GMF South

Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı is the managing director of GMF South and the regional director for Türkiye. Prior to joining GMF, he was the manager of the Resource Development Department of the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey. Previously, Ünlühisarcıklı served as director of the ARI Movement, a Turkish NGO promoting participatory democracy, and as a consultant at AB Consulting and Investment Services.

Ünlühisarcıklı is an expert on transatlantic relations and Turkish foreign policy, domestic politics, democratization, and civil society. He is quoted frequently in international media including The New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Deutsche Welle, and the BBC.

After graduating from the Robert College (Istanbul), Ünlühisarcıklı received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Marmara University and his master's degree from Koç University. He speaks fluent English in addition to his native Turkish.

William McIlhenny is a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He was formerly at the White House as a director at the National Security Council, and at the US Department of State as a senior policy advisor. He also served as a member of the secretary of state's policy planning staff. 

Kristina Kausch is deputy managing director of GMF’s South and Wider Europe program, dividing her time between Madrid and Brussels. An established voice on European foreign affairs and Europe’s relations with its neighborhood, she conducts research on a broad interdisciplinary portfolio that includes international security, connectivity, the geopolitics of technology, and global power shifts.

Prior to joining GMF, Kausch held positions with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; FRIDE, a Spanish think tank; the Bertelsmann Stiftung; and GIZ, the German development cooperation agency. She has contributed to a wide range of media outlets including The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Guardian, Politico, El País, RTVE, Defense One, Deutsche Welle, ARD, Der Tagesspiegel, and Süddeutsche Zeitung. 

Dr. Len Ishmael is the former ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to Belgium and to the European Union, and past president of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels. She is a former director for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, director general for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, alternate governor for the World Bank, and director for the Foundation - Leadership for Environment and Development of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.