Uygar Özesmi is a serial social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to the development of a society and economy that is in harmony with nature. With the belief that a “great transformation” is needed, he has founded over a dozen organizations and initiatives working towards ecological and social development and sustainability in Turkey and beyond in the past 25 years. His work has positively impacted the lives of 10 million individuals, moving Uygar closer to his vision. His experience has culminated when he founded good4trust.org, a platform which brings together fair and sustainable producers with responsible prosumers.He has a carbon zero house, producing all the energy off-the-grid, harvesting all the water from rain.

In the past, he was the advisor of the Minister of State responsible for the Environment in 1989-90, received MSc degree in Environmental Science at Ohio State University as a Fulbright Scholar, a PhD as a MacArthur Scholar in Conservation Biology as well as in Development and Social Change at the University of Minnesota.

He also was Assistant Professor and Chair of Environmental Science at Erciyes University (2000-2004); Environmental Specialist at the United Nations Development Program (2004-2006); Executive Director of TEMA Foundation (2006-2008) the largest environmental NGO in Turkey, and Executive Director of Greenpeace Mediterranean (2008-2012), and Eastern Europe and West Asia Director of Change.org (2012-2017)

Uygar was founding chairman of Doğa Derneği (BirdLife Partner) in 2002, one of the founding members of Civil Society Development Center (STGM) and among other past and present board memberships he has been elected to the board of CIVICUS – World Alliance for Citizen Participation (2010-2016). He has more than 100 scientific publications and has published countless popular articles, a book and has a daily radio program at Açık Radio. Currently Uygar is the founder and instigator of Good4Trust.org a platform for sustainable life-styles for ecological and social sustainability.