ANKARA - Kemal Dervis, named Tuesday head of the UN Development Program, is a former World Bank vice president and Turkey's former economy minister credited as the driving force of painful reforms that saved the country from the brink of financial collapse in 2001.
The reforms he spearheaded are today widely seen as the foundations on which the incumbent government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan capitalized to achieve a spectacular recovery in the Turkish economy.
The 56-year-old Dervis is currently a parliament member from the main opposition center-left Republican People's Party (CHP), but has stayed away from the spotlights and the rough-and-tumble of Turkish politics since general elections in November 2002.
He took over the reins of the economy in March 2001 when then prime minister Bulent Ecevit summoned him home from the World Bank following a severe financial crisis.
The far-reaching reforms he initiated restricted political meddling in the economy, which, coupled with widespread corruption and cronyism had contributed to Turkey's financial woes.
His credibility grew as many saw in him a down-to-earth technocrat who would never resort to populism, the trademark of Turkish politics.
In a short time he became the most trusted man of the jittery financial markets and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Ankara.
His prestige in Washington and international financial circles, the result of a 23-year successful career at the World Bank, helped Turkey to win loans both from the IMF and the World Bank.
Calm and cheerful in front of the cameras, Dervis proved uncompromising and stubborn behind the scenes, emerging victorious from frequent rows with opponents of the IMF-backed reforms who have accused him of surrendering Turkey's interests to foreign circles.
An unexpected failure marked his career ahead of the November 2002 general elections when he unsucessfully tried to unite the country's fractured center-left.
Dervis's failed plan was aimed at forging a pro-Western secularist alliance to counter Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), a conservative movement with Islamist roots, which eventually won the elections.
He then joined the CHP and won a parliamentary seat.
The widespread credibility he enjoys has even prompted suggestions for him to be named chief negotiator in Turkey's accession talks with the European Union, set to start on October 3, but the government has insisted that the post will go to someone from its own ranks.
Dervis holds degrees from the London School of Economics and Princeton University in the United States. He speaks English, French and German.
Born in 1949 in Istanbul to a Turkish father and a German mother, he is married to his second wife, an American.
Apart from his economic credentials, Dervis has had a regular place on the top of lists of Turkey's most handsome politicians, conducted among women.
04/26/2005 17:21 GMT