Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday appointed a former Wall Street finance official, Hafiza Ghaya Erkan, as governor of the Central Bank, in an indication of a possible shift in his unconventional anti-inflationary policies.
Thus, the former CEO of the “Greystone” real estate finance company, the former co-CEO of the First Republic Bank (First Republic Bank), and the general manager of Goldman Sachs, will be the first woman to assume the position of governor of the Central Bank of Turkey.
Who is Erkan?
Erkan was born in Türkiye and graduated from the prestigious Bogazici University in Istanbul. She won a scholarship to study for a doctorate at Princeton, USA.
In 2005, she joined Goldman Sachs as an Associate, and was appointed Director in 2011.
She later worked at First Jumhouria Bank in 2014, where she held the positions of Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, and Chief Risk Officer.
Many saw her as the potential heir to the founder and CEO of the First Republic Bank, Jim Herbert, but she suddenly left the bank in December 2021.
“It was time for a change and a new challenge,” Erkan told Bloomberg TV last year.
The bank was affected by the American banking crisis in March of that year.
And the US financial authorities acquired the First Jumhouria Bank in May and sold it to “JP Morgan Chase” to end the turmoil that led to the collapse of three other regional banks.
Erkan was appointed CEO of Greystone in June 2022, but she resigned in December.
The company confirmed at the time that its departure was “friendly” and “related to its decision to focus on new opportunities in the financial sector.”
