26 Apr 2024

Ozan Diren, President

CEO of DİMES, one of Türkiye’s leading beverage companies, and a Member of the Board of Directors at Diren Holding, was born in Tokat in 1974. Ozan Diren earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Istanbul Technical University in 1996.

Following his master’s degree in marketing from the University of Hartford (USA) in 1999, he completed the Finance Specialization Program at the Institute of Business Economics at Istanbul University in 2011.

He began his career at DİMES during his university years, assuming active responsibilities across all business functions and organizational tiers.

A member of the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) since 2006, Ozan Diren served as a Board Member and Chair of the Agriculture, Food and Services Roundtable in the 2022-2023 term, and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors in the 2024–2025 term. Diren was elected President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD at the General Assembly held on January 15, 2026.

In addition to his business career, Ozan Diren has held long-standing responsibilities in non-governmental organizations. His other roles include:

  • TOBB (Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye): Served as the President of the Turkish Beverage Industry Council until 2026, a position to which he was unanimously elected in 2021.
  • MEYED (Turkish Fruit Juice Industry Association): Served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors in previous terms.
  • TÜRKONFED (Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation): Served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors in previous terms.
  • Other Board Memberships: Served as a Board Member at IFU (International Fruit and Vegetable Juice Association), UNDP-B4G (Business for Goals), ŞÜD (Association of Wine Producers), and SETBİR (Union of Dairy, Beef, Food Industrialists and Producers of Türkiye).

Ozan Diren is married and has three children.

Published in (EN) YK Özgeçmişleri
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15 Apr 2024

Global Supply Chains

Published in Working Groups
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19 Mar 2024

Technology Standards and Standard Essential Patents (SEP)

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10 Jan 2024

Supply Chain Traceability Research Report

Supply Chain Traceability Research Report
Published in Reports
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15 Mar 2024

The TÜSİAD Silicon Valley Network held the second event of its ongoing AI Webinar Series: “AI & Law: Digitalization and the Redrawing of Legal Boundaries.”

The TÜSİAD Silicon Valley Network held the second event of its ongoing AI Webinar Series: “AI & Law: Digitalization and the Redrawing of Legal Boundaries.”

After brief introductory remarks by TÜSİAD SVN Chair Ayşegül İldeniz, panelists Aylin Demirci, Senior Counsel and Director at Johnson & Johnson MedTech Digital and Alexander Touma, Parter at Allen & Overy discussed the rapid growth of AI and digitalization and how it is changing that ways law is practiced across countries and sectors.

Published in Press Releases
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12 Mar 2024

New York Network

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19 Feb 2024

Board of Directors

TÜSİAD BOARD OF DIRECTORS (2026-2027)

Ozan Diren, President
Perihan İnci, Vice President
İbrahim İzzet Özilhan, Vice President
Fatih Kemal Ebiçlioğlu, Vice President
Meltem Uslu Akol
Elif Çoban
Azmi Gümüşlüoğlu
Aslı Güreşcier
Şerafettin Karakış, Treasurer
Ömer Mert
Ahu Serter
Feyyaz Ünal
Ebru Dicle (Secretary General)

TÜSİAD BOARD OF DIRECTORS ALTERNATE MEMBERS(2026-2027)

Serter Akçalı
Ali Necati Başman 
Emre Eczacıbaşı
Aydın Buğra İlter
Şebnem Kalyoncuoğlu Ünlü
Levent Kömür
Feyza Narlı
Cevher Özyavuz
Merve Tolan
Aysu Yavuz
Zeynep Yenel Onursal
Ayşegül Yılmaz

TÜSİAD HIGH ADVISORY COUNCIL (2026-2027)                               

Ömer Aras (President)
Ömer M. Koç (Vice President)
Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ      (Vice President)
N. Ümit Boyner (Vice President)
Orhan Turan (Vice President)
Tayfun Bayazıt (Secretary)
Agah Uğur (Secretary)
Published in TÜSİAD About
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13 Feb 2024

Data Protection and Technology Law Working Group

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13 Feb 2024

The Competition Law Working Group

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13 Feb 2024

Intellectual Property Working Group

 
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Page 4 of 332

Simone Kaslowski

Simone Kaslowski graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1984, after completing primary education in Istanbul. He began working in the sales department at Organik Kimya, a family business, in 1985. Kaslowski significantly expanded exports of Organik Kimya products and was appointed head of sales in 1993. After actively working on various investment projects for the firm, Kaslowski was appointed CEO and became member of the board of directors in 1995. His leadership was instrumental in the growth and expansion of Organik Kimya.

