Ali Babacan

Ali Babacan graduated from TED Ankara College ranking first among the class of 1985.[3] He attended the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara and in 1989 was awarded a BSc in Industrial Engineering with the highest marks (4.00 point out of 4.00).[3]

Babacan 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 in Evanston, Illinois, with majors in marketing, organizational behavior and international business.[3]

Babacan worked then for two years as an associate at QRM, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois, a company doing financial consulting to the top executives of major banks in the United States.[3] 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.[4]

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Babacan and President of the United States Barack Obama, April 6, 2009.

He entered politics in 2001 as a co-founder and a Board member of the Justice and Development Party [5] and was elected to parliament as deputy for Ankara on 3 November 2002. He was appointed Minister of Economy on 18 November 2002 and became the youngest member of the cabinet, then at the age of 35.[6]

Ali Babacan had the duty to steer a painful economic reform program, which was backed by multibillion-dollar IMF loans; with its help Turkish economy achieved a remarkable recovery after two severe crises. He stayed always away from the rough-and-tumble of the Turkish political arena and focused solely on the economic reform, acting rather as a technocrat without indulging into populism.

On 24 May 2005 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his appointment as chief negotiator in Turkey's accession talks with the European Union,[7] which started on 3 October 2005.[8] As government minister Babacan attended several international meetings including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the Bilderberg Group.

In 2019, Babacan left the ruling AKP, citing "deep differences" over the party's direction as a reason.[9]

Babacan confirmed his intent to form this party in a late 2019 interview with journalist Şirin Payzın of T24, and expects his party to be a "mainstream party" with particular focuses on minority rights, a return to Turkey's parliamentary system, fair processes in courts and legislation, and restoring freedom of speech and expression. Babacan is quoted as saying that "the nation will give our party its name".[10]

On 9 March 2020, he founded Democracy and Progress Party, abbreviated as "DEVA" or "remedy" in Turkish.[11] The DEVA Party held its first meeting of the Board of Founders on 10 March 2020, where Ali Babacan was unanimously elected Chairman.[12]