Mr Ali Babacan, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and an expert in international business, will be the keynote speaker at the 2014 International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) European Conference, being held from 2-3 April 2014 at the Istanbul Congress Center, Istanbul, Turkey.
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) is the world’s largest and most well respected membership organisation in the retail real estate sector, with over 60,000 members worldwide.
Mr Babacan will share his expert economic outlook with over 700 ICSC delegates, all global retail and retail real estate leaders from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.
Educated in Turkey and awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States, Mr Babacan completed an MBA before moving into financial consulting in Chicago. He returned to Turkey to run the family business from 1994-2002. In 2001 he became a founding board member of the Justice and Development Party (AkParti), a position he retains. He entered parliament in 2002 and was elected Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs in 2011.
Chair of the 2014 ICSC European Conference programme planning committee, Klaus Striebich, Managing Director Leasing at one of Europe’s largest retail developments and management companies, ECE Projektmanagement, said: “We are honoured that Mr Babacan has agreed to address our delegates. Under his economic watch Turkey has experienced remarkable growth and a double-digit increase in retail sales over the last few years and we particularly note the strong growth of innovative and award-winning international exemplars of retail development in the country.”
Other ICSC European Conference speakers include eBay Marketplaces Vice President, Alexander von Schirmeister, international retail trend spotter, Paco Underhill, retailers such as Daniel Lopez, board member at MANGO and David Zoba, Global Real Estate President of GAP and investors such as Robert Welanetz of Blackstone who is also a Past Trustee ICSC. Other speakers for the two-day event include international economists, shopping centre asset managers and the CEOs of some of Europe’s most important shopping centre companies, including Christophe Cuvillier of Unibail-Rodamco, Alexander Otto of ECE Projektmanagement, Julia Calabrese of McArthurGlen, Lim Beng Chee of CapitaMalls and William Taubman of Taubman Centers who will all participate in the highly regarded ICSC European Conference CEO Panel session.
Shopping centre tours take place on 1 and 4 April and the hotly anticipated recipients of the 2014 European Shopping Centre Awards will also be announced during the conference.
Registration for the 2014 ICSC European Conference is now open at www.icsc.org/2014EU.
Source: ICSC