Organik Kimya operates in 80 countries and has a 250-thousand-ton production capacity in facilities in Kemerburgaz and Tuzla in Istanbul; Rotterdam, Holland; and Lugano, Switzerland.

Simone Kaslowski worked to develop the chemical sector in Turkey and contributed to the Chemport project of the Turkish Chemical Manufacturers Association.

Kaslowski was Chairman of the Chemical Industry Task Force of TÜSİAD. He has been on the Board of Directors since 2013 and has chaired the EU Affairs Committee and the Global Relations and EU Roundtable, significantly contributing to the international efforts of the association. Kaslowski has been Vice President of TÜSİAD since 2017 and was elected President in February 2019.

Batu Aksoy

Batu Aksoy, born in 1977 in Istanbul, graduated from The Johns Hopkins University (USA) Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty in 1998.

He started his career by working in a communications firm in USA between 1998-2000. Upon his return to Turkey, Mr. Aksoy continued his career at Aksoy Holding as a Board Member responsible from developing energy projects between 2000-2005. During this period, he established and managed group companies in power generation, energy wholesale, and natural gas wholesale.

Following the consolidation of the Group’s oil and energy subsidiaries under one roof, Mr. Aksoy started to serve as an Executive Board Member at Turcas Petrol in 2005 and later as the CEO as from 2010. Under this context, Mr. Aksoy serves today as a Board Member at the Shell & Turcas Petrol JV company, Vice Chairman at the RWE & Turcas Power Generation JV company, and Chairman at the wholly-owned Turcas Kuyucak Geothermal Power Generation company.

Batu Aksoy also serves as the Executive Vice Chairman of Aksoy Holding and holds the same position at the following group subsidiaries: Yeditepe International Hotels (Conrad Istanbul), Aksoy Bodrum Real Estate Investment Co. (Epique Island Bodrum), Aksoy Maslak Real Estate Investment Co., Aksoy Petrol Real Estate Investment Co., Aksoy International Trading, and Aksoy Middle East companies.

Batu Aksoy chaired PETFORM (Petroleum and Natural Gas Platform Association) between 2006-2008 and chaired ETD (Energy Traders Association) between 2013-2014.

Batu Aksoy started to contribute to the works of TUSIAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association) in 2006 through active participation in its Energy Working Group which he became the Vice President of in the years that followed.

Batu Aksoy, who is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Chile in Istanbul, is currently a Board Member of TUSIAD, Vice Chairman of TURKONFED (Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation), a Board Member of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council (TAIK) and the Turkish-Chile Business Council of DEIK (Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey), and a Member of Dean’s Advisory Council at The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School.

Batu Aksoy is the Leader of TUSIAD’s Regional Development Roundtable. He has been a Board Member of TUSIAD following its General Assembly dated January 12, 2017.

Serra Akçaoğlu

Serra Akçaoğlu is the CEO (General Manager) and Board Member for Citibank A.Ş. In addition, Mrs Akcaoglu is also responsible for 60 countries in EMEA in which Citi doesn’t have physical branches or subsidiaries but provides corporate baking services.

Prior to her current role, Serra Akçaoğlu was Consumer and Commercial Bank Head for Citibank A.Ş.

Previously, Ms. Akcaoglu was the EMEA Trade Services & Finance Head for Global Transaction Services based in London. In this role, she was responsible for trade finance and the regional strategy of the trade products, new product development and positioning of 50 countries located in this region between 2005 and 2007. Serra Akçaoğlu joined Citi in 2000 as Trade Head for Turkey and become Global Transaction Services Cluster Head in 2002.

Prior to joining Citi, she has worked in Manufacturers Hanover Bank, Chemical Bank and Kocbank for 14 years.

Serra Akçaoğlu is the Chairwoman of American Business Forum in Turkey and a Board Member of the Turkish Banking Association.

