Banu Akin

Specialist, Enterprise Development & Competitiveness Portfolio

Banu Akin is an experienced international development specialist in the areas of economic growth of micro, small and medium-sized enterprise development; training and workshop facilitation, project management and research. Ms. Akin is a key member of the team that developed the curriculum for USAID’s value chain approach using participatory methodologies, and she has traveled extensively conducting value chain analyses and training practitioners and program staff working with micro and small enterprises. Ms. Akin combines international private sector experience, advanced education and applied research to collaborate on new development methodologies primarily within the value chain framework. Currently based in Turkey, she conducts technical work for the Enterprise Development and Competitiveness portfolio at ACDI/VOCA, including the $10 million Knowledge and Practice Task Order under the Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project Business Development Services (AMAP BDS). Ms. Akin earned an M.B.A. from Georgetown University and B.S. in chemical engineering from Bogazici University, in Istanbul, Turkey. She speaks native Turkish and is fluent in English and German.