Dr. Cenk Pala, with his vast industry experience in the Eurasian gas pipeline business, is a leading figure in all aspects of both Turkey's energy security and the Southern Energy Corridor debate. Mr. Pala started his career as an academic in the fields of History of Economics and petroleum & energy economics at Gazi University between 1990-1997. He joined BOTAŞ Petrol A.Ş. in 1997 and was appointed as the Head of Strategy and Business Development in 2001. He has carried out pre-feasibility, feasibility, marketing, finance, legal studies and lobbying activities for various pipeline projects including BTC Crude Oil P/L Project, Turkey-Greece (ITG) Natural Gas Pipeline Project, Turkey-Greece. Dr. Cenk Pala also represented BOTAŞ in the "Industry Advisory Panel" of the Energy Charter in Brussels. From March 2008 to June 2013, Dr. Pala served as General Manager of the German gas company E.ON Ruhrgas AG and as a Board Member of the company's Turkish subsidiary based in Ankara. In 2011, he was appointed by the shareholders as Turkey Representative of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and served until June 2016. Dr. Pala joined Gazprom subsidiary South Stream Transport BV in January 2017 as State Affairs Coordinator for TurkStream Project and remained with Gazprom until September 2018. As of October 1, 2018, Dr. Pala joined EQUINOR Turkey BV as Deputy Country Manager. His main responsibility is stakeholder management and coordination of external relations within EQUINOR's Thrace upstream activity and potential renewable energy investments in Turkey. He is currently coordinating the negotiations of ERSAN Oil Refinery (the only onshore private refinery investment in TR) with potential partners, investors and financial institutions. He is a prolific speaker at international conferences on the energy sector and has published numerous works on academic energy economics, oil history, oil crises and the seven sisters, regional and global pipeline politics, and the global oil and gas sector. Dr. Pala holds a BA and MA in Economics from Gazi University and a PhD from Hacettepe University. He is married with two children and speaks English.