Burcu Baran Türem was born in Rize, Turkey in 1983. She graduated from Istanbul Technical University doing a double major in (B.Sc) Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering and in (B.Sc) Management Engineering. Burcu Baran Türem holds an M.Sc degree in Metals & Energy Finance from Imperial College London. She developed a methodology to evaluate the underlying technical as well as financial risks of a tar sand project using real option valuation techniques in her M.Sc thesis. She interned in BP; Petrol Ofisi; and Citigroup in Istanbul in various departments during her undergraduate studies, and after completing her M.Sc in London she started her professional career in the oil industry working for ExxonMobil in Turkey. While she was working for ExxonMobil fulltime, she was also serving as a project assistant of the Global Civics Project lead by Brookings Institution. Burcu, who has joined GRF’s
Executive Staff in February 2012, is fluent in Turkish, English and German.