The iVCi Investment Committee is responsible for the approval of investments submitted by EIF. The iVCi Investment Committee is largely independent and comprises:
A. Mete Cakmakci
Mete Cakmakci is the Secretary General of TTGV. In addition to managing TTGV operations, he represents TTGV’s venture capital interests at Turkven’s Turkish Private Equity Fund I, Is Girisim and Teknoloji Yatirim A.S. Prior to TTGV, Mr. Cakmakci worked at a defence systems integrator and consultancy outfit as the business development manager.
Mr. Cakmakci is a graduate of Electric and Electronics Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara and holds an MSc and PhD from Syracuse University, New York.
Francis A. W. Carpenter
Francis Carpenter is an independent member of the Investment Committee. He is the former Chief Executive of EIF (2002 – 2008). Having joined EIB in 1975, Mr. Carpenter held different positions including Head of Lending in Energy and Industry and later Head of UK and the North Sea, developing project finance initiatives and lending operations in Ireland and Portugal.
Mr. Carpenter is a graduate of Oxford University, the New School for Social Sciences, US and the Institut d’Études Politiques in France.
M. Aydın Karaöz
Aydın Karaöz is an independent member of the Investment Committee. Mr. Karaöz undertook most of his career at the Undersecretariat of Treasury, his latest appointment being the Deputy Undersecretary. He has served in numerous Boards, including the Board of Turk Eximbank, Council of Europe Development Bank, Black Sea Trade & Development Bank and OYAK Bank.
Mr. Karaöz is a graduate in law from Ankara University and obtained his LL.M. from Harvard Law School.
Jose Romano
Jose Romano heads the Istanbul Venture Capital Initiative and is responsible for EIF's Turkish operations. Prior to EIF, Mr. Romano was a Manager at the Emerging Markets Group of Deloitte & Touche where his principal responsibility was co-managing a EUR 25m fund. He also led several investment advisory projects, principally in Nigeria, the Middle East and Latin America. Before he worked at private equity adviser Actis, and as a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Romano started his career as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow working as an economist in the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Namibia.
Mr .Romano is a graduate (First Class Honours) in Economics from Queen Mary College, University of London and holds an MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University. He obtained his MBA (“la Caixa Scholar”) from London Business School.
The fifth seat of the Investment Committee is vacant as from January 2012.