First Lady Emine Erdogan has been actively involved in social projects since her youth. She has practiced the spirit of philanthropy, which she inherited from her family, in all fields of her life and lent a helping hand to thousands of people.

Together with the Turkish Ministry of National Education, Mrs. Erdogan launched several country-wide campaigns to encourage girls’ and women’s education and emphasize the importance of early childhood education. Mrs. Erdogan also supported the “Voluntary Envoys” project, developed by the Turkish Ministry of Family and Social Services to promote volunteering in society and harmonize public services. Moreover, First Lady Erdogan has been actively involved in healthcare projects, particularly promoting universal access to healthcare by women, children, and refugees. More recently, the “Zero Waste” project was launched nationally under the auspices of Mrs. Erdogan in 2017 in order to call attention to climate change, fight plastic pollution, and encourage sustainable waste and resource management.

Most importantly, First Lady Erdogan has paid attention to the cries rising from different geographies in the world, standing by the oppressed and the poor, and vehemently opposing human rights violations. She has not remained silent in the face of the humanitarian tragedies in different parts of the world and organized international events to call attention to these tragedies. Mrs. Erdogan personally traveled to Myanmar in 2012 and to Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in 2017 despite critical security threats and provided humanitarian aid to the region. She has articulated the feelings of millions of mothers by putting this issue on the world agenda and helped launch significant aid campaigns. First Lady Erdogan has been recognized for her humanitarian efforts through several international awards.

He was born in 1976, in Istanbul. He graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration and completed his post-graduate studies on local governments and on the local administration program at the same university. He worked as a researcher, expert and project coordinator in the management organization of the Florida State University School of Business in the USA. Took an active role in civil society organizations during his student years Turkey and abroad, worked as a manager and worked in the field of international trade in the private sector. During the Sport -Toto Presidency, Kasapoğlu contributed to gaining many facilities for the purpose of spreading the sport to the field

Mr. Claudio Tomasi was appointed as UNDP Resident Representative for Turkey in December 2018. Previous to that, he served as UNDP Country Director for Turkey from July 2016 to November 2018. Before joining the Turkey Country Office, he was UNDP Deputy Representative in Cuba (2012-2016), in Nicaragua (2008-12), and in the Dominican Republic (2003-2007). With UNDP, he also worked in Panama as Assistant Resident Representative (2002) and in India as Governance Programme Officer (2001).

Previous to his engagement with UNDP, Claudio Tomasi worked for the European Union and as a United Nation Volunteer (UNV) in India where he started his international career. Mr. Tomasi has collaborated with several NGOs, development research institutes, local based organizations and cooperatives.

Claudio Tomasi has 20 years of experience in development work in three continents in a variety of capacities, mainly in management, partnership building, policy advise, programme design, project implementation, advocacy and research.

Claudio Tomasi is a sociologist of Italian nationality. He graduated in Sociology and Social Planning at the University of Sociology in Trento (Italy) and holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London (UK). He was also a visiting graduate student at the Department of Political Sciences at CUNY, City University of New York (USA).

Mr. Tomasi is currently married and father of two, Fabrizio and Maia.

Simge Abay has started her career in Orsa Strategic Communications Consultancy in 1999. Between 2002-2004 she worked as Account Director in Unite Communciations. Between 2004-2008 she worked as Brand Manager for Red Bull. In 2008 she joined Anadolu Efes and worked as Anadolu Efes Turkey Public Relations Supervisor between 2008-2010 and Anadolu Efes Global Corporate Communications Manager between 2010-2011. Simge Abay became Public Affairs Manager in Coca-Cola Company in 2011 and later on in 2012 she was assigned as Corporate Communications Manager of Anadolu Efes Turkey and responsible from social responsibility and sustainability communications.

İstem D. Akalp is leading the Social Entrepreneurship Program in Turkey for Ashoka, world’s first and widest social entrepreneurship platform. She started working onvolunteering, civil society, and social entrepreneurship in yer first years at Boğaziçi University and took an active role in founding Turkey’s first social entrepreneurship platform for young people. She worked with at Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey and Greenpeace Mediterrenean – Turkey offices. She is a member of Sen de Gel Association and a fellowu of Youth Action Net. Besides working with social entrepreneurs to widen and deepen the impact of social transformational work, she reads, and writes on the island and travels around the world.

Adalet Budak Akbaş has been working for Southeastern Anatolia Regional Development Administration Presidency (Turkish acronym: GAP İdaresi Başkanlığı) since 2002; currently she is the General Coordinator of the Humanitarian and Social Development Department. She is responsible from coordination, planning and implementation of projects that empower woman, child, youth, elderly, refugee and similar groups with collaboration of public institutions, non-govermental organizations, private sectors, universities and international organizations.

Guler Altinsoy serves as CEO of IDEMA, International Development Management. She implements development projects with several international development organizations like World Bank, UNDP, UNFPA, Save the Children, and private sector organizations like Google, UPS, US Chamber of Commerce, Center for International Private Enterprise, Koç Holding and Doğan Holding.

Güler Altınsoy holds a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Marmara University and an MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London. Güler Altınsoy is a social entrepreneur, co-founded IDEMA – International Development Management, Needs Map – the first online social platform cooperative of Turkey, INOGAR – a social cooperative and incubation center for social platforms and INOGARART – a co-working space and incubation center for creative disciplines.

Dr. Yılmaz Argüden is a leading strategist, advisor, and board member of major public and private institutions, and NGOs.  He is the Founder and Chairman of ARGE Consulting, a globally recognized management consulting firm based in Istanbul.   ARGE has been recognized at the European Parliament as one of the best three companies “shaping the future” with its commitment to corporate social responsibility.  ARGE Consulting is the first Turkish signatory of the UN Global Compact and has served as the B20 Knowledge Partner for Governance & Sustainability.

He is also the Chairman of Rothschild investment bank in Türkiye. He has served on the boards of more than 60 companies in different jurisdictions. He is an adjunct Professor of Business Strategy at the Bogazici University and the Koç University; an author of numerous books and a columnist focusing on business, strategy, and governance issues.  

As a social entrepreneur he has founded and led numerous NGOs; initiated the National Quality Movement.  As the elected Global Chair of the Local Networks he represented 100 National Networks on the Board of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest sustainability platform.  

He is a renowned governance expert and served as a member of the Private Sector Advisors of the IFC’s Corporate Governance Group, and as the Vice-Chairman of the Governance Committee of the Business at OECD.  He is also the Chairman of the Trustees of the Argüden Governance Academy Foundation. 

