My Video Interview with Marquis Who is Who

07 Jul

07Jul

Video Interview H. Burak Erten

Q: Can you tell us about the mission of the Coalition of Hope Foundation and how you became affiliated with it?

My role is Senior Policy Advisor for International Financial Affairs

Mission 1: Disaster Response and Pre-Disaster Preparations COH Foundation seeks to provide ship based humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) platforms to provide support in need. The concept is based on establishing a coalition of nations to participate, state of the art hospital facilities, an array of coalition of medical personnel, air lift capabilities, emergency supplies. Every ship will benefit around 20 million lives according to estimations. Haiti or Turkish earthquakes or Covid times where US Navy was in New York. There is a major need for such facilities. Having seen the need, the president came up with this vision a long time ago

Mission 2: Medical Readiness and Training (MRT) Outside of Disasters, it will provide essential medical assistance to those in need in coordination with the nations part of the coalition. Regular visits to same host nations will allow for ongoing patient treatment and observation. The financial model includes multiple revenue streams including Media elements that creates a self-sustaining operations model from a revenue perspective. The participation of coalition of nations allows for risk and cost sharing while enabling good diplomacy. It is positioned to be a valuable tool for contributing to various peace initiatives due to the way it is structured. I got involved with the foundation 6 years ago. I was introduced to President Timothy Keegan through a common friend who is also part of the foundation executive structure. Tim has a military and banking background, a life dedicated to selfless service doing the right thing while being a true visionary and leader. We have had an instant connection as we realized we share the same values with similar backgrounds and opinions. I also truly loved the vision and the concept and have joined the foundation. The foundations objectives are very identical to what US stands for in my opinion; a world in peace, helping the people in need and doing this with consensus.

Q: In what ways has your geopolitical experience enabled you to solve complex problems?

The field of Geopolitics is an area that consists of complex equations that necessitate multi-faceted, multi layered approaches where actions create multiple different outcomes with ripples in the pond kind of effects leading to new circumstances. It is a dynamic environment where conflicting realities co-exist at the same time. Especially, in the last 15 years, it has evolved into an ever-complex scene with the age of digitalism bombarding misinformation and disinformation all across the board. I have been involved in geopolitics for 30 years advocating for US interests and values globally in a private capacity with the help of my friends in the US. These experiences teach one a variety of different skillsets and perceptions on things.

What geopolitics teach you:

You have to be meticulously prepared for multiple outcomes as a result of your actions and you need to have plans and strategies for all these different outcomes to determine your course of action
You have to carefully think ahead of all scenarios and possibilities to create an almost risk-free operational situation with almost zero tolerance for negative and adverse impacts
You need to be prudent, vigilant, perseverant and stay dedicated to your objectives
You need to be responsible for your actions, always remembering you are doing a selfless act for the greater good and the results of your actions might affect many people’s lives.
You work with various cultures exploring other people’s world and this effectively nurtures your diplomatic and people skills. Your emphatical abilities improve and as a result you start to have more tolerance for others
You learn not to get carried away with the realities of current circumstances, always keeping in mind not to lose the general picture and long-term objectives.
Geopolitics is also an art of creating opportunities out of problems. A situation or problem happening in a certain jurisdiction might create opportunities for your advocacy enabling positive outcomes for the values and interests you represent and the people in need in that specific situation.
You continuously have a need to change your strategy in order to adapt to the new circumstances while not losing focus on your objectives. The discipline trains you to be adaptive and sometimes be disruptive while staying compliant with standard practices
You learn a lot about many things in life while you start specializing in certain areas. This requires you to do a lot of research, reading and writing. In essence, you learn to see the big picture while staying attentive to details.
You sometimes need to design complex and complicated equations while sometimes you need to create very simple approaches to matters. This teaches you to have a balance between the two after understanding the dynamics of how these two different approaches interact with each other.
While you have a need to adapt to changing circumstances, you also need to keep your standing for your values and beliefs steady. Sometimes certain situations cause hardships; however, you stay perseverant to your Cause and objectives. Demonstrating certain characteristics helps create a legacy with regards to your personality. This allows doing what you do easier. The impact of your actions and lack of them have bigger impacts on others. You started to be taken more seriously by others. It is challenging, but you learn how to do this.

