He graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of International Relations. He completed his Master's and PhD studies in England and Turkey. His Master's Thesis is on Environmental Policy Making in the European Community and his Ph.D. Thesis is on Management of Global Enterprisez. He became Assoc. Prof. of Management Sciences in 2000, and Prof. in 2020.

He became Sub-Governor in 1987 and served in various districts until 1995. Between 1995 and 2000, he served as Head of Department and as Deputy General Director in the General Directorate of Local Authorities of the Ministry of Interior. In addition to these duties, he served as the National Secretary of the Turkish Delegation representing Turkey at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, between 1995-2000. In the same years, he was a member of the Committee of Selected Expert on Transfrontier Cooperation in the Council of Europe and of the Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR), which is the top Committee. For two years in 1999-2000, he held the position of the Chairman of this committee.

He served as the Governor of Nevşehir in 2000-2001, as the General Secretary of TOBB in 2002, as the Governor of Yalova between 2003-2011, and as the Governor at the Centre after 2011. He retired from the Governorship in 2020. Since 2012, he has been lectured on Public Administration, Local Governments, International Organizations, International Firms, International Entrepreneurship, Environmental Policies and Political History of the European Union at Başkent University, TOBB-ETU, and İstinye University. In 2020, he started to work at Istinye University, Department of Political Science and Public Administration. Erbay, who speaks English and French, has many articles and six books published on various topics, especially local governments, the environment and globalization.