Mustafa Gül

Mustafa Gül graduated from the Department of City and Regional Planning from Middle East Technical University in 2008 and completed his master's degree in European Spatial Planning and Regional Development in Sweden in 2010. After completing his master's degree, he returned to Türkiye and worked for 7 years as an expert and manager at the North Anatolia Development Agency (KUZKA) where he worked on regional and spatial planning, sustainable development, culture and tourism and EU projects.

While working at KUZKA, he began his doctoral studies in the urbanism programme at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and completed his thesis on the topics of cities, creativity, and solidarity in 2019, earning the title of Doctor.

In 2017, Gül transitioned to the Istanbul Development Agency, where he served as the Coordinator of the Creative Industries Results-Oriented Program and the Head of the Culture and Creativity Unit. In this role, he worked on regional planning, strategy and policy development in creative industries, network building, development of EU projects, and the design of grant programs.

In October 2023, he changed his career path and co-founded Culture Unleashed, a new initiative that provides services in strategic planning, strategic management, research, programming, project development, and learning in the field of cultural and creative industries. 

Since 2022, he has been teaching courses on cultural and creative industries at Istanbul Bilgi University and Bahçeşehir University. He is a delegate of Cities & Regions Network under EIT Culture & Creativity.