All these experiences and skillsets you develop in this field provide multiple added values for your business life obviously.

How they are useful in business life:

You act risk averse and prudent while being positively disruptive and innovative.
Your human interaction skills allow you to be a better leader with the emphatical skills you have developed.
You approach problems as opportunities and create continuous solutions to fix those problems to turn them into opportunities. Some of the times, this is how positively disruptive outcomes occur
You do proper planning, preparation and structuring before you start on your actions. Like life teaches us continuously, these plans and preparations need adaptations and changes continuously and this becomes an advantage of staying ahead of the game.
It allows you to stay focused on your long-term objectives while being able to maneuver fast for short term goals in order to stay on course
You can continuously change your lens and perspective of things and be more adaptive
You stay calm and focused when you encounter an issue or a problem, allowing you to handle stressful situations.
You evaluate every situation based on facts and confirmed data instead of being driven by your emotions and personal aspirations although this is not contradictory to being passionate about what you do.
You apply the same techniques you use for tackling challenges at the corporate or industry level and always look to seek practical solutions
Foremost, your tactical and strategical skills allow you stay hands on in everything you are involved with

Q: What, in your opinion, are the most significant projects that you've been part of?

There are many projects that I have been part of or involved in.

My CEO role in Real estate company in Turkey allowed me to nurture organizational build up skills. I did 7 innovations including designing 2 new mortgage products and implementing them. Achieved sales records with extraordinary parameters such as selling half of the whole district at 2x times the price. At one stage, I had 110 plus executives and 650 people on my payroll. It allowed me to demonstrate my trouble shooting skills almost on a daily basis and that company helped shape the industry to the next level.

I have been involved with the Ukrainian government in 2003 and 2004 and we have proposed the largest financing offer ever to the Ukrainian government back then. 2.1 billion USD from a top 3 global bank to the government directly. I spent close to 2 years in Ukraine contributing to the country in multiple different ways.

I was the president of an Italian state-owned foundation partnered company where we were proposing rehabilitation of healthcare systems of countries such as Syria, Iraq and more. Italian State and 3 other countries were involved including major Vatican Hospitals. We also worked on thalassemia and leukemia cures. Back in those days, it was the most impactful geopolitical and humanitarian project of the region.

I was involved with the presidential office of Turkiye back in 2016 and 2017 as a partner of a global US financial advisory firm. We worked in improving the economic parameters of the economy and achieved our goals of Turkish Lira / USD parity with pre-announcements without exhausting the currency reserves of Turkish Treasury. My objective was to help contribute to US Turkish relationships.

I was involved unofficially with the Italian State Joint Task force for Covid 19 through my associates and peers there. I was one of the people that exchanged data and experience between Italy and US trying to help combat the pandemic. I was involved between 12^th March to 20 th June 2020 and I was at the eye of the hurricane seeing everything firsthand. I have been part of many other important projects in business or geopolitical life, and these may be some of the more significant ones.

Q: You've recently written some books in your "Unlocking Capital" series. What can you tell us about those?

This is a series of books that I have planned for a long time. They are related to my professional work and have been published as a result of several years of work although writing them didn’t take that long. The philosophy behind this has been to increase financial literacy, showing the ways and means to project sponsors on how to raise capital efficiently understanding the language of the other side of the table. All these years, I have seen, analyzed or underwritten various projects and have spoken to hundreds of project sponsors. I have observed a disconnect between them and the actual players of capital markets. My hope has been to contribute more to capital raising efforts of sponsors. I see this as a mission to contribute to more economic activity taking place which will only assist in creating a more robust economy in the US. I worked on contents and topics that will make each book a unique proposition for any interested reader.

The first book; The power of bonds in project finance lays out the whole technical and mechanical process of bond issuances and how bonds can be utilized to finance projects. Any project sponsor that wants to pursue this route will be able to conduct proper and educated conversations with their investment bankers after reading this book. It is important for the project sponsors to understand how this mechanism works in order to achieve successful outcomes.

