Following his education in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Hacettepe University, M. Celalettin Akça pursued his professional career in the forest products and wood industries. Since 1979, he has served as an executive, partner, board member and consultant in production, trade, import, export and timber construction activities.
Akça has combined his long-standing expertise particularly in solid wood with perspectives on the environment, development and sustainability. He has contributed to numerous projects involving project development, implementation management, coordination, consultancy, situational analysis and reporting.
Since 2013, Akça has served as Chairman of the Board of the National Wood Association. Since the same year, he has also held the position of Vice President at TORİD, the Turkish Forest Products Industrialists and Businessmen Association. Since 2021, he has additionally been involved in the Sustainable Forest and Forest Products Certification Association, SOYDER.
Among the projects Akça has contributed to in recent years are the Türkiye National Forestry Program 2043, the GEF-7 project aimed at expanding energy-efficient and low-cost timber buildings in Türkiye, the Project for Expanding the Use of Wood and work on the Türkiye Timber Building Regulation. He has also taken part in efforts to determine the strength classes of domestic tree species and to develop Türkiye’s PEFC Sustainable Forest Management Standards.
A contributor to the Solid Wood Sector Report, Akça has written articles in various publications on the role of wood in architecture and sustainable construction and has delivered seminars at several universities on wood and its fields of application.
Akça’s work is shaped by the view that wood should be considered not merely as a traditional construction and production material, but as a strategic resource in the context of climate change, sustainable construction and the low-carbon economy.
