Volkan Cetinkaya is a Senior Economist based in Washington, D.C., with 20 years of experience in health financing and health systems strengthening. Since 2022, he has served as the health sector Task Team Leader for the World Bank’s Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) portfolio in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries, leading high-impact, data-driven initiatives in health financing, private health insurance, impact evaluation, regulatory frameworks, and mental health.
Previously, he worked across several countries in the Europe and Central Asia region—including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Uzbekistan—where he prepared and led operations, including the first cross-sectoral Human Development Program-for-Results in Georgia. Before joining the World Bank, he was a member of the health financing team at the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office in Egypt. Earlier in his career, he served as an advisor to the Minister of Health in Türkiye and spent more than four years in academia and management consulting in Chicago, USA.
He received his B.A. from Bilkent University, Türkiye, and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Rutgers University, USA.