The second book; The Insider’s Guide to Luxembourg Financial Structures lay out all the available financial structures, conduits and facilities Luxembourg has to offer globally. Luxembourg is not very well known in the US although it is one of the leading financial centers in EU. I have been operating out of Luxembourg close to a decade now and I know firsthand what kind efficient, compliant and streamlined financial conduits Luxembourg has to offer with regards to capital markets practices.

The third book; How to Speak the Language of Wall Street basically talks about anything and everything about finance and capital markets with a comprehensive glossary including jargon towards the end of the book. By reading this book, the readers will have a broad and overall understanding of what kind of sub segments we have in capital markets. I am hoping that after reading this book, any non-capital market professional will have a better understanding of the way we talk; again, for the sole purpose of bridging the gap, making more deals take place. The book will allow for a basic understanding, and I have encouraged everyone to take a deeper dive and research the topics they are interested in.

The fourth book; How to Structure Bankable and Bondable projects is in my opinion the ultimate guide for structuring projects to have a higher chance of getting funded. I have reverse engineered credit rating criteria documents and created 280 plus questions with detailed guidelines for each question. The book explains the concept of underwriting and provides a guide as how to create institutional grade asset classes out of projects. I have also presented concepts that will help project sponsors post financing on how to apply good corporate governance mechanisms in order to execute their projects in line with the expectations of their stakeholders. I tried to make it practical in a hand holding fashion walking them step by step on what they need to do and how they should do it to create a bankable and bondable project structure.

Q: How do you give back to your community?

I make recurring donations to some of the security, intelligence and military associated foundations in the US. I have always felt very close to them although I have been a civilian myself. I am also making donations for street animals and trying to help people that try to take care of them.

Additionally, I try to help people around me without any expectations on matters that I specialize in. I believe that sharing knowledge and information only makes our lives better

On the 12^{th of} December 2023, I have my last will and testament prepared. 12^th December was the day I lost my father back in 1995. I am leaving 90 % whatever assets or holdings I will create before time is finished in this world to military and security and intelligence apparatus associated foundations in the US. My father was working with US Military when he was doing his military service in Turkey. It was a division called JUSMMAT (Office of Defense Cooperation Turkey - Wikipedia ) and he always saw US servicemen as his brothers and sisters , the same way I see them.

The testament and will has been structured irrevocably with regards to the allocation of assets and I believe this will be a good way of giving back to the community.

Q: What are your plans or goals for the future? Currently I spend my time between US, Europe and Turkey and have launched several projects and business initiatives acting on behalf of my European clients representing our Luxembourg fund management platform for their projects in the US. I negotiate and structure their deals with their US counterparties utilizing my skillsets.

Recently, I have spent considerably more time in the US than what I have been doing in the last 28 years as these negotiations take a significant amount of time as there are cultural differences that I have personally observed as well. I happen to have a good understanding of those differences and I have been working to bridge the differences in order for successful undertakings.

However, I have also noticed that I can contribute more to the US economy by spending more time here if my personal circumstances will allow it. I have realized that I can add value. I have been advocating for US interests for a long time globally and my jurisdictional presence has never been an obstacle in that respect.

However, developing projects need a more hands-on approach. I am currently designing 4 financial products in partnership with US Capital Market participants as a JV between our Luxembourg platform and them. It also symbolizes the US-EU partnership in a small context. These financial products are based on existing concepts and structures redesigned with a different architecture heavily using the benchmarking mechanism.

I am planning on introducing more financial products in order to contribute to the US economy. I also would like to Initiate State and County level economic initiatives in order to extract intrinsic values of the economy to create more financial and economic benefits for all stakeholders involved.

Having a good understanding of what can be done in this perspective, I believe I will be able to contribute that will help create jobs and economic stimulus in certain parts of the country.

I will continue working for US interests and values advocacy globally and will try to create more positive impact with my geopolitical and humanitarian efforts to contribute to global US Leadership and Supremacy. US Supremacy and leadership allows for an international rule-based order to be sustained as this is a proven fact that can clearly be observed in the last 80 years.

Q: Outside of work, what are some of your notable endeavors?Geopolitics:

I consider my geopolitical activities to be outside of work as it has been my passion throughout my career.

