakeholders, including public institutions and organizations, the private sector, local governments, and non-governmental organizations. She graduated from METU Environmental Engineering in 1991 and completed her master’s in Social Sciences and Environment at Ankara University in 1999.

ONUR AKPULAT

Onur Akpulat completed his undergraduate (2006) and master’s (2009) degrees in the Environmental Engineering Department at METU. In his 17-year professional career, he has focused on environmental issues such as sustainable development, climate change, circular economy, waste management, resource efficiency, renewable energy, and alignment with EU Environmental and Climate Change Acquis. He has been a manager, consultant, and technical expert in over 25 technical assistance and capacity-building projects supported by the European Commission, government institutions/organizations, the private sector, and international organizations. He has specialized in EU and national climate change and waste management policies, as well as Regulatory and Sectoral Impact Analysis studies. Akpulat has closely collaborated with various stakeholders, including public institutions, municipalities, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations. He has actively participated as a trainer, mentor, or moderator in over 500 capacity-building activities and has been the author or part of the authoring team for nearly 50 publications, including technical reports, analyses, and articles featured in projects, peer-reviewed journals, sectoral magazines, and conferences.

DURSUN BAŞ

Dursun Baş serves as a consultant for the Cobenefits Project, which is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU), with IPM as a knowledge partner. He graduated from METU’s Biology and Environmental Engineering departments and is pursuing his doctorate in the Earth System Science department at METU. With approximately ten years of technical consultancy and project management experience, Baş has held project management positions at the Regional Environmental Center (REC) Turkey and the Nature Conservation Center (DKM). He has participated as a consultant/expert in over 20 international and national projects in environmental management, nature conservation, and climate policy areas supported by the European Commission, central and local administrations, and the private sector. He has contributed to the preparation of numerous publications and reports in the field of EU Environmental Legislation.

GÖZDE ODABAŞ

Gözde Odabaş completed her undergraduate studies in Industrial Engineering at Bilkent University in 2014 and her master’s in Clean Renewable Energy at Hacettepe University in 2019. Between 2014 and 2020, she worked as a research and data specialist at REC Turkey, developing expertise in areas such as Regulatory Impact Analysis, Sectoral Impact Analysis, Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas Inventory Preparation, and capacity building. She undertook various tasks, including preparing surveys for current situation research and future modeling, collecting and processing unstructured data, statistically analyzing and visualizing complex data, determining and analyzing KPIs for projects, and preparing and presenting scientific/technical reports. She continues her professional career in Artificial Intelligence Applications at Türkiye İş Bankası’s Data Management Department.