Serra Akçaoğlu graduated from the Bosphorus University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

Fatih Kemal Ebiçlioğlu

At 1989 Fatih Kemal Ebiçlioğlu started his career at the Ministry of Finance as a Junior Financial Auditor and served as a Financial Auditor and Chief Financial Auditor. He worked as a lecturer in Hacettepe, Bilkent and Atılım Universities between 1998-2002.

He joined the Koç Group in 2002 and worked as the Coordinator of the Finance Group and continued as the Coordinator of Audit Group between 2004-2005. In April 2005 he was assigned as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Arçelik AS. From February 2015, he serves as President of Consumer Durables at Koç Holding AS.

He graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration. He completed his MBA in Finance at Virginia Commonwealth University and has a PhD from Ankara University, Faculty of Business Administration.

Serkan Sevim

Serkan Sevim is a serial technology entrepreneur with “double exit” experience living in Istanbul. He started his first business while he was a masters student in the USA at the age of 25.

Serkan Sevim started and keeps working focused on Medianova, one of the fastest secure CDNs based on Cedexis real user data in Europe, North Africa and Middle East region.

In 2018, Medianova got mentioned on Gartner's 2018 CDN Market Guide. Medianova was also awarded as one of the fastest growing technology companies by Deloitte’s Technology Fast50 Turkey Program five times in the years of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Sevim, was President of the Young Executive and Businessmen Association (GYIAD)'s 15th term between the years of 2015-2017, currently a member of the prestigious Turkish Industry and Businessman Association (TUSIAD) and actively works at the Entrepreneurship and Digital Economy Round Tables.

He is also a mentor at the Founder Institute, world’s premier startup launch program for talented entrepreneurs.

Sevim appeared on media channels such as Bloomberg TV, Fortune magazine, BusinessWeek and was speaker on several international conferences.

Can Yucaoglu

Bedii Can Yücaoğlu is Director in Map Yatırım. Currently, he is the shareholder and the board member of Burda Bebek, Silahtarağa Gayrimenkul, Turkuaz Turizm, Map Elektronik and Tarımsal Kimya.

Prior to joining Map Investment, he worked as a manager at Turkven Real Estate and as a consultant for McKinsey & Company in strategy development in the finance, logistics and venture capital sectors.

He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University.

He is actively involved in the TÜSİAD Entrepreneur Roundtable, Harvard Business School Alumni Board, Turkish Education Foundation Asset Committee and Trustee Board of Entrepreneurship Foundation.

Barış Oran

Baris Oran is the CFO of Sabancı Holding. He started his career as an auditor at Price Waterhouse Coopers and from 1998 to 2003, worked at Sara Lee Corp in Chicago IL, in audit, finance and treasury/capital markets. Between 2003 and 2006, he worked as Senior Manager at Ernst and Young initially at Minneapolis, MN and then in Europe, Middle East, Africa and India regions.He started working at Kordsa Global in 2006, and held positions of Internal Audit Director, Global Finance Director and CFO respectively. Oran has started at Sabancı Holding in 2011.

He graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Business Administration, completed his MBA studies at the University of Georgia and Advanced Management Program at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Mr. Oran serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sabanci DX and he is a member of the Board of Directors of Brisa, Enerjisa Enerji, Enerjisa Uretim, Carrefoursa and Cimsa. He is also a Member of the Board of TUSIAD, BUMED and TUYID.

Murat Özyeğin

Murat Özyeğin is the Executive Board Member of FINA and FIBA Holding, Chairman of all of Fiba Group's non-financial businesses. He is also the Vice Chairman of Credit Europe Bank Group which is Fiba Group’s largest subsidiary in finance.

Mr. Özyeğin began his career in 1998 at Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., in New York City as a Financial Analyst within the Mergers & Acquisition Group. In 2000, he was appointed to Senior Analyst position at the London office of the same company. After his return to Turkey in 2003, he established the Strategy and Business Development Departments of Finansbank and FIBA Holding.

