Esen Çağlar, Managing Partner 9 October 2022

Bringing a deep interest in multi-disciplinary approaches to economic development challenges, Esen leads PAL’s engagements in industrial policy, competitiveness and regional economic development.

Having worked with multilaterals such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Esen has advised various governments, including those of Turkey, Oman, Kazakhstan, Palestine, Cyprus and Ethiopia.

Previously, he worked as a Senior Advisor at the Supreme Council for Planning of the Sultanate of Oman and as a Strategic Planning Advisor to the President of TED University in Ankara. Between 2013 and March 2016 Esen was the Deputy Managing Director of the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), which he joined in 2005. At TEPAV he managed four different research programs on (i) industrial policy and competitiveness, (ii) local and regional economic development, (iii) economic integration and foreign economic relations, and (iv) special economic zones. Under these programs, Esen has managed over twenty projects in Turkey as well as the Balkans, Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.

Esen also serves as an adjunct lecturer at Bilkent University since 2006. He holds an MPA in international development (MPA-ID) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and an A.B.in Politics and Political Economy from Princeton University.