After graduating from the Department of Tourism Management and Hotel Management, Ferzan Çelikkanat continued his education at Southern State University in the USA, where he earned an MBA. Çelikkanat started his professional career as an assistant operations manager at a Marriott hotel group in the USA and returned to Turkey after a while. He was transferred to a global real estate and tourism investment holding based in Istanbul, where he worked as the General Coordinator responsible for the development, branding, construction and operation of all real estate projects within the Holding. During this period, he realized many branded Residences projects in the international luxury segment, Shopping Centers, spa and real estate projects with the world’s most important brands. 
In 2012, he became the General Manager of one of the leading investor companies in Turkey. Within the company, Çelikkanat has been working on the creation and realization of a branded hotel real estate portfolio worth 500 million dollars and is currently developing and operating 6 branded hotel projects. He is a member of the Marriott Advisory Board in the EMEA region, a member of the IBB Tourism Platform Advisory Board, a board member of various NGOs in Turkey such as HOFTEL, TTYD, GISP and provides consultancy services to international organizations. He speaks English and German.