Founder
Dr. Ozan Özerk was born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1979. At a young age, he moved to Norway with his family. Kamil Özerk, his father, is a professor at the Department of Education at the University of Oslo. Meral R. Özerk, his mother, specializes in children with learning disabilities. Both have authored several books on education, autism and bilingualism.
After high school at Nordstrand Videregående Skole, Dr. Ozan Özerk studied medicine at the University of Oslo from 2000 to 2008. After graduation, he completed his medical internship at Narvik Hospital. Before establishing his career in the fintech space, Dr. Ozan Özerk started off as a medical doctor. He held positions as an emergency room doctor in the cities of Narvik, Bærum, and Moss.
Dr. Ozan Özerk’s entrepreneurial career seeds were sowed in the late 1990s. He co-founded Norsk Ideutvikling in 2005, an online media company famous for its social networking site Biip.no, later acquired by Egmont and Nettavisen.
Dr. Ozan Özerk made the shift to his career in the fintech industry after 2015. Alongside Ozan Elektronik Para (Ozan Electronic Money), Openpayd, EMBank and Eurotrader are some of his more prominent ventures.
OpenPayd was founded and is headquartered in London, with offices in Bulgaria, Turkey, Malta, France and the USA. OpenPayd offers Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions to businesses. Today, Openpayd is one of the leading BaaS providers in Europe.
European Merchant Bank (EMBank), based in Lithuania, was founded in late November 2018. EMBank has a banking license from the European Central Bank.
Ozan Electronic Money was also founded by Dr. Özerk in 2018. Headquartered in London with affiliates and offices in Turkey and the EU, Ozan SuperApp is a new-generation fintech company that offers financial solutions to both individuals and businesses.
Eurotrader is a fully licensed and regulated retail broker in forex, stocks, indices and commodities.
As one of the industry pioneers, Dr. Ozan Özerk frequently shares his thoughts and projections on the future of fintech through interviews and opinion pieces. He also has a strong standpoint on financial inclusion and equality, often speaking and writing on these topics.
Dr. Ozan Ozerk was accepted into the Forbes Finance Council in 2021. Members are vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of their experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honours.