He is the Chairman of DEİK/Turkey-Netherlands Business Council; Executive Board Member of Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation, Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD), Endeavor Turkey, Member of the Board of Trustees of Ozyegin University and World Wildlife Fund, Member of Global Relations Forum and Member of Global Advisory Council of Harvard University. Mr. Özyeğin is also the Honorary Consul - General of the Republic of Singapore.

Mr. Özyeğin holds a BS in Industrial Management and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He is 42 years old and has three children at the ages of 15, 13 and 8.

Bahadır Balkır

Bahadır Balkır was born in 1964 and studied at the French high school Saint Michel. In 1988 graduated from the Industrial Engineering department of Istanbul Bosphorus University. Bahadır Balkır speaks French, English, Spanish, German and very few Russian.

In 1989-1990 he worked in Chile as an industrial engineer in Arauco, which is the biggest wood industry group of South America.

Starting from 1985 Balkır family represented Arauco in Turkey. Between 1991-1999 Bahadır Balkır worked in various companies of Balkır family around the World. He was responsible from the importation of wooden raw material into Turkey. He managed the operations in Chile as well as in United States, South Africa, New Zealand, Scandinavian countries and Russia. In 1999 he established Balorman and as of today he is the chairman of the board of directors of Balorman. Balorman manufactures wooden and plastic components for home appliance industry and also provides wooden pallet services to various sectors.

He has been the president of Beysad (White Good Suppliers’ Associations) between 2010-2016.

Bahadır Balkır is also active in the managemenet teams of the Turkish Wooden Products Manufacturers Association (TORİD) and the European Pallet and Packaging Confederation (FEFPEB). He is a board member of TÜSİAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association) and chairman of the Chilean business council at DEİK (Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey).

His favorite sports are skiing and boxing. He listens latin and all other versions of jazz music.

Mehmet Tara

Date & Place of Birth: 03.05.1983 – Istanbul

Nationality: Turkish

Marital Status: Married (2 children)

Profession: Civil Engineering Technology

Occupation: President and Chairman of the Executive Committee Enka Insaat ve Sanayi A.S.

Education:

1998-2002: Cushing Academy

2002-2006: Wentworth Institute of Technology

Business Experience:

2006 - 2007: Site Engineer ENKA – Moscow, Russia

2007 - 2008: Deputy Project Manager ENKA – WSOC Project , Moscow, Russia

2008 - 2009: Vice President ENKA – Moscow Projects , Russia

2010 - 2012: Board Member ENKA – Russian Projects & Real Estate Developments, Russia

2012 - President and Chairman of the Executive Committee ENKA – Istanbul , Turkey

Language:

Turkish, English

Memberships:

Board member of TUSIAD

Trustee Committee member of TEV

Member of GIF

Nüket Küçükel

Güven Hospital Inc. – Ankara Executive President
Güven Geriatric Care, Beauty and Health Center Executive Vice President
Private Güven Management and Consulting Inc. Executive Vice President
NBA Medical Center Inc. Executive Vice President
BNK Information Processes and Technology Partner/Company Manager
Güven Education and Health Foundation Executive Vice President
2005 - 2007 AB Genel Sekreterliği Siyasi Daire Başkanlığı
2001 - 2005 T.C. Madrid Büyükelçiliği Başkâtibi
2000 - 2001 Orta Asya Türk Cumhuriyeti Siyasi Daire Başkâtibi
1997 - 2000 T.C. Kudüs Başkonsolosluğu Başkonsolos Yardımcısı
1994 - 1997 Essen Başkonsolosluğu, Muavin Konsolos

Education

University: Bilkent University / International Relations (1991)

High School: TED Ankara College (1986)

Memberships/Professional Affiliations and Interests

Health Tourism Business Council (SAİK), Founding Member

Accredited Hospitals Association, Executive Vice President

Language Skills

English

Spanish

Cem Tüfekçi

Board Member and Chief of Execution of Traçim Cement, Founder and CEO of Qualist Technology

After his graduation from New York University with BA degree in Economics in 2005, Cem Tüfekçi joined family-owned Traçim Cement. In those days Traçim Cement was a greenfield startup investment. After holding several different roles in the early stage, he became the ERP Project Manager of Traçim Cement. Following several managerial positions, in 2011 he became Board Member of Traçim Cement, responsible of Executive Operations.