He has a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from the Bogazici University, where he received both the Top Graduating Engineer Award and the President’s Prize for Student Leadership.  He received his PhD in policy analysis from the RAND Graduate Institute with General Distinction.  He was a member of the High School and University basketball teams that won the National Championships and later served as the Vice-Chair of Turkish Basketball Federation. He is an Eisenhower, Fulbright, NATO, and Tubitak fellow; and a recipient of numerous leadership, distinguished citizenship, and career awards.  He was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow, by the World Economic Forum for his commitment to improve the state of the world.  www.arguden.net

Borga Aruta has been working at Esri Turkey as Istanbul Sales Manager. He has 15 years of sales experience in IT, Telecom and FMCG industry. Skilled in key account management, business development and partner management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business-Economics from İstanbul Bilgi University. He lives in İstanbul and enjoys running and swimming.

Elif participated in the design and production processes of many different products from buses to household appliances thanks to the projects and internships she attended during her Industrial Product Design Studies. She worked with children through the arts trainings she gave during her university time and she observed the creative world of children with this experience. After working as a product designer for 2 years, as a result of her passion for children’s imagination she designed and founded Toyi as a social enterprise.

Evren Aydoğan, IDEMA’s Deputy GM responsible for Projects Department. Evren has MA and BA degrees on international relations, political science and social policy, continues his PhD on social assistance mechanisms. He has worked for public institutions, NGOs/think-tanks and private sector companies as researcher, senior expert, project manager and government relations/regulatory affairs manager. He has robust experience in project management, business development and research/monitoring&evaluation areas.

Ahmet Batat is a development specialist with more than 10 years of experience designing and implementing programs that focuses on regional development, governance, entrepreneurial ecosystem development, and livelihood improvement. Previously he served as project – program manager and development specialist various civic initiatives and public organizations such as Local Agenda 21 Program and Cukurova Development Agency. He has a bachelors and a master’s degree on Public Administration at Dokuz Eylul University. Currently, Batat serves as a General Coordinator in Needs Map, a non-profit social cooperative, and The World Bank consultant under the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey (FRIT) Program.

Arda Batu completed his high school education at The Browning High School, he then studied Political Science and International Relations at Bosphorus University. He completed his internship at the European Parliament and attained his MA degree from Marmara University European Studies Institute.

Arda Batu’s career began in 2004 at Yeditepe University’s Political Science & International Relations Department where he served as a research assistant. He transitioned to the corporate sector when he joined HB Consultancy Group in 2007 whilst continuing his affiliation with the university as a research assistant and lecturer. His keen interests in government relations and strategic communications led him to Istanbul-based regional corporate communications firm, StratejiCo. He joined Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation on June 2014 where he manages, promotes and advances the Confederation’s strategic interests.

Arda Batu serves as an independent board member at Federal Mogul Izmit Piston, on the executive board of Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), advisory board of Co-opinoin, and the editorial board of Turkish Policy Quarterly.

He is currently driving the global Reckitt Benckiser company vision of ‘Creating a Cleaner World’ through steering the purpose mission of iconic home care brands such as Finish; with ambition to build a more sustainable future for next generations. The ‘Tomorrow’s Water’ campaign that was brought alive with partnership of Finish & National Geographic in 2019 aims at building collobration across government, NGOs and private sector to bring attention to Turkey’s water stress and creating awareness and habit change at nationwide scale.

Tarık Bayar is graduated from Koç University in 2005 and holds Economics MSc degree at Boğaziçi University in 2011. He has held senior executive positions at multinational companies across various sectors.

Belcim Bilgin began her acting career in high school at the Ankara Art Theatre. Her first movie was ‘Kilometre Zero’ directed by Hiner Saleem. The film made it to the 2005 Cannes Film Festival as well as many other festivals. After her second film ‘Dol ou la Vallée Tambours’ in 2006, Bilgin returned to Turkey, and took on numerous roles. In 2011, she took the leading role in the film Aşk Tesadüfleri Sever (Love “Just a Coincidence”), directed by Ömer Faruk Sorak. Following year, she acted alongside such names as the leading actress like Monica Bellucci in the Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi’s film, entitled ‘Gergedan Mevsimi’ (Rhino Season). Another leading role for Bilgin followed in Rezan Yeşilbaş’s short film ‘Sessiz / Be Deng’, which received the Palm d’Or for Best Short Film at 65th Cannes Film Festival that same year. After a year, She also took a part in “Kelebeğin Rüyası” which is directed by Yilmaz Erdogan and in 2016, she acted in ‘Annemin Yarası’ (My Mother Wound) directed by Ozan Açıktan. In 2017, she worked with on Per Fly’s ‘Komplo’ (Backstabbing For Beginners) in the U.S., playing alongside Theo James and Ben Kingsley. In the silver screen, lastly, she worked with the director Serra Yılmaz on the Ferzan Özpetek’s movie ‘Cebimdeki Yabancı’. Upon her career as an actress, by establishing ‘Big Bloom Production Company’, Bilgin became a producer in 2018. Currently, she is the brand ambassador of ‘Elevatione’ based in London and Hong Kong. Moreover, she takes her part in addressing the local and global challenges with organizations like Greenpeace and Safe World Peace.

Ceren serves as Strategic Planning Director at TBWA\Istanbul.

She graduated from university with an honours degree in Advertising and Sociology.

She made her debut in marketing on the client side in Coca-Cola Company. She joined TBWA\Istanbul in 2013 from Y&R Group where she has gained experience in various industries ranging from automotive to personal care.

In her 10 years of career in advertising industry, her work has been recognized by creative and effectiveness awards including Effies.

She believes in embedding sustainability into the brand’s core values. In relentless pursuit of this belief, she got her master degree in Social Projects and NGO Governance and has been working toward social good projects as a “TBWA For Good” Initiator.

Melda Çele is the Deputy Secretary General of TÜSİAD responsible for sustainable development, investment environment, entrepreneurship and youth. At the same time she is the Secretary General of Global Compact Türkiye, the Local Network of UN Global Compact  –  a voluntary initiative based on CEO commitments to implement universal sustainability principles and to take steps to support UN Goals.

Melda Çele is a graduate of Robert College. She continued her education in sociology at Koç University. He holds a Master’s degree in European Integration from the University of Essex.

Hansın Dogan is specialized in advancing the role of the private sector in development. He advocates for inclusive and responsible business policies and developed over 50 public-private partnerships in achievement of social and environmental challenges and SDGs. He’s been a leader and a key contributor in enabling and managing several private sector platforms and policy centers for development, including Global Compact Turkey Network, UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development, Business Call to Action, Connecting Business initiative Turkey, Business for Goals Platform, csrblog.com. Before joining the UNDP, he has been an academic at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, and provided consultancy services to Turkish Prime Ministry, Under-secretariat of Treasury, Turkey and Middle-East Public Administration Institute, Fulbright Commission, Turkish Coal Mining Institute, GTZ and the US Embassy in Ankara. He holds a BA on Management from Ankara University/Turkey and an MA on European Studies from Exeter University/UK.

