Mehmet Mustafaoğlu

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TRNC Honorary Representative Seal

Mehmet ("Mike") M. Mustafaoğlu is the Honorary Representative of the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the city of Los Angeles (and by extension, the Western United States). Appointed to this position in early 2005, Mr Mustafaoğlu serves as a de facto Honorary Consul (as the United States of America does not recognize the sovereignty of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), answering to the TRNC's Washington DC representative, Mr. Osman Ertuğ ( the de facto TRNC Ambassador).

1 Biography
2 Awards
3 Additional information
4 References
5 Publications

[edit] Biography

Born in Cyprus and educated in the United States, he attended high school in Illinois as an American Field Service Scholar and college in Kansas as a Fulbright Scholar. He holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Wichita State University and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from University of Southern California/University of Houston with finance and quantitative science concentrations.

Mr. Mustafaoglu is the founder and current chairman of TransGlobal Financial Corporation; a Los Angeles based private equity firm investing in and providing services to emerging growth-oriented companies. Prior to establishing TransGlobal in 1991, Mr. Mustafaoglu served as the president of petroleum related companies owned by the Oxbow Group.

Prior to joining Oxbow in 1984, Mr. Mustafaoglu was with J. Paul Getty's Getty Oil Company, where he was Vice President of Finance for Getty Oil Canada (primarily responsible for short and long range strategic and financial planning, budgets and acquisitions). Prior to joining Getty in 1977, Mr. Mustafaoglu was an exploration geophysicist with Shell Oil Company.

Mr. Mustafaoglu is the author of various articles dealing with risk in business, including research on quantification of political risk published in his articles, "Forecasting Political Risk", "Integration of Sudden Expropriation Risk into Project Economics" and "Comparison of International Petroleum Tax Systems".

Mr. Mustafaoglu's affiliations include Omicron Delta Kappa (Leadership Honorary), Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honorary), Phi Eta Sigma (Electrical Engineering Honorary). He is a former member of the Board of Directors of National Petroleum Refiners Association, Independent Petroleum Association of America, the Economic Council of Palm Beach County and the World Affairs Council.

[edit] Awards

In 1994, in recognition of his entrepreneurial accomplishments, Palm Beach Atlantic University has awarded him the Companion American Free Enterprise Medal. In October 2001, he received the Outstanding Achievement in Business Award in a joint meeting of the American Jewish Congress and American Turkish Association of Southern California.

On May 11, 2002, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, and his name entered into the Congressional Record (he received his award because of his successful business career and civic service to the United States).

[edit] Additional information

He is a past chairman of American Turkish Association of Southern California and is on the Board of Trustees of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations ("ATAA": the national umbrella organization for all of the Turkish-American organizations). Mr. Mustafaoglu is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Institute of Turkish Studies, which funds research in the U.S. universities regarding Turkish history and culture.

Because of Mr. Mustafaoglu’s activities and investments to increase Internet access by Latinos living in the U.S., he was asked by California’s Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante to serve on the Board of Trustees of California-Mexico Fellowship Program.