In 2009 he founded Qualist Technology, a software development and technology company focused on industrial solutions.

He is active in sectoral organizations and NGO’s. Alongside his mentoring activities, he is also a very active member of startup community. He has several private angel investments in startups.

Serpil Veral

Serpil Veral serves as the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sütaş Inc., the leading brand in milk and milk products sector in Turkey. Serpil Veral received her Bachelor’s degree in Food Engineering from Ege University . In 1988, she started working at Sütaş Süt Ürünleri A.Ş. as food engineer and until 2005 she served consecutively as Production Manager, Quality Assurance Coordinator and Director for Production. In 2005, she led the setting up, optimisation and reengineering of Human Resources, IT and other management systems in line with Sütaş Group’s vision, mission and restructuring strategies.

Serpil Veral served as the General Manager of Sütaş Süt Ürünleri A.Ş. between 2010-2016. Serpil Veral, the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sütaş Inc., is a member of Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD), Corporate Governance Association of Turkey (TKYD), Turkish Milk, Meat, Food Industrialists and Manufacturers Association (SETBIR) and Turkish Quality Assocation (KALDER). She is also Vice President of the Confederetion of Turkish Business and Enterprise and Member of the Executive Board.

Özlem Özüner

Ozlem Ozuner is the CEO of the Turkish entity of Euler Hermes, the global leader in credit insurance. Graduate of Bosphorus University in Political Science and International Relations, Ozlem Ozuner worked as Area Manager at Iktisat Bank and Senior Manager at Demirbank. Before her appointment to Euler Hermes Turkey as the CEO, Ozuner held a variety of managerial positions across HSBC Bank’s Retail, Commercial and Corporate divisions in all aspects of relationship management. Her most recent role was Group Head of Corporate Banking in Turkey. Ozlem Ozuner joined Euler Hermes in 2011 with 20 years of banking experience, out of which the last ten years with HSBC in London and Istanbul. Ozlem Ozuner is an alternate Board Member in TUSIAD, responsible from Economy and Finance.

Elvan Ünlütürk

She was born in İzmir in 1970. After completing her secondary education in İzmir American College, she has graduated from Ege University Department of Textile Engineering in 1992.

Her career has started with as a Customer Representative Assistant in 1991 under the structure of Yaşar Holding Textile ( YUTEKS ) and continued this position till the end of 1992. She has been started to work as a Customer Representative Assistant in Sun Textile A.Ş since 1992 till the end of 1995.

Her career has followed between the years of 1995-1997 Human Resources Responsible, 1997-1999 Planning of Production, and the following positions between the years 1999-2005 Sales Manager, 2006-2016 General Manager.

She has been still continued working as a Chairman of Board in Sun Textile company which is a one of the leader of sector.

Ünlütürk, has been serving as a board member of the business organization such as AISSEC adviser board member, TAİDER ( Turkish Family Business Association ) TÜSİAD ( Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation ) KALDER ( Turkish Qality Association ) EİB ( Aegean Exporter Association ).

She has a language skills; first ,Upper intermediate English and intermediate German.

She is married and she has one daughter.

Izel Levi Coskun

Dr. Izel Levi Coskun, born in 1973, graduated from Istanbul University, Business Administration and studied MBA at University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. Dr. Coskun lectured entrepreneurship classes in Marmara University between 2004 and 2014. He obtained his PhD with his thesis on “Corporate Sustainability” at Marmara University. His professional life started in 1991 and he gained experience in accounting, audit, tax, consultancy and internal audit. Since 2010, he is the Managing Partner of Mazars Turkey, which is among the 5 largest accounting, audit, tax and consulting firms in Turkey. Dr. Coskun owns Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Capital Markets Board and Public Oversight Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority licenses

Dr. Izel Levi Coskun harmonized his experience in various sectors with two core values “Sustainability” and “Entrepreneurship”. At the same time, he keeps writing articles about “Sustainability” and “Entrepreneurship” for Harvard Business Review blog and other foremost business mags in Turkey.

