Burak Aydın (b. 1975) finished his studies in Mechanical Engineering in Middle East Technical University in 1997. In 1999 he completed his Master’s studies in Business Administration but he had already started his business life in 1997 while he was working as a Network Assistant in the METU Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. In 2001 he worked as a consultant in various projects in Accenture offices in Germany and Austria.

In 2004 he returned to Turkey and worked as the Strategic Planning Advisor and Manager for Siemens Business Services. In 2006 after acquiring experience in both domestic and foreign markets, he joined the Intel Turkey family as Business Development Manager Responsible for Training and Small and Medium Size