Prosperity Bonds Agency – A Call to Action to G7

After 3.5 years of work, I have made a Call to Action to G7 recently. Prosperity Bonds Agency- A Call to Action to G7 is the book that I recently published for that purpose. I proposed a streamlined, almost like a plug & play kind of concept for efficient capital deployment strategies for G7 to pursue. I have brought together the best practices from US and EU Capital markets under this proposed bond issuance agency model. If accepted, it will allow for more capital deployment to emerging markets while creating more connectivity and inclusivity. The agency design also allows for capital deployment for projects in the US and other member countries as well. I have taken into consideration a variety of factors to achieve multiple geopolitical objectives in this endeavor. The financial architecture allows for multiple deployment of the same capital raised by G7 on a Risk Syndication basis. The agency is for profit creating no wealth transfer from any taxpayer with minimal burden on the respective treasuries of the participating nations. This book has been the result of my 30 years geopolitical activities coupled with my capital markets experience with the objective of creating multiple geopolitical benefits for the US and its allies. I am planning on proposing a similar financial architecture to be applicable in the US at Federal and State Level towards the end of the year.

Homelessness Issue – Book

I have been reviewing and analyzing the issue since 2011 from my days at DC working with my lawyers for my arbitration case. Since then, I have talked to hundreds of homeless people whenever I have been on the Stateside. Combining my financial architectural skills, close understanding of US Capital Markets and the sociological and psychological aspects of the issue, I believe I have a solid and tangible holistic solution for the matter. Finally, I am hoping to propose some new ideas on the subject. My proposal will be based on creating industrial towns with living spaces that will host our people creating a financially sustainable structure providing a second chance for them to be back to the community contributing to the nation. I am currently writing a book about it, and I am working with the COH Foundation in order to create a committee on how to implement the strategy that I will be proposing to the issue.

Valuepolitics

I have coined this term in the preface of my Prosperity Bonds Agency book. I have also started writing a book about this to enlarge my focus on this topic. The concept of geopolitics and the consequences of actions that take place in this space limit us to the realm of the 20th century. In this digital age where there are tremendous amounts of interactions globally between the citizens of all nations and with this massive load of information available to most; understanding the dynamics of interactions between nations and social groups cannot be understood solely based on the concepts of the last century and they can not be limited only to geography. People from different countries share the same values, agendas and interests today. I believe time has come to take these into considerations while designing our policies taken into consideration of the expectations of people around the globe. This does not necessarily mean demolishing the borders; quite the opposite being a Pro Nation-State persona with the sincere belief that a non-toxic globalism is always good for humanity and business; I believe we also need to change our perspective with regards to how we see the new political landscape. One major indication that can be observed currently is the movement of people and refugees which cannot be solely interpreted from a financial perspective. The world has the risk of being divided into democracies and autocracies. In my humble opinion, we need to provide any and all efforts to ensure the world continues with democracy prevailing while winning the hearts and minds of people around the world. In this book, I will be enlarging on these concepts

Not So Big Ideas for a Nation of Miracles

Whenever I find time, I tend to brainstorm and think about introducing disruptive concepts for the US Economy. I have also started my journey to write a book about all these different concepts I would like to introduce. Most of those concepts will be found to be disruptive, major scale, not easy to implement or not even realistic. My objective is to do this exercise in order to ignite and stimulate the urge in others to accomplish mega projects and objectives.

Considering the massive projects US Army Corps of Engineers have undertaken in the past, what US Military has achieved in the WW2 (ranking from 19^th military to 1^st in 6 years) or what the founding fathers actually achieved at the inception (what were the odds of success) ; I am a firm believer in this Great Nation’s capabilities of creating miracles and phenomenal things. I will be talking about concepts and my proposed solutions for

Creating asset backing for USD
Converting deserts into agricultural land
Creation of a sovereign wealth fund with several objectives to be pursued
Creation of a Development Bank for the Homeland Economy (mirroring what DFC does for outside of US)
Creation of several financial agencies at the State Level
Getting US SMEs to operate globally more, ways and means
Increasing economic prosperity in the US (several ideas and concepts)
A revisit to industrialization with practical suggestions
Reducing National Debt
Enhancing Capital Base of Regional and Superregional banks utilizing several capital markets instruments
A few other concepts touching base on Transmission Lines investments, greenhouse investments across the country as well as a few disruptive concepts

Q: What is the one experience you've had that has taught you the most?