Dr. Izel Levi Coskun is a member of Turkish Industry & Business Association (TUSIAD), Union of Chambers of Certified Public Accountants of Turkey, Turkish Internal Auditors’ Association, Turkish Association of Accounting Experts, Endeavor, Keiretsu Forum, Buğday Association for Supporting Ecological Living, Gökçeada Volunteers Association, TAİDER Family Business Association, Turkish Marine Environment Protection Association, Ada Dostları Association and Transparency International Turkey.

Önder Sezgi

Member of Executive Committee of Bilkent Holding

Önder Sezgi graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Public Administration at Ankara University in 1988. He started his professional career in the Ministry of Finance as Tax Inspector and worked at the Tax Inspection Board until 1998. In May 1998, he joined Bilkent Holding in charge of auditing the group companies. From 2005 to 2016 he served as the CFO of Bilkent Holding while also holding several positions on the Board of Directors of Bilkent Holding Group companies. During this period he also continued to serve on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of TAV Havalimanlari Holding (TAV Airports Holding) and on the Board of Directors of TAV Yatirim Holding (TAV Investment Holding) and their subsidiaries. Between 2011-2013 he was appointed Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of IDO (Istanbul Fast Ferries Co.).

Sezgi was appointed Member of Bilkent Holding Executive Committee as of 2014 and also currently serving as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bilkent Holding Group companies.

Sezgi has written and published more than 35 articles on economy, tax, law and finance in various newspapers and journals and has participated in more than 20 conferences and panels as a speaker on these subjects. Sezgi is Sworn-in Certified Public Accountant, Certified Independent Auditor and has undertaken various studies and tasks at the Tax Council, TUSIAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association), YASED (International Investors Association of Turkey), Foundation of Tax Inspectors and TURMOB (Union of Chambers of Certified Public Accountants of Turkey).

Özgür Tanrıkulu

Ozgur Tanrikulu is the Managing Partner for McKinsey & Company in the EEMA region, covering Africa, the Middle East, CIS (including Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) and Turkey. He is also a Senior Partner of the firm.

He advises leading companies on a wide range of topics including transformation programs, growth strategy, international expansion, performance improvement, digital economy, organizational development and leadership talent development. In addition to his client responsibilities, Ozgur holds various global roles within McKinsey, including as a member of the Partnership Service Team.

Since joining McKinsey18 years ago, Ozgur has been based in the US, UK, France, Japan, UAE, Turkey and South Africa and has worked in over 20 countries. He has led the financial services practice in the Middle East. From 2012 to 2018 Ozgur was the Managing Partner of the firm’s Turkey’s office.

Ozgur is passionate about leadership and diversity. He believes that one of the greatest opportunities and challenges facing global business is to develop the next generation of local leaders. He has been a speaker and moderator on many platforms over the years, including at WEF, various universities and other conferences.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Ozgur worked as a project manager for United Technologies Corporation in USA, France and UK, where he led various projects on cost reduction, process improvement and e-business.

Ozgur has a degree in industrial engineering from Boğaziçi University, Turkey, and a Masters in Management from Purdue University, USA. He is passionate about reading and travel and plays the guitar.

Öget Kantarcı

Öget Kantarcı, a graduate of Political Science at Koç University, started his career at Peugeot. After serving at Turkcell as Corporate Sales Director, he worked for Estore and launched his e-commerce career, which continued at Otto Group in 2009. He joined GittiGidiyor, an eBay company, in 2014 as Director of Commerce, and was promoted to General Manager in 2015. On January 1, 2018, Kantarcı also became Director of eBay’s MENA territory.

Kantarcı was elected President of the TOBB E-Commerce Council in 2016, and led the establishment of TÜSİAD’s E-Commerce Working Group, becoming its first president in 2018.

Kantarcı, who has been elected to the TÜSİAD Board of Directors in 2019 and appointed Vice Chairman of the Digital Transformation Round Table, is also a member and serves as Board Consultant of Galatasaray Sports Club.

Meltem Akol

Meltem Akol graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Law in 1991 after completing her education at Robert College Istanbul. She received her master's degree from Harvard University School of Law.

Her legal career started at White & Case LLP in 1991. By 2007, she was appointed as Partner which was followed by her role as the Managing Partner of the Istanbul Office from 2009 until the end of 2015. Since 2016, she has been continuing her career as the Founding Partner of Akol Namlı & Partners Law Firm.

