Mehmet İlker Aycı was born in Istanbul in 1971. He is originally from Giresun.
He graduated from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Bilkent University before continuing his education at the Department of Political Science at Leeds University as a researcher. He then received his master's degree on International Relations at Marmara University in 1997. In 1994, he served as an advisor to H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then Mayor of Istanbul, now President of Turkey.
After working at Kurtsan Pharmaceuticals PLC, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Universal Foreign Trade PLC, he served as the CEO at Başak Insurance PLC between 2005-2006 and at Güneş Insurance PLC between 2006-2011. He was the chairman of Vakıfbank Güneş Insurance Sports Club during his tenure as the CEO of Güneş Insurance PLC.
In January 2011, he was appointed as the President of the Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT). During his Presidency of the Investment Agency, critical decisions were made with the strategic importance to business sectors offering high added-value solutions expanding into regional and global markets.
In 2013, ISPAT was elected as the President of World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA), the framework organization for all investment promotion agencies in the world. İlker Aycı was unanimously elected as the President of WAIPA. From 2013 through 2015, Mr. Aycı served as the president of WAIPA, which has a total of 175 national and regional investment agencies from 130 countries as its members.
In April 2014, İlker Aycı was selected as a Board Member at. After serving as a Board Member for a year, he was appointed the Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee of Turkish Airlines during the General Assembly meeting of April 2015.