Selim Yenel (born 1956, Istanbul) entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979. Posted to the OECD, Paris (1981 – 84), Turkish Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan (1984 – 86), UN in New York (1988 – 92), Turkish Delegation to the European Union, Brussels (1994 – 99). He returned to Ankara and dealt with EU matters up until the opening of accession negotiations (1999 - 2005). Ambassador to Vienna (2005 – 09). Deputy Under-Secretary for Bilateral Political Affairs and Public Diplomacy (2009 – 11). Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Turkey to the European Union (2011 – 17). Undersecretary at the Ministry of EU Affairs (Jan 2017 - July 2018) until EU Ministry and Foreign Ministry merged. First Deputy Secretary General at the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Organization (2019 – 20). In January 2020 he became President of Global Relations Forum. He recently published a book in Turkish, “The European Union's Turkey Challenge”. He is married and has a son and a daughter.