Meltem Akol’s experience of over 25 years mainly concentrates on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, private equity transactions, joint ventures, bank financing, structured finance and PPPs.

Meltem Akol assisted many leading multinational strategic investors, private equity funds, financial institutions and funds in connection with their investments in various sectors including retail, infrastructure, financial institutions, healthcare, automotive, industrial and manufacturing, energy, ports, construction and real estate in Turkey. She has been involved in numerous major large-size international M&A, capital markets and finance transactions across a wide range of sectors, including “first of their kind” and “most complex of their kind” transactions. Her career was shaped within the investment environment of Turkey with a unique insight to the perspectives of foreign investors.

Meltem Akol has been recognized as one of the best and most experienced lawyers by international ratings agencies, widely accepted in the international arena and described as one of the undoubted leading M&A and Capital Markets lawyers of Turkey, her success being ranked as Tier 1 by all well-known legal directories and bringing her various awards given to selected women leaders and best lawyers around the world.

Oya Narin

Ms. Oya Narin was born in İstanbul, She graduated St.Michel high school and the Bachelors Degree from the Hotel Ecoliere Lousanne in Switzerland.

She started her professional career by working at Hotel Metropole in Geneve / Switzerland, and Sheraton Hotels Hawaii Pasific Division.

She worked at Narin Textile industry since 1988 and worked at various dept. as a manager at Martı Hotels and Marinas then has become Chairwomen of Marti Hotels chain since 2008.

She became a Chairwomen of the board of Turkish Tourism Investers Assosiation (TTYD) which she has been the member since 1988.

Martı Hotels and Marinas - Chairwomen

Martı GYO Real Estate Invest. Inc. - Vice President

LILA Music Production Inc.- Chairwomen

She is one of the founders and the Board Member of the Autism Early Diagnosis and Education Foundation - TOHUM

Memberships of the foundations and the associations:

DEIK - The Chairwoman of the founder commitee of the foreign economic relation committee

TOBB - The Vice President & the member of women entrepreneur committee of Tourism Assembly

TÜSİAD - The member of tourism working group

TUROB – The Member of the Hotel owners & Operators unity

GETOP – The Member of the South Aegean hotel owners unity

KETAV – The Member of the promotion foundation of Kemer region

KAGİDER – The Member of the Turksh women entrepreneur association

SKAL - The Member of Istanbul

Emre Eczacıbaşı

Born in 1984, Emre Eczacıbaşı received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University’s Department of Economics in 2006 and MBA from Columbia Business School in 2011.

Before joining the Eczacıbaşı Group’s Strategic Planning and Finance Division in 2008, Emre Eczacıbaşı worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers Turkey as a financial consultant. Between 2011 and 2013, he realized several microfinance and social entrepreneurship projects through a start-up he established in the US. In 2013, he returned to Turkey and the Eczacıbaşı Group as a member of the Building Products Division’s Strategic Marketing team. In 2015, Emre Eczacıbaşı was appointed General Manager responsible for all operations related to the Division’s kitchen business, reporting directly to the Executive Vice President of the Building Products Division. On 1 January 2019, he was appointed to his current position as Coordinator of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Eczacıbaşı Group.

Azmi Gümüşlüoğlu

Born in Ankara in 1969, Mr Gümüşlüoğlu graduated from Ankara Atatürk Anadolu High School and then went on to study Business Management at Bilkent University. Mr Gümüşlüoğlu continued his studies in the USA, at New Hampshire College and Harvard University, earning himself an MBA and a Direct Marketing certificate respectively.

Mr Gümüşlüoğlu began his professional career at American Frozen Foods in the USA. Later on, he returned to Turkey to work for Nestle, the world's largest food company. Throughout his experience at Nestle; he embarked on various managerial responsibilities not only in Turkey but also across countries such as the USA, Azerbaijan, Egypt and France. Following Nestle, for a short period of time, he took over Commercial Operations Vice Presidency role at Yaşar Holding. Later in his career; Mr Gümüşlüoğlu joined Zyman Core Strategy Group, one of the most important Marketing and Management consultancy firms in the USA, where he successfully lead Turkey and the Middle East operations up until 2012 before joining Ferrero Group. Mr Gümüşlüoğlu currently serves as General Manager of Turkey and Regional Director at Ferrero Group.

