Arda Ermut appointed GM at Turkey Welfare Fund

Arda Ermut has been appointed as the new General Manager of the Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF) after previous head Zafer Sonmez was dismissed.

Turkey's Official Gazette confirmed the appointment early on Tuesday.

Ermut was the head of Turkey's Investment Office between May 2015 to February 2020, a board member of TWF between September 2018 to November 2020 and a board member of Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines since June 2019.

He is also the former head of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA), an umbrella organisation that covers 170 national and regional investment promotion agencies from 130 countries.

Ermut has a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from Turkey's Bogazici University.

Sonmez, appointed in September 2018 as the head of TWF, was a manager at Malaysian Investment Fund Khazanah.

TWF is the owner of or a stakeholder in 23 companies, two licenses and real estate, including state lenders Ziraat Bank, HalkBank and VakifBank; the country's stock exchange market Borsa Istanbul; Turkish Airlines; GSM giants Turkcell and Turk Telekom and natural gas firm Botas.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also the chairman of the board of TWF.