Sinan Ulgen graduated in 1987 from the University of Virginia with a double major in computer science and economics. He undertook graduate studies at the College of Europe in Brugge, Belgium, where he received a master's degree in European economic integration in 1990. He then joined the Turkish Foreign Service as a career diplomat. In 1992, he was posted to the Turkish Permanent Delegation to the European Union in Brussels, where he became part of the team that negotiated the Turkey-EU customs union.
Ulgen is the founder and managing partner of Istanbul Economics. The consultancy specializes in market entry strategies for international companies, political and economic risk analysis related to Turkey, and regulatory affairs. Ulgen is also the chairman of the Istanbul-based think tank Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM) and a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe.
His opinion pieces have been published by the International New York Times, Le Figaro, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Project Syndicate and Foreign Policy. He has authored a book on Turkey-EU relations with Kemal Derviş. He is the author of the Carnegie Endowment–published books entitled “The Governance of Cyberspace” and “Re-wiring Globalization”, as well as the co-editor of books on EU economic statecraft and on Turkey’s nuclear policy. He was a member of the international group of security experts established by former NATO Secretary General Rasmussen, and formerly a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the NATO Defense College in Rome.
