Ussal Şahbaz is a managing partner at Ussal Consultancy, serving top global and local clients on government affairs in Turkey since 2018. Ussal is also the head of Istanbul Hub for M&P, a public affairs company serving the wider Middle East and Africa region. Ussal’s career includes leadership positions at GE (General Electric), various think tanks, and earlier in the government of Turkey (Pesident’s Office & Turkish Competition Authority). Ussal holds a master’s degree in international development from Harvard University, a master’s degree in Economics from Bilkent University and a bechalor’s degree in economics from Middle East Technical University. He writes weekly columns for Ekonomi, Turkey’s business daily newspaper.