Born in 6 December 1994, Pelin Baykan graduated from the Department of Mathematics at Istanbul University. Expressing the greatest passion in her life as Mathematics, Baykan observed the communication of the deaf in bilateral relations and started to learn Turkish Sign Language in 2015 in order to establish communication. After completing his undergraduate education in 2016, she learned that deaf individuals cannot receive education in Turkish Sign Language. She established Anlatan Eller (in English “Telling Hands”) social enterprise in 19 December 2016 by combining mathematics and Turkish Sign Language.

“Telling Hands” continues to work with a team of deaf instructors and volunteer team with a world dream where deaf people can tell their stories independently and live the life they want. Baykan completed his master’s degree in Civil Society Organizations and Social Responsibility Management at Istanbul University with his research on Volunteer Perception of the Deaf, so The deaf community takes part in “Telling Hands” with voluntary efforts to investigate their talents.

Semih Boyacı, studied Mathematics & Computer Science for his undergrad and worked in the field of management consulting for a while. He then started his master’s degree in Management at London School of Economics, where he took part in multinational corporate and pro-bono consulting projects. After finishing his master’s education at London School of Economics, he moved back to Turkey to dedicate his time and energy for the growth of the social innovation ecosystem, utilizing his business skills and experience. He is the co-founder of Impact Hub Istanbul which provides a trusted ecosystem where impact-driven entrepreneurs feel inspired to co-work and co-create under the same roof. Impact Hub Istanbul has been spearheading the growth of the impact entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey and is a part of the global Impact Hub network that has 70+ locations around the world.

Karen Cirillo is a multi-media creator and documentary programmer and producer, specializing in short non-fiction.Although a New Yorker, she is currently based in Istanbul, where she works for UNDP’s Regional Hub for Eastern Europe and Central Asia as a communications and multi-media specialist. She founded and curates Doxita, a traveling program of short non-fiction cinema. She has programmed for festivals and organizations, such as the Full Frame Documentary Festival, True/False, and Duke University Screen Society.  She previously worked for UNICEF managing an international children’s broadcasting initiative and the global OneMinutesJr. project, collaborating with video artists to produce video workshops for kids around the world.

Rana Birden-Çorbacıoğlu has been head of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs at Kale Group since 2016. She was a member of the Turkey Europe Foundation’s Executive Committee and the C20 Steering Committee from 2014-2016.

From 2012-2014, she worked as the Executive Director of Global Releations Forum, and from 2007- 2012 she was a senior consultant for the United Nations Population Fund, the Hacı Ömer Sabancı Foundation, the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. In 2017, she was Director of the Social Participation and Development Foundation.

Earlier in career she held roles at Bahcesehir University, the European Union’s Civil Society Development Programme and the Economic Development Foundation. Birden-Çorbacıoğlu has a degree in International Relations and a masters on the European Union from Galatasaray Univercity

Turgut Erdem Ergin is a disaster risk management and climate change resilience specialist. He currently works with UNDP Turkey as their Climate Resilient Advisor, is an adjunct professor at the University of Rome on disaster and risk management and coordinates the “Critical Infrastructure Resilience” summer school at the Venice International University. Living in Turkey for the past 5 years, his focus is on making cities and businesses more resilient to the evolving risk profile. His most recent works include: (i) establishment of a business resilience network for TURKONFED, (ii) Istanbul climate change adaptation strategy and action plan for the İBB, (iii) climate resilience strategy for Special Economic Zones for IFC, including new lending offerings, (iv) the first climate risk assessment of power plants in Turkey for EÜAŞ. He also worked with the World Bank to design and supervise the completion of 3 urban risk assessments on critical infrastructure (Çukurova), organized industrial zone (Istanbul) and food systems (İzmir).

Prior to his work in Turkey, he worked 4 years in the US, 7 years in the Caribbean and 1 year in West Africa with the World Bank and UNDP on risk assessment, disaster preparedness and response and post-disaster damage assessment. He holds a BSc degree in chemical engineering from Middle East Technical University, M.Sc. in engineering management with major on crisis, disaster and risk management from George Washington University and M. DeS in urban studies with major on risk and resilience for cities from Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Associate professor Itır Erhart studied Philosophy and Western Languages & Literatures at Bogaziçi University. She completed her M.Phil in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Since 2001 she is been teaching and doing research on gender, human rights, sports and civil society at Istanbul Bilgi University. She is the co-founder of Adım Adım (Step by Step) a volunteer-based organization that promotes charitable giving through the sponsorship of athletes in local sports events. Itır also co-founded Açık Açık a platform which unites donors with NGOs that respect the rights of donors. In 2016 Açık Açık received Transparency International’s award for civil society.

Itır is also an Ashoka Fellow, Ashoka Turkey Board Member, TEGV (Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey) Trustee and faculty at The School of Life Istanbul.

UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Mert Fırat has participated many TV and cinema projects since 2005 after his theatre education in Ankara University Faculty of Languages, History and Geography. He voluntarily works with different associations and foundations on corporate social responsibility issues, and he is also a partner in two different projects. Firstly, he has spent his life with his partners in the project “Art Mahal” in Bursa and secondly as one of the founders of www.ihtiyacharitasi.org and actively contributes to the design, planning and operation of the project

Graduated from Istanbul University, Burcu started her career in Manajans/ J.T. Thomson in 2000 and then moved to Güzel Sanatlar/ Saatchi & Saatchi for 2,5 years. Later she continued her career at the Vancouver Symphony in Canada as a Marketing Assistant. In 2003, she started working at TBWAIstanbul and since 2013 she holds the position of Managing Director. In her 15 years TBWA journey, she was responsible for different local and global brands. During her career, TBWAIstanbul was chosen ‘Agency of the Year’ and the most awarded agency in Turkey by Advertising Age/MediaCat seven years in a row. Between 2007-2012, Burcu and TBWAIstanbul management team gave lectures about advertising to senior students in Bilgi University. She was the board member of Advertising Association between 2011- 2012 and recently one of the board member out of 9 members for 2017-2019. In 2015 she was honored as one of the “Women to Watch”, by prestigious industry magazine Advertising Age/MediaCat. In 2016 she was chosen ‘The Inspirational Women of the Year’ by the Brand Age marketing magazine.

