Ruhsar Pekcan

Ruhsar Pekcan was born in Manisa, Turkey in 1958. She was educated in electrical engineering at Istanbul Technical University. Following her Bachelor's degree, she obtained a Master's degree from the same faculty.[1]

She is married and they have two children.[1]

Pekcan started her professional career joining the development and investment bank, Türkiye Sınai Kalkınma Bankası. After working at different positions in several companies, she became a member of executive boards. In 2005, she co-founded an engineering company, which supplies pipelines for drinking water, irrigation, petroleum and natural gas. She was the managing director of the company.[1]

She was chairperson of the Turkey-Syria business councils of the Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Corporation (Turkish: Dış Ekonomik İlişkiler Kurumu, DEİK) on three occasions. She served as the chairperson of the Turkey-Jordan business council, and as a member of the executive boards of the Turkey-Iraq and Turkey-Libya business councils of the same corporation. She served as deputy chairperson of the women entrepreneurs committee at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), and as a member of women entrepreneurs committee at the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) as well as some other business organizations.[1]

Pekcan is recipient of the IWEC 2010 Award, and she was named Global Ambassador of IWEC.[1]

On July 9, 2018, the newly elected President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his cabinet of the new Turkish political system. Ruhsar Pekcan was appointed Minister of Trade.[2]