I would not be able to come up with one single experience that taught me the most as every situation has multiple reasons behind it, and it is challenging to determine a specific outcome purely based on one specific circumstance. However, a few major experiences that I have had taught me more than others. Due to their sensitive nature, I might not be able to talk about their specificities; however, they taught me a few valuable lessons which remain unchanged until today:

Regardless of religion, ethnicity or color or where they are, people tend to give similar reactions to similar situations.

Changing the perspective might yield to tremendous outcomes

Prejudice or benefits should not be the main determinant of what is right or wrong.

Doing the right thing always bring better results in the long run

Conflicting realities might co-exist

The world is of abundance; it is not about redundancy. The options might be more than one thinks

The USA is more powerful than most think. I have seen this firsthand

The power and influence of the system of GOD is amazing and it might be closer to you than what you might think.

Q: Were there any historic or noteworthy events that you contributed to or witnessed, either personally or professionally?

Some of the notable events that I can list comfortably would be:

2017 April Palestinian Negotiation:

After working 6 months between the parties, I was able to bring the key players around the same table in April 2017. There were 3 meetings before, and confidential negotiations halted 6 months prior. My negotiation has initiated the events with the awareness we created behind the scenes leading to the contribution of the establishment of the foundation for the Abraham Accord

2003-2004 Ukraine:

I spent considerable time in Kyiv meeting with various government officials working on a variety of different matters. I have observed the willingness and desire for the Ukrainians to be part of the western civilization. I was involved with various matters from banking to defense industry applications. I have firsthand witnessed the events leading to the Orange Revolution

2020 Covid 19 JTF:

I was unofficially involved with the JTF of Italian State through my associates. I orchestrated exchanging of data and experience between Italy and US almost on an hourly basis for a period of 3 months starting on the 12^{th of} March ending on the 20^th June. I was involved with almost all aspects of the problem, and we achieved some significant outcomes considering the circumstances. One of the things I can mention was our fight against the prices of Ventilators which went up from 5500 USD to 52.000 USD within a matter of 2.5 weeks. We managed to bring it down to the level of 10 K USD within 6 weeks. At the time, I addressed the NATO and G7 and EU governments writing articles that were published in EU independent press agency. I tried to bring practical observations and solutions to the problems of the era.

2021 Kabul- HKIA Evacuation Efforts: W

Working with associates from the security apparatus in the US, I was involved with the effort during that period. I have seen what real bravery, sacrifice and true brotherhood means seeing my friends trying to rescue their Afghani brothers and sisters they have worked together in the past. I saw associates emptying their bank accounts to arrange rescue operations.

I have seen a lot which just reinforced my true feelings of why Americans are great people and why this is the Greatest Nation ever. When you witness heroic actions firsthand, you happen to have a very objective opinion of things. There are many more historical events I have either witnessed or have been part of, but the above events are among the ones I can comfortably talk about

Q: How have you benefited from the products, services, and benefits that Marquis Who’s Who has to offer?

First of all, it is truly a humbling and honoring experience to be accepted to this distinguished family of members. Being part of this directory definitely establishes you as an Authority in your field as everyone knows it is a very big deal to be part of this society. It provides recognition as well as admiration from others on a global scale You also truly know you have been selected based on merits due to the legacy of Marquis Who is Who and this provides a new level of self confidence on a personal and business level Being part of this prestigious, exquisite and distinguished club definitely takes you to the next level The team at Marquis Who is Who has the utmost professionalism and passion for what they do. This was clearly observed by me throughout this whole process. Being part of Marquis Who is Who has definitely helped me tremendously for my Career

Q: What does being a Marquis listee mean to you?

A matter of Pride Encouragement to achieve more

Humbling and Honoring experience

Makes you feel special reenergizing you for your ambitions and goals

Makes you feel that possibilities are endless being part of this distinguished club of people

Gratitude: makes you realize all the sacrifices or contributions never went unnoticed

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