Çağlar Göğüş has earned his B.Sc. degree in Business Administration at Bilkent University in Turkey, and his MBA degree at University of Florida, and he began his professional career in 1996 as a Senior Analyst at Coopers & Lybrand (current PwC). Following his duties as Senior Analyst and consultant at Arthur Andersen and AT Kearney, in 2000, he joined the Peppers & Rogers Group.

Attaining international partnership of the Peppers & Rogers later on, and assuming his duties as the General Manager in charge of all regions for after sales services, Göğüş played an important role in Peppers&Rogers’ growth in EMEA region as well as other regions. He has gained expertise particularly in strategic growth and transformation through his consultancy efforts for over fifty major companies and regulatory authorities across a wide geography. He attained vast experience in the new economy world as well as in classic economy.

Çağlar Göğüş joined the Doğan Group in 2015 as an Independent Board Member at Hürriyet Gazetecilik. After having assumed this duty for one year, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Hürriyet Gazetecilik for over two years. During his term, he carried out important projects including digital transformation, efficiency, profitability, redefining business processes, and Hürriyet Emlak (Hürriyet Real Estate and Properties) attaining a corporate character.

Çağlar Göğüş is married, and has a daughter and a son.

Murat Göllü has been working as the Head of Communications for Akbank since 2005. He has taken part as an executive in several roles in Sabancı Holding and Siemens before Akbank. After graduating from METU Engineering Faculty in 1994, Mr. Göllü received a Master‘s degree in Business Administration branch in Yeditepe University. Aside from being a Member of Board of Directors in the Advertisers Association of Turkey (RVD) and IAB Turkey and Vice Chairperson in Board of Directors of the Turkish Public Relations Association (TÜHİD), Mr. Göllü is functioning also as the Chairperson of Digital Steering Committee in RVD. Murat Göllü is married and has one child.

Esra Gönen is an entrepreneur mainly interest in Innovation and Design in Service and Creative and Cultural Industries. In 2009, she founded GNN Foreign Trade, an import/export consultancy firm, followed by GNN Office in 2014, the first co-working space for businesses in Izmir. After observing the impact of coworking and cocreation on local development, she cofounded ORIGINN COWORKING in 2016, where creative and social entrepreneurs work, socialise and develop projects collectivley. In 2017, she cofounded Merak Creative Activities and Culture Association to foster new work at the intersection of art, technology and innovation. She is the local facilitator of NestaUK Creative Enterprise Program and has been assigned as a influencer woman leader in Cultural and Creative Industries in Turkey, by British Council. She has been also nominated as ambassador of Women’s Enterpreneurship Day Organisation. Esra studied Business at Dokuz Eylül University and holds an MA in International Business at Applied University of Mainz and London South Bank University, still continues her master studies in Design Management in Izmir Economy University.

Altug Gultan started his professional media career in 2009 at Fox International Channels Turkey, in programming and content acquisitions department. He has embraced many channel launches, global content deals, local productions, special projects and brand integrations in a short period of time. During this period, he has represented Fox Channels in international TV markets successfully.

After planning FOXCRIME and 24Kitchen channel launch strategies in Turkey, he also supported FIC’s channels in Greece.

After being promoted to the position of FIC Turkey ‘Head of Productions’, it was a little further up the slope for him. He produced the first local contents of the National Geographic Channel Turkey.

In addition to projects such as Mega Factories: Vestel, Inside Turkish Airlines and Ozan Guven’s Science of Stupid, FIC Turkey won the ‘Outstanding Contribution” award with its first in-house documentary ‘Tracking The Brown Bear’

Altuğ has strived to show how much foundation he has to offer for developing content in every new project. After six years of television experience, he bid farewell to FIC in July 2015 to set up the company he planned for a long time.

With his experience in channel planning, content acquisitions, project sales and global productions, he aims to create good examples for the Turkish TV market with every new project he will execute.

Mehmet Icagasioglu holds DGM and Ad Sales Group President position inside The Walt Disney Company, Turkey Media. As the DGM of TWDC Turkey he is responsible for overseeing all operations of FOX, National Geographic, National Geographic WILD, National Geographic People, FOXLIFE, FX, FOXCRIME, 24Kitchen, BabyTV and their digital outlets. As Ad Sales Group President, he is responsible for creating, developing and executing strategic partnerships across the domestic and international media assets of TWDC Turkey and leads the most creative and successful ad sales team in the country. He has been with the company for 12 years.

Mehmet started his career in FNG Turkey, joined in 2006, served as sales executive, manager, director, head of sales, VP of sales, and was also responsible of Africa ad sales. He is also co- founder and visioner of the world’s first e-commerce SVOD platform FOXplay.

He has also turned FNG Ad sales into a sales power house that represented; Twitch, Da Vinci Learning, Disney Channels.

He is a graduate of the Geodesy Engineering Department at Yildiz Technical University and Social responsibility has been a driving force in much of Sezai Hazir’s life. Hazır has 25 years of experience in social development and working with disadvantaged groups through projects he has initiated in 81 Turkish cities. In addition, Hazır had served as a member of the official commission of the Turkish Government at the United Nations summits between 1997 and 2003. He founded the very first youth organization of Turkey, Habitat Association, in 1996 and is now the honorary president of the organization. He is also vice president of TOBB Young Entrepreneurs  Vice President,. Hazır has been a keynote speaker about entrepreneurship, development, governance and participation.

Rusen joined UNDP in August 2018, as Communication Expert for Syria Crisis Response and Resilience Programme – EU funded MADAD Project. Before joining UNDP, he was working for AmCham Turkey/ABFT, where he was responsible for developing and implementing government engagement & advocacy strategies, public policy and strategic communications. Rusen held various positions in private sector and international business associations (Sütaş, TÜSİAD, YASED, AİFD) in İstanbul, Brussels and Paris; on external relations, public policy, EU affairs and corporate communications. Rusen Inceoglu is graduated from Galatasaray University, department of international relations. He completed his master’s degrees at Galatasaray University (Regional and Strategic Studies) and Université Paris-II Panthéon-Assas (Geostrategy, Development and Globalisation) and he pursued PhD studies at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales – EHESS-Paris on Development Economics.

Pelin Kihtir is the Director of the Business for Goals Platform.  B4G is a collective action of UNDP, TUSIAD and TURKONFED to execute research, studies and dialogues to enhance the private sector’s role for the achievement of SDGs.

Pelin has been working in UNDP since 2010. Before joining B4G Platform management, she has been working in UNDP’s Regional Hub for Europe and CIS on quality assurance and programme support to Sustainable Development, Emerging Donors and Strategic Partnerships at the regional level. Prior to these she has worked on community empowerment in Turkey through nationl and international funded projects.

