Ruhsar Pekcan (born 1958) is a politician and electrical engineer who served as the Minister of Trade of Turkey between 2018 and 2021.

Professional career

Pekcan started her professional career joining the development and investment bank (). 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 Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

, petroleum and natural gas. She was the managing director of the company. She was chairperson of the Turkey-Syria business councils of the Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Corporation (, 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 The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey () is a confederation of all local chambers of commerce, industry and maritime as well as commodity exchanges in Turkey. Overview The union was founded on March 8, 1950, as an umbrella o ...

(TOBB), and as a member of women entrepreneurs committee at the

Istanbul Chamber of Commerce The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ICOC) () is an institution that organizes and records the commercial transactions of individuals and commercial institutions located in Istanbul; in addition the ICOC also keeps records for these companies. The a ...

(İTO) as well as some other business organizations. Pekcan is recipient of the ''IWEC 2010 Award'', and she was named ''Global Ambassador of IWEC''.

Political career

On 9 July 2018, the newly elected

President of Turkey The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye (), is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national government and is the commander-in-chief of the ...

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

announced his cabinet of the new Turkish political system. Ruhsar Pekcan was appointed Minister of Trade. On 16 April 2021, it was claimed that Ruhsar Pekcan sold disinfectants to her ministry from the company which she owned with her husband in 2020. Some opposite politicians also asked to Ruhsar Pekcan about these claims. On 20 April 2021, the Ministry of Trade confirmed the purchases but stated the amounts was less. She was succeeded by AKP's parliamentary group chairman Mehmet Muş on 21 April 2021.

Private life

Ruhsar Pekcan was born in

Manisa Manisa () is a city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province, lying approximately 40 km northeast of the major city of İzmir. The city forms the urban part of the districts Şehzadeler and Yunusemre, with ...

, Turkey in 1958. She was educated in electrical engineering at

Istanbul Technical University Istanbul Technical University, also known as Technical University of Istanbul (, commonly referred to as İTÜ), is an public university, public technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third-oldest technical university ...

. Following her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

, she obtained a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from the same faculty. She is married with two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pekcan, Ruhsar Living people 1958 births People from Manisa Istanbul Technical University alumni Turkish electrical engineers Turkish businesspeople Turkish business executives Women government ministers of Turkey Government ministers of Turkey Ministers of customs and trade of Turkey Members of the 66th government of Turkey 21st-century Turkish businesspeople 21st-century Turkish businesswomen 21st-century Turkish women politicians 20th-century Turkish businesspeople 20th-century Turkish businesswomen 20th-century Turkish women politicians Turkish women engineers