Özgü Karakulak holds a BA degree in economics from the Sabanci University Turkey and has been awarded an MA degree in Development Studies from the University of Manchester in 2009. On completion of her MA, she worked for several NGOs focused on education and women’s empowerment in Turkey. In 2012 she started studying MRes in Management Science at the ESADE Business School, Spain. Özgü worked as a Teaching and Research Assistant at Prof. Gilbert Probst's research team from 2014 to 2019.

She completed her PhD in 2019. Currently she is an academic visitor at University of Oxford supported by SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation) Early Postdoc Mobility Funding. Her research interests are related to Institutional Theory, Institutional Work, Institutional Complexity, Public-Private Partnerships,Cross Sector Partnerships.