Prior to her active work in the field of development, she was a research assistant in Middle East Technical University in Ankara and she has a graduate degree on Middle Eastern Studies on Urban Transformation and a bachelor degree on City and Regional Planning.

Once a journalist, once a peddlar, now a designer. He walked, halted, designed, had been designed. He studied industrial design at METU but he didn’t finish it. He toured around Turkey and Balkans, went to Europe, loved the North, did some publications and published some fanzines. He never liked cars, he doesn’t have a driving license either. He likes to walk, he has been walking for 53 years.

He has been a lecturer for Kültür University, a Board Member for History Foundation, a consultant to several credited institutions, a writer for several journals and a traveler for many routes in recent years.

He is still a strategist for social good based foundations and platforms, manager for Myra, co-ep and co-anchor for Diğerkâm, founder for Hemzemin Social Good Conference, member of the Board for Kültür Ofisi Association, member of GMK, İTMK and RYD, founder-manager of I’ve Learned Something Today, designer for civil society and an ever-employed uncle for his nephew at age 12.

Raj Kumar is the founding President & Editor-in-Chief of Devex, the media platform for the global development community. A social enterprise dedicated to ensuring global development efforts do more good for more people, Devex was born in 2000 when Raj was a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School. Today, there are 100+ Devexers around the world serving a global audience of more than one million aid workers and development professionals. Beginning as a kid in Kerala, India, Raj has witnessed firsthand determined and courageous development work in over 50 countries – it’s what drives the Devex mission to “Do Good. Do It Well.” He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a media leader and former humanitarian council chair for the World Economic Forum, and has interviewed on-camera and on- stage hundreds of global luminaries on the most important challenges of our time. Raj is the author of the book “The Business of Changing the World,” a go-to primer on the ideas, people, and technology disrupting the aid industry.

Prof. Levent Kurnaz was born in Istanbul. He received his B.S. Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1988, his M.S. Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and his B.S. Degree in Physics in 1990 from Bogazici University, his M.S. Degree in Physics in 1991 and his Ph.D. Degree in Physics in 1994 from University of Pittsburgh. Between 1995 and 1997 he worked as a research associate at Department of Chemistry in Tulane University. In 1997 he joined Bogazici University Physics Department as an assistant professor. Since he has been a Professor of Physics at Bogazici University. In 2014 he has been appointed as the Director of the Center for Climate Change and Policy Studies at Bogazici University. Prof. Kurnaz has 1 international book and 32 scientific papers in international journals. He has been an advisor to 27 M.S. and 9 Ph.D. thesis ongoing and finished. He is married with two children. His contact address is levent.kurnaz@boun.edu.tr

Can Kuterdem graduated from Middle East Technical University, Environmental Engineering in 1999 and completed his post-graduate studies on Civil Engineering at North Carolina University in 2001. Afterwards, in 2009, Kuterdem completed his Masters of Business Administration degree at Duke University.

Kuterdem began his career as an Environmental Engineer at Alpha Gamma Technologies in 2001 and promoted to General Secretary during his 6 years tenure at Orbit Energy, a subsidiary of Alpha Gamma. Between 2009 and 2012, he served as a Consultant & Corporate Development Member in New York at Boston Consulting Group HQ. In 2012, Kuterdem moved to Seoul and joined Samsung Global Strategy Group after where he continued his career as Project Manager, Business Development Manager & New Business Applications Group Lead at Samsung Group of companies. In July 2016, he appointed as the Strategy Director of Samsung Electronics Turkey. As of July 2019, Kuterdem was appointed as the Regional Head of Mobile Business at Samsung Electronics MENA RHQ and leading the development activities of 23 countries which has turnover up to 9 billion dollars.

As an expert at strategic planning, corporate development and competition analysis, Can Kuterdem speaks English, Italian, Spanish, Korean fluently.

UNV Turkey County Coordinator since January 2018. Working closely with the UN Agencies, Civil Society Organization, Governmental Institutions, Academia and volunteers in promotion of volunteerism in Turkey. Worked at different international and national organizations in the area of sustainable development. Master’s Degree in Sociology from the Middle Eastern Technical University, Ankara-Turkey, and Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies and Sociology from Saint Mary’s University, Halifax – Canada.

Duygu Ercan Mörel leads the Turkey office of Globesight, a global advisory firm working collaboratively with innovative partners to craft solutions to the world’s most pressing social issues. Through her work, Duygu leads engagements with partners ranging from philanthropic foundations, international organizations, local non-profits, and government agencies, in the area of social impact and global development.

Prior to joining Globesight, Duygu worked at the Ministry of Trade (former Ministry of Economy) for almost ten years, as a policy officer developing and implementing multi-stakeholder projects to advance structural transformation in Turkey’s industrial production and exports. Lately in her role, she took part in building a nation-wide strategic roadmap for Turkey’s digital transformation. She started her professional career in London as a Capital Markets Analyst at RBC Capital Markets in 2007 and worked as a Research Associate at TEPAV, the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey before joining the Ministry.

Duygu holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bilkent University and master’s degree in international business and finance from Stockholm School of Economics.

İ. Renay Onur is a senior corporate finance/business development professional, ulta-marathon runner and a social entrepreneur, having worked across Turkey and Eastern Europe for 18 years.

Currently Renay is general manager of Spor İstanbul, a company owned by İstanbul Municipality, with a mission of increasing the sports and active life awareness of 16 million İstanbul inhabitants. Company is operating 50+ sports facilities and organizing 10+ sports events in İstanbul.

In addition to his professional life, Mr. Onur is a prominent figure in the social entrepreneurship world in Turkey. Mr. Onur established Adım Adım(www.adimadim.org) as an “umbrella” initiative in 2007, with a vision to become a model social organisation, enabling individuals and organizations to donate to NGOs through organized sports activities and to act as an incubator for charity running. 500,000+ people have donated through Adım Adım platforms to 40+ nationally recognised NGOs. Adım Adım funding (peer to peer funding) has become 40% of all individual funding of these NGOs, and essentially the largest pee2peer crowd-funding platform in Turkey. Renay Onur was named as an Ashoka Fellow in 2014. He also co-founded his second social venture Açık Açık – with a goal to enhance transparency of the social sector in Turkey.

He is a licensed personal development trainer and a motivational speaker. He is married with two kids.