In the past, Mr Gümüşlüoğlu has served on the boards of both local and International Advertiser’s Association, while currently, he is a board member of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Turkey. As of February 2019, he has been appointed as VP of Investment Environment Roundtable of the Turkish Industry & Business Association (TUSIAD).

İrem Oral Kayacık

Ms. Kayacik is the Business Development Director and Board Member of Odak Group. She holds a BA degree in Economics from Bogazici University and an MBA in Real Estate and Finance from Columbia University in New York.

She has worked extensively on financing, developing, leasing and management of İzmir Agora Shopping Center and office development projects in Istanbul within Odak Group portfolio. Odak Group, was founded in the late 1970's and is effectively active in domestic and international building contracting and real estate development, in addition to the field of international solid fuel trade, industrial and heating purpose coal distrubition, industrial bag production,cosmetics production and managing shopping and entertainment centers.

Owner, developer and manager of Agora Shopping Center & Odak Office Tower, Istanbul. Completed unique projects including Presidential Palace, City Opera and Balet House, City Hall, Kul Sharif Mosque, City Sport Complex and Hippodrome

Bahadır Kaleağası

President of the Paris Institut du Bosphore

Member of BusinessEurope’s Executive Bureau - Brussels

Dr Bahadir Kaleagasi is the CEO of TUSIAD (Turkish Industry & Business Association) in Istanbul and President of the Paris Bosphorus Institute. He is also Honorary Chairman of the Brussels Energy Club, member of BusiessEurope's Executive Bureau (The Confederation of European Business) in Brussels, board member in several institutions and scientific member of the Brussels University's Institute of European Studies. Graduate of Brussels and Istanbul Universities, he was a researcher and lecturer in the Center for International & Strategic Studies and the Institute for European Studies of the University of Brussels, rapporteur for projects of the European Commission’s Forward Studies Unit and the intergovernmental conferences which prepared the Maastricht Treaty and was visiting researcher to Harvard, Georgetown and Jerusalem Universities. His academic work covered the areas of the EU’s decision-making system, EU-US relations and the international economic relations. He also served as counselor for various public and private institutions before joining TÜSİAD in 1995 as EU Representative in Brussels and International Coordinator. He regularly contributes as speaker to international conferences, executive and academic seminars, television and radio programmes and is a regular commentator for the Bloomberg HT and Anadolu Ajansı-Finans. Bahadir Kaleagasi is the author of several articles and books on the international relations and European affairs. His latest books are “Turkish Star in the European Galaxy”, “Youth’s Questions on Europe”, "The Planet G20" and “Changing World and Turkey”.

Cevdet Alemdar

Between 1993-2002, he worked as Product Leader and then Wire Products Director in Beksa, Sabancı Holding-Bekaert Joint Venture. From 1998 onwards, he additionally took over the role of Bekaert’s Sales Manager for Construction Materials in Middle East. From 2002 to 2005, he worked as Commercial Director in Sakosa.

In 2005, he joined Kordsa Global as General Manager of Kordsa Brazil and as Sales and Marketing Director of South America. From 2007 to 2009, based in Bangkok Thailand, he worked as Managing Director for Thai Indo Kordsa and Kordsa Qingdao Nylon Ent., as well as Sales and Marketing Director for Asia Pacific. In 2009 and 2010, he worked in Shanghai as Global Business Development Director, while maintaining his roles in Kordsa Qingdao Nylon Enterprises and Asia Sales and Marketing. From 2010 to 2013 he took role as Kordsa Global’s Vice President in charge of Technology and Market Development.

Between 2013-2017, he was appointed as General Manager of Temsa Construction Equipment.

May 2017 onwards, he has been CEO of Brisa, Bridgestone Sabancı JV Tire Company which is the leading tire and mobility solutions company in Turkey serving to 80 countries.

Alemdar was appointed as Industry Group President effective as of 1st of April, 2020.

Cevdet Alemdar graduated from Industrial Engineering Faculty of Bogazici University in 1992. He also was granted with an MBA degree in Sabancı University.