Mehmet Ogutcu
President, Bosphorus Energy Club
Chairman, Global Resources Partnership, London
Chairman, Caspian Oil and Gas Fund Management Group, London
Special Envoy for MENA, The Energy Charter
An internationally recognised authority on infrastructure, energy, geopolitics finance, and investment, Mehmet Ogutcu has more than 30 years of successful track-record in energy business, investment, development, diplomacy, and international organisations, with particular geographic focus on Europe, Turkey, Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East and China. He enjoys a strong network and credible reputation in these regions with governments, international/regional organizations, banks, businesses, civil society, and media. His professional career has included high-level government, energy business, and public diplomacy engagements.
Mr Ogutcu has a good understanding of the oil, gas and power business along the value chain. He has been a trusted advisor to many Boards and Governments over many years. Currently, Mr Ogutcu chairs Global Resources Partnership, a UK strategic advisory group, serves as Special Envoy of The International Energy Charter for MENA Region, Chair of The Bosphorus Energy Club, and Chair of the London Energy Club, which are exclusive gatherings of the senior executives and leaders in finance, energy and politics across the world. In his early career, Mr Ogutcu was a Turkish diplomat, having worked on critical economic and energy diplomacy dossiers in Ankara, Beijing, Brussels and Paris, and later as an advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister. He was instrumental in expanding trade and investment between Turkey and China while in the Embassy in Beijing.
After leaving the Foreign Service, Mr Ogutcu joined as a senior staffer at the International Energy Agency (IEA) heading Eurasia and Asia-Pacific programme, and the OECD in Paris as principal administrator managing international investment outreach over 11 years. At the IEA, he established the Agency"s first China, Russia and India programmes of co-operation and collaboration, organised a series of dialogue events and technical assistance programmes on energy security, efficiency, technology deployment, finance, climate change and natural gas market development. As Director of BG Group (now part of Shell) he opened the way for BG"s entry into China, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Oman, and Brazil for exploration, power generation and refineries, and managed the dispute settlement processes with Kazakhstan and with Algeria. He created his own boutique investment advisory group, Global Resources Partnership, with senior fellow experts from around the world, and served clients such as Chevron, SOCAR, CNPC, Gazprom, KMG, BG Group, Shell, Gunvor and Petronas on asset due diligence, stakeholder engagement, and risk mitigation.
He often speaks at key international and regional conferences around the world and is a regular contributor to CNN, BBC, CCTV, France-24, Israel"s i24NEWS, Bloomberg, Sputnik, TRTWorld, HürriyetDaily News, Euroactiv, Moscow Times, Capital, and OECD Observer. He is a graduate of Turkey"s "Mulkiye," London School of Economics (MSc) and College d"Europe (MA), Bruges. He has taught as an occasional lecturer at LSE Enterprise Executive Programme, Harvard University, Dundee University, University of Reading, Peking University"s School of Government, and Koc University. Mr Ogutcu speaks Turkish, English, French, Central Asian dialects and is conversational in Chinese.