Mahmut Osmanbasoglu obtained his BS degree from Bilkent University, Chemistry Department in 2006, and MS degree from Middle East Technical University (METU), Chemistry Department in 2011. He is currently doing his Ph.D. at Eskişehir Technical University, Environmental Engineering Department on “Management of POPs by Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Multi-criteria Decision Making Tools.” His working area covers following up international treaties on chemicals and waste, especially the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Waste. Mahmut joined the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization (MOEU) in 2007. His main responsibilities in the MOEU to a large extent consisted of preparation of project documents, implementation and coordination of EU and GEF, TUBITAK and Private Sector Projects in the framework of POPs and other dangerous chemicals and wastes as well as preparation of sectoral and regulatory reports for policy makers by analyzing the current environmental, economic and social status of the country for the implementation of chemical-specific regulations and rules.

Bahar Özay, Coordinator of SDSN Turkey Network which is hosted by Boğaziçi University, worked as senior manager in national and international finance, technology, energy and project consultancy companies. Özay had an active role in Carbon Bank and Carbon Card projects which are carried out within the framework of raising awareness of producer and consumer about carbon footprint and establishing sink areas and she is currently a PhD candidate in Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University.

Barbaros Özbugutu has more than 15 years of professional experience in the global payment and telecom segment, including Telefonica O2 and First Data. During this time, he also acted as the Head of Sales SME of TeleCash, a subsidiary of First Data and shortly after as the VP Sales Germany of Klarna. In 2013, Barbaros founded his own payment company in Istanbul. He now acts as co-founder and CEO of iyzico, one of the fastest growing start-ups in Turkey. iyzico is transforming the payment processing experience for businesses of all sizes through its  bank-integrated, fraud-protected payment platform tailored to the nuances of the Turkish market.  Obtaining the BRSA license and being compliant with PCI-DSS, more than 160 people at iyzico go beyond seamless payments and help businesses transform to an excellent online shopping experience. With over 32.000 digital merchants and 500.000 iyzico buyer protection consumers, iyzico gains more and more penetration into the Turkish e-commerce market each day.

Ali Ercan Ozgur (Turkey) holds a PhD from Marmara University on the “Development Agencies in Turkey under the auspices of EU”. He also holds a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Marmara University and an MSc in Governance and Development Management degree from the University of Birmingham. Ali Ercan is currently the founder and Managing Director of IDEMA International Development Partners and the Secretary General of the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey (CSR Turkey). He previously served as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Turkey while he also possesses wide civil society experience with stints, inter alia, at the Habitat Governance and Development Center; the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV); and the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV). He is also a British Foreign & Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholar; a Marshall Memorial Fellow of German Marshall Fund of the United States; and a Black Sea Young Reformer.

Suat Özçağdaş was born in İzmir in 1973. He was graduated from Middle East Technical University with a BS in Psychology in 1997 and continued working there as research assistant. Throughout his career, Mr. Özçağdaş has held several executive positions in major NGO’s such as International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Turkish Red Crescent Society and Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV).

After his career in TEGV, Suat Özçağdaş established Center for Social Innovation Turkey as a social enterprise to create innovative solutions to unmet social problems in order to contribute to a sustainable and quality-life for individuals, society and the planet. Mr. Özçağdaş consults on corporate volunteerism & sustainability, strategic planning and NGO capacity development and lectures in İstanbul Bilgi University on social entrepreneurship.

suato@sosyalinovasyonmerkezi.com.tr
www.en.sosyalinovasyonmerkezi.com.tr

Centre for Social Innovation Turkey

Center for Social Innovation (CSI Turkey) is a social enterprise established in September 2011 by a group of academicians and civil society specialists to carry out social innovation work within the areas of Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility and Volunteerism, Capacity Building for Civil Society and Corporate Development and to carry out Social Researches, Database and Publications with this respect. CSI Turkey, as the very first center for social innovation activities in Turkey, currently runs projects with several NGO’s, universities, private, public and social enterprises.

Birim Gonulsen Ozyurekli has 18 years of marketing & business management experience in Turkey and Europe I in the areas of FMCG, media, e-business, digital brands, retail and payment solutions.

Birim has joined Visa in 2018 as Head of Marketing for South East Europe. She is responsible for leading the marketing strategy & execution plans in 9 countries comprising of Turkey, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Malta.

Prior to joining Visa, Birim was Senior Brand Director in Adidas, where she was responsible for range development for Emerging Markets North (Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria), pricing strategy and marketing communications.

Earlier in her career, Birim was Marketing Manager in Coca-Cola where she was responsible for 23 countries in Central & Southern Europe, based in Romania and Marketing Director at Hurriyet Newspaper.

Birim graduated from the Bosphorus University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Relations.

Ayşe Sabuncu is one of the co-founders of Impact Hub Istanbul. After completing her undergraduate studies with a double major in computer engineering and business at Johns Hopkins University, Sabuncu started her career in banking industry at Citi Group in New York where she served at different levels for 5 years.

While working at Citi Group, through Adım Adım (Step by Step) Initiative she came across a fundraising project for the welfare of the youth “Gençlere Değer Projesi” by Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı (Community Volunteer Foundation). In support of this cause, Sabuncu climbed Kilimanjaro Mountain with her friends and after this experience she decided to give another direction to her life.

She did an MBA program at Stern School of New York University to advance her knowledge on social impact, innovation and entrepreneurship. She specifically focused on social entrepreneurship, microfinance and social investment subjects. In the summer of 2014, she started working in the field of microfinance with Kiva – a global non-profit organization – in Zimbabwe and South Africa where she was introduced to Impact Hub.

In the last two years, Sabuncu and her partners have been working on mapping and analysis of social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey. Having moved in their new home at İstanbul’s upcoming industrial district 4.Levent Sanayi in June 2016, Ayşe Sabuncu believes that Impact Hub Istanbul will be the meeting point of all impact driven individuals as well as serving as an inspirational space to foster social innovation.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed the Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development. He has been advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

20 years of experience in communications for retail and media sector. An active responsibility in corporate communications for 6 years in CNN TURK, the first media joint venture in Turkey. Following this role, responsible for the communications, including both public relations, marketing communications and customer relations in VAKKO Holding. Before rejoining Dogan Media Group, as the Corporate Communications Director of Dogan Burda Magazine Group, worked as corporate communications director in STEP & Stepevi (Carpet and Home Accessories) which is the market maker and the leading brand in Turkey and across the world.

In 2015 the Marketing Director role in Douglas Parfumerie, the leading selective cosmetic retail chain in Europe.

Rejoined Dogan Group in October as Vice President for Corporate Communications and Marketing. Lead also the Sustainability strategies within the group.

Graduated from Galatasaray University, Faculty of Communications

Başak has worked towards sustainable development for the last 15+ years. Her work aimed to empower individuals as well as communities to actively participate in social, economic and political life as change makers. She has always prioritized capacity development for resilience, as well as sustainability and development.

