Speakers

Yavuz Eroğlu

PAGEV President

Yavuz Eroğlu was born in 1973 in Istanbul and received his Bachelor’s degree from Istanbul Technical University Electronics and Communication Engineering Department. He received his Master’s degree from Boğaziçi University Biomedical Engineering Department and Marmara University Management Organization Department.

Yavuz Eroğlu started his business career at his family company SEM Plastik. As a child, he used to spent his summer holidays working at SEM Plastik and after graduation from university in 1996, he started working full time in the company. SEM Plastik operates in plastic packaging sector and it has rapidly developed and achieved considerable success in a short time, and Eroğlu worked at various positions in the organization including production, sales and exports. In 1997, he made the first export of the sector. Between 2002 and 2009, Eroğlu acted as the General Manager of SEM Plastik 2009 and since then he is acting as the Chairman of the company. Eroğlu is the Chairman of SEM Global Foreign Trade and Credoy Polimer.
Under his management, SEM Plastik was listed among the top 100 fastest growing companies in Turkey and in the Region in an assessment carried out in cooperation between Harvard University, TOBB and TEPAV. Yavuz EROĞLU participated in a private leadership training at Harvard University from Micheal Porter.
Eroğlu takes active roles at nongovernmental organizations and works for many associations in Turkey and abroad. Yavuz Eroğlu believes in organization of the plastic sector and that companies should gather under umbrella organizations of the sector to become stronger and is the Chairman of TOBB Plastic, Rubber, Composite Industry Council, supreme organization of the sector established by law. He is the Chairman of the Turkish Plastics Industry Research, Development and Training Foundation (PAGEV). He is the first non European Union citizen to be elected to Board of Management of EUPC (European Plastic Converters) which is the umbrella nongovernmental organization of Plastics Companies operating in the European Union. He is acting as a member of Advisory Board for MECC (Middle East Commercial Center) project launched by the US Chamber of Trade having its center in Washington.

Eroğlu has about three hundred articles on plastics, petrochemistry, packaging, environment, recycling, health, sustainability and general economy published in the national and international publications, TV interviews and jury duties. He also represented the Plastics Sector in written and visual media on the same subjects. He also conduced to the publication of the book “Geçmişten Geleceğe Plastikler Tarihi” (PlasticsEurope) telling the tale plastics from its invention to the present day with a humorous language and comics to share with the plastics sector and children. Eroğlu is the Founding President of Istanbul Technical University Environment Club (İTÜ ÇEVKOR).