Nilgün Tas is the Deputy Director of the Department of Environment, UNIDO, and the Chief for the Industrial Resource Efficiency Division. She also leads UNIDO’s cross-departmental team for circular economy. As a private sector development specialist with over 30 years of experience, Nilgünheld various positions as Chief for Competitiveness, Business Environment and Industrial Upgrading, Chairperson of the Gender Mainstreaming Steering Committee, UNIDO Representative in Vietnam and Chief/Senior Technical Advisor for UNIDO,and in projects for UNDP, OECD and TIKA since 1996.

Previously, Nilgünwas the Vice President of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Administration (KOSGEB) in Turkey; a founder and Board Member for the Turkish Credit Guarantee Fund Company (KGF), and a founding team member of the Turkish International Cooperation Agency (TIKA). In her capacity as Projects and Programmes Coordinator of TIKA, she deployed funding for technical assistance projects for partners and helped set up the OECD Ankara Tax Training and the Istanbul Private Sector Development Centers. She holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in engineering and an MBA.