With this perspective, she has designed, developed, led and monitored project-based partnerships with private sector, government and non-government organizations on sustainable development topics at institutions including UNDP, Habitat and Building Markets. These projects have addressed issues on digitalization and technology innovation; financial inclusion and education; enhancement of entrepreneurship ecosystems; green, inclusive and socially responsible business creation and development; circular economy solutions; livelihoods support for refugees as well as local governance, community empowerment, active citizenship, youth empowerment and gender equality.

Başak is a Co-founder of DCUBE, an R&D cooperative that facilitates circular economy solutions and transition to circular development. She supports and provides advisory to initiatives that facilitate sustainable development including the SDG Impact Accelerator. She is also an active member of the TOBB Women Entrepreneurship Board and the national Network on Checks and Balances. She serves on the board of directors of various companies and social enterprises as a partner. Previously, Başak sit at the executive board of the World Academy for Local Democracies of UCLG-MEWA and served as the Vice Chair of the Advisory Board on Youth of Council of Europe.

Başak holds a BA degree from Koç University, and two LLM degrees from Marmara University and Nottingham University. She is also a PFP fellow of the US State Department; she has completed her fellowship at the Global Accelerator MassChallenge in Boston

Hatice Dinç Sarısoy, is an environmental engineer specialized in environmental management.  She has been working for more than 20 years for key national NGOs, such as Nature Conservation Centre, WWF Turkey and TEMA, and environmental consultancy companies on natural resources and protected area management. EU environmental acquis and its national implementations are among her expertise.

H. Serhan Suzer graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 1999 with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree, majoring in Finance and concentration in Accounting. Serhan worked as the asset manager of the Istanbul Ritz-Carlton Hotel since the opening in October 2001 until 2007 and has managed his family company Suzer Group’s International Relations Department from 2003 until 2007. Between 2006-2009, he played an active role in managing Suzer Group’s investment to establish a Coca Cola Plant in Iraq. Between 2002-2004, he was an Executive Committee Member of the Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau (ICVB). Serhan served at the Turkish State Planning Organization (DPT) Tourism Commission to form the framework for the 9th Development Plan (2007 – 2013) of the Republic of Turkey. In addition, since 2008, Serhan has been the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Costa Rica, appointed by a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, President Oscar Arias. After working as CEO of KFC and Pizza Hut Turkey between 2009 and 2011, Serhan decided to focus on sustainability projects. In his last role at KFC and Pizza Hut Turkey, he built the first LEED certified environmentally friendly restaurant in Turkey. In December 2011, Serhan started his first venture, Hittite Solar, in the field of Solar CSP and began his role there as CEO. In 2013, he sold Hittite Solar and activated EkoRE in the field of Solar PV and Wind Energy. In 2012, he took over a call center and software development company, EkoCCS. Moreover, he established a fintech company, Moka in August 2014 and a wifi analytics company, Bonbon in July 2016. H. Serhan Suzer as a social entrepreneur established TIDER, providing people in need with the food and other basic need products rescued from waste and helping them to find jobs and develop socially.

Cihan Seyithanoğlu graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Department of Textile Engineering in 2004 and completed Business Administration Certificate Program at Henley Management College in London.

He started his professional career in 2004 with the Danish textile giant Bestseller Jack & Jones. As a result of his achievements in China and Denmark, he appointed as the general director of Turkey. Then he directed the process of transformation Koton’s partnership with Turkven. Furthermore by the establishment of G-Star Raw Turkey’s regional organization, he accomplished the management of stores and franchise operations of brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein and he carried out important work as revising the business model of these brands.

As CEO and partner of Lidyana, an e-commerce online shopping site, he managed the brand’s business model and reorganization strategy.

He appointed as the CEO of Workinton which introduces the new genaraion of working style “coworking” with Turkey in 2018 where he can transfer his gained experience.

With its 80-person team, Workinton provides efficient working comfort to its members in 18 locations in Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Izmir and Qatar, as well as services that will make their lives easier in their business and private lives. Workinton collaborates with the right shareholders in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and supports projects on sustainable development and social entrepreneurship. It is also leading the digital transformation in coworking spaces.

Deniz joined UNDP in 2009 as a Communication Consultant for Environment and Climate Change Programme and in 2014 she began to work as Communications Administrator for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Portfolio. Prior to joining the UNDP, she worked as Communication Manager in WWF Turkey from 2001 to 2009 and as Press and Publication Officer in Society for the Protection of Nature from 1998 to 2001. Before moving to NGO sector, she worked in an international advertising agency, Lowe Adam, based in Istanbul. She started his career at TGRT TV as a reporter in economy department.

Deniz has 25 years of experience on communication, advocacy and networking. Her thematic areas of expertise include communication of projects on nature conservation, climate change, renewable energy and energy efficiency, forests, sustainable tourism, agriculture, water management, rural development, urbanization, sustainable growth, gender mainstreaming.

She is graduated from Marmara University Department of Business Administration.

Ayhan Soyfidan born in Denizli in 1979 completed his undergraduate studies in economics from Dumlupınar Universty and his master degree completed on business administration.

In addition to his business life with his own enterprise ADES Training cosultancy and organization and he also simultanesouly involved different activities and projects in the field arts sports, politics, and civil society.

Particiption of young people in local administrations and conducding development-oriented social projects.
He made Local Agenda 21 process and later worked on the City Councils.

He served in the management of Habitat Assocation in 2014-2016 and He served as the director of public relations in 2016-2019
Founder the National youth parliament, the national top platform of the local youth council which is based on participation . He served as a member of the board of directors responsible for the Aegean region for 3 terms and later He was also also member of Advisory board.

He started working as the Deputy Mayor of Pamukkale in the local elections held in 2019.

Soyfidan is also the Chariman of Pamukkale City Council

Renan Tavukçuoğlu, is the pioneer of WOMM in the Turkish market since 2005. She graduated from Bosphorus University in 1991 with POLS degree and got her MBA from The University of Hartford, CT.

Since May 2018, she started her social enterprise: ‘Puduhepa and Sisters’ to support girls’ education and support women to make money from home to help build a stronger commmunity. ‘Gender equality’ and ‘democratization of education’ are her passion subjects.

Ulaş Tepe was born in Ordu. He completed his undergraduate studies in public administration and completed his masters degree on local governments.

In addition to his business life he also involved in different activities and projects in the fields of arts, sports, politics, and civil society.

Tepe has been involved in civil society, youth participation, local governments and politics for many years. He worked on the participation of young people in local administrators and conducted a development- oriented social project.

He worked as a volunteer and a professional in the Habitat Association for many years.

The National Youth Parliament of the Local Youth Council is based on voluntary participation. Tepe served as a member of the board of directors who is responsible for the National Youth Parliament in the Black Sea Region for 3 terms.

He started his career as the Mayor of Gülyalı as the Turkey’s youngest mayor after the local elections in 2019.

Mustafa joined the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992 following his studies in international relations at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. As a career diplomat, he worked in Italy, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Austria, Afghanistan and Belgium. He was Director of the International Media Centre at the G20 Summit in Antalya. Now he serves as Deputy Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs. He has a Masters degree in European politics from the College of Europe in Bruges.

His passion is to bring creative people together in inspiring places and to host meaningful conversations. InnoMate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Meetup Group, which he initiated in Brussels in 2013, expanded in Luxembourg, Milan and Istanbul. In 2015 he co-founded InnoCampus, a non-profit entrepreneurship training programme. In 2017, he launched TACT Agora, a global platform for co-learning through curated expeditions and experiences. He has now put all his talent and experience into the SDG Impact Accelerator.

Bilge Turcan has over 20 years of experience within real estate and development sectors. He started his professional career working for UCLG-MEWA as a development specialist at regional headquarters in Istanbul. After leaving UCLG-MEWA, he completed his master’s degree at School of Economics, Rotterdam University in Netherlands on Urban Management. Following his masters, he actively involved in the real estate sector in Cushman & Wakefield through various positions such as Senior Consultant, Head of Valuation & Advisory and Head of Capital Markets. Following his active career in real estate, Bilge has served as Chief Business Development Officer in Dedeman Hotels Group where he was responsible for development and execution of growth & expansion strategy, contract negotiations, brand design strategies and pre-opening support to operations. In 2011, Bilge has co-founded IDEMA, a special entrepreneurship initiative that is cultivating sustainable, novel projects and global partnerships to support socio-economic development across Turkey and the World, and committed to provide meaningful impact through developing and implementing socio-economic development projects, realizing innovative solutions towards development obstacles and serving as a hub for development practitioners to form global partnerships.

Graduated from Istanbul University’s Faculty of Economics. Completed his master’s degree on European Studies at Catholic Leuven University in Belgium where he was awarded with Jean Monnet Scholarship. There he focused on the regional development policy of the EU. Completed master’s and PhD degrees in journalism at Marmara University in Istanbul. Started his journalism and broadcasting career in 1992 at BRT, a TV station of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. He worked for NTV, the first news channel of Turkey, for ten years starting from 1997. Also worked for the BBC Turkish Service for more than three years in London. In 2008 he won the Sedat Simavi Prize of Journalists Association of Turkey (TGC). Since 2010 he is taking care of the communications of United Nations Development Programme in Turkey. He also managed communication partnerships, events and press relations at UNDP Eurasia communications team.

As External Relations and Public Information Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Selin Ünal leads communications efforts and serves as spokesperson in Turkey, the world’s largest refugee host country as of end of 2014, in one of UNHCR’s largest operations globally. Operating in 126 countries, UNHCR provides shelter and assistance for millions of people who have fled wars and persecution. In her role, Selin Ünal implements UNHCR Turkey’s communications strategy along with her team to raise awareness on the displaced persons vis-à-vis the varied audiences, including media, local communities and donors. She joined UNHCR in 2012 from the International Organization for Migration where she served for more than 9 years in different departments including programme and external relations.

Saruhan Onur Ünlü, a McKinsey Partner, is passionate about leading Artificial Intelligence transformation programs and modeling machine learning for the benefit of both social and financial areas. He pursued his undergraduate degree in electronics and electronics engineering at Boğaziçi University and he was granted Rectorate Award and Feyyaz Berker Sportsmanship Award during his education. He then pursued his master’s degree in business at Columbia University.

Following his undergraduate degree at Hacettepe University Department of Business Administration, Mr. Kaan Ünver had his MBA at New York, College of Insurance, Department of Actuary. Kaan Ünver began his career at Undersecretariat of Turkish Treasury on 1993. Before joining Anadolu Group, Mr. Ünver was Corporate Affairs Manager at Philip Morris/Sabancı between 2004 – 2009, Corporate Affairs Division Head at Turkcell between 2009 – 2011 and Metro Group Country Representative between 2011 – 2017. Kaan Ünver works as Anadolu Group Corporate Affairs and Communications Coordinator since 2017. Mr. Ünver holds various positions as board member and working group chairman at Turkish Industry & Business Association, Foreign Economic Relations Board, International Investors Association and Food Retailers Association.

Biolive Company was founded by Duygu Yılmaz,, Food and Chemical Engineer, a woman entrepreneur. After graduating from food engineering department in 2013, she started to work as a quality specialist in a honey company and she continued to graduate at Istanbul Technical University. As she continued her work life, she began to investigate the effect of the olive core on human health after seeing her father eating olive seeds for breakfast in order to get better. After discovering an antioxidant substance in the olive seed, she decided to leave the workplace in June 2015 and establish a company to produce bioplastic from olive seed waste. After started her career in entrepreneurship and got her work life by taking trainings in USA and Europe. Yilmaz, which was the first in the world to produce bioplastics made of the olive seed, has been awarded with a number of national and international awards in a short time. Yilmaz, created new employment areas by producing bioplastic made of tones wastes where are in Turkey. Due to the effects of existing plastics on human and environmental health, Yılmaz produces bioplastic granules with far better properties than competing products in Europe and the USA. That produced bioplastic granulles can be used for environmentally friendly automobiles, disposable plastic food materials, electrical electronic industry, thermos etc. products, children and baby products.

Toygun Yılmazer started his career at IXIR, the disruptive ISP company and at the end of 2000, he joined TBWA\ISTANBUL as an Account Planner. He gained experience in TBWA London, TBWA Hamburg offices. Over 18 years, he had became a partner of TBWA Istanbul’s adventure that Turkey’s largest and most award-winning  agency. He worked with international accounts such as Nivea, McDonald’s, Henkel, Adidas, IKEA, Absolut, Nissan, Beko and with local accounts such as, Ülker, Boyner, Avea, Akbank, Efes Pilsen, Hürriyet, Türk Telekom, TTNET. He has also been organizing and moderating Disruption workshops for clients. He has a passion for research and developing ad hoc research models, sometimes in cooperation with research companies. Yılmazer was a keynote speaker at Golden Drum 2012, and a jury member in Euro Effies 2012 and Effie Turkey 2013. He is a member of the Effie Turkey Committee and Advertising Association Board. He is an Vise President of Advertising Foundation and a lecturer at Bilgi University.