Faik Öztrak

Faik Öztrak was born on 26 March 1954 as the son of Orhan Öztrak, a former Minister of the Interior, in Ankara. He is the grandson of former Interior Minister Mustafa Faik Öztrak and the nephew of the TRT's first general secretary Adnan Öztrak and former chief advisor to the Presidency İlhan Öztrak.[1]

Öztrak studied at St. Joseph High School in İstanbul and graduated in 1973, later graduating from the Department of Economics and Finance at the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences in 1977. He received a masters degree at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom on the subject of financial development.[2]

In 1978, Öztrak joined the State Planning Organisation (DPT) as an assistant expert. Specialising on financial affairs, Öztrak was also involved in negotiations on an international scale. After 1987, he served as the President of the DPT's Annual Programs and Funding Department, Vice President of the Economic Planning Department, the General Manager of Economic Planning and also a deputy undersecretary. In 2000, he began working at the Banking Regulation and Supervision Institution and served as its Vice President. Following the 2001 financial crash, he became part of the new team of economic policymakers and was appointed as the Undersecretary to the Treasury.[3]

After leaving the Treasury in 2003, Öztrak began writing as a columnist for the Milliyet newspaper twice a week on economic policies. He served as a visiting lecturer at the Middle East Technical University Department of Economics, teaching macroeconomics and stability programs. He also briefly taught at Bahçeşehir University. He also co-authored a paper on Turkey's accession to the European Union along with other experts from the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS).[4]

Öztrak became a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Tekirdağ since 2007, having first been elected at the 2007 general election. He was re-elected in 2011, June 2015 and November 2015. Between 2010 and 2014, he became the Deputy Leader of the CHP responsible for economic policy and was later appointed as Deputy Leader responsible for Trade Unions in 2014.[5][6]