Education

Faruk Özlü was born on 19 November 1962 in Düzce and studied at Düzce High School before graduating from the Yıldız Technical University (YTÜ) as a mechanical engineer. He obtained a master's degree and a doctorate from Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ). He obtained further education regarding projects and engineering in Spain, before taking a senior management course at Harvard University.^[1]

Early career and civil service

In 1987, Özlü returned to YTÜ as a researcher. In 1990, he joined the Defence Industry Undersecretariat as an engineer. He later became an expert, project manager, department manager and assistant undersecretary. He also briefly served as the acting undersecretary.^[2] While working at the Undersecretariat, Özlü oversaw projects such as Turkey's first domestically produced tank ALTAY, the country's first unmanned spacecraft ANKA, its first domestically produced warship MİLGEM.^[3] He also worked on the development of the Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft, the F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, helicopter electronic warfare systems, the M60 tank modernisation, long range air and missile defense systems, coding and simulation.^[4]

He has served on the executive boards of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI-TUŞAŞ), Airport Operations and Aviation Industries (HEAŞ), Teknopark İstanbul and Defence Technologies Engineering and Commerce (STM).^[5]