Born in Istanbul in 1959, Neslihan Tonbul graduated from Rutgers University (USA) Department of Economics and Political Science in 1981 and completed her MA in International Finance at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy - Tufts University in 1983. After serving as a senior executive in the New York, London and Istanbul offices of various international financial institutions such as The Irving Trust Company, The Bank of New York and BNY Mellon between 1983 and 2008, she was appointed as the regional manager of these companies covering the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Turkey. Neslihan Tonbul has been a board member in various holding companies and institutions in Turkey since 2008 and continues her duties as a board member in Tofaş, Tat Gıda, Petkim, Alarko Holding and Vakıfbank International. Tonbul, who studied at Harvard Business School and specialized in Family Business Management with CFEG, has been teaching courses on “Family Business Management” and “Impact Investing and Sustainability” at Koç University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences since 2017. Within the scope of her civil society activities, Neslihan Tonbul is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV) and one of the founders of the Turkish-American Business Forum. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Middle East Institute, based in Washington, DC. Since 2014, she has been mentoring women entrepreneurs under the EBRD. Tonbul speaks fluent English, French and Azerbaijani, and continues to take Italian and Persian courses.