Mithat Cansiz was born in 1973 in the Siran district of Gumushane province of Turkey, located in the Black Sea region.
Background
Mr Cansiz finished primary school in his hometown and attended Imam Hatip High School in the Kdz. Eregli district of Zonguldak, Turkey. Mr Cansiz finished high school in 1991 and passed the national university placement exam to enroll in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University, ranking 11th among roughly 1.5 million participants in the entrance exam. As a result of his exceptional academic performance, he was qualified to attend the academically challenging double major program of the Faculty of Business Administration.
Mr Cansiz graduated from the program with honors in 1998. Between 1998-2003, Mr Cansiz worked and studied in Munich, Germany, and completed the MBA program at Munich University with honors.
In 2004, he returned to Turkey to work as business development and foreign relations manager at AKAD&Dineiger Co., a Turkish-German consortium in the municipal services sector. During his work at the consortium, he led the process to set up an engineering and manufacturing company called TALPA Ltd. Sti. with full local content for the design and production of robot cameras for the underground sewage systems to be used by the municipalities.
In 2007, he changed his job and started to work at the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT), which was then established as an affiliate of the Prime Ministry of Turkey to guide and attract foreign investment as a one-stop shop. During his tenure at ISPAT, he assumed the coordination and presentation of energy as well as public-private partnership projects of Turkey, and was thereby promoted to be the head project director at the organization.
Mr Cansiz was promoted and assigned to the position of CEO at the Turkish Petroleum International Company (TPIC), a 100% state-owned company established in 1998 as a subsidiary of the national oil company of Turkey. TPIC’s raison d’être was to enable Turkey to explore gas and oil overseas in a more dynamic and flexible manner.
TPIC has been executing oil and gas exploration and production projects domestically and worldwide, including countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Caucasus, Middle and South Asia, and South America. TPIC’s other areas of activity are oil trading and oil field services in Turkey and abroad. Within this scope, TPIC currently executes a $300 million IPM (Integrated Project Management) project in the Rumaila field of Basra, Iraq, which is being operated by BP, for example.
As far as oil trading is concerned, TPIC supplies gas oil and fuel oil to its domestic and international customers. e.g. Main supplier of KIB-TEK (Electricity Authority of Northern Cyprus).
During his professional period, which is still continuing at TPIC, Mr Cansiz has executed a turnaround strategy and has increased the performance of the company in terms of net income, debt management and other financial parameters. In this regard, the net income has increased almost 23 times and profitability rate per employee has increased from circa $10,000 to $250,000, even decreasing the general administrative expenses ratio. Furthermore, he has managed to improve the corporate structure and perception of the company by qualifying TPIC with an ISO 9001 Quality System, adopting a change management strategy, introducing a new logo, and updating the company website in five different languages.
As a result of a strategic decision taken by the Council of Ministers of Turkey, in 2013, TPIC ownership was transferred to BOTAS, petroleum pipeline corporation of Turkey, with an increase of paid in capital by $350 million – from $150 million to $500 million. TPIC and its subsidiaries are currently executing different international projects in the field of exploration and production, well-drilling services, and oil trading in countries stretching from Colombia to Bangladesh, Iraq and Northern Cyprus. In the meantime, TPIC’s paid in capital amount has been increased to $1.5 billion to enable TPIC to create more value on behalf of Turkey in the oil and gas sector.
Education
Experience
Areas of Expertise
Management experience over 10 years in both private and public sectors in the fields of business negotiation and development, finance, turnaround strategy, conflict solution, management and energy (upstream, downstream, oil field services and oil trading) and ability to develop and sustain business in versatile cultures and challenging markets domestically and internationally.
Language skills:
English, German fluent and Arabic and Spanish at advanced level.
What have been the main lessons you have learned in your career and how do you implement them in your management?
The main thing I have learned during my life career is that success and pure satisfaction is totally a derivative of hard work, honesty, integrity, durability and dedication. Good communication and empathy towards people around are other important elements in achieving the goals.
Mentors
First and foremost, the encouragement and motivation I obtained from my parents. Additionally, my teachers and friends from my academic and professional life have always shown great faith and support to encourage my goals. Finally, from my childhood onwards, I have always had great passion towards creating value for my country and region. That has been one of the main driving forces to direct me in becoming who I am today. Frankly speaking, that is why I have chosen voluntarily to work in the public sector.
Quotes
My motto in my life has always been: “If you are assigned to a position, do your best because you are not but obliged to give your best”.
In addition, I have always been enchanted by a very wise and didactic statement of Prof. Dr. Necmettin Erbakan, previous Prime Minister of Turkey during the 54th government:
“One flower does not make a summer, but bear in mind that each summer begins with a one and first flower”. Meaning that no matter what the external conditions are, we can maneuver and adjust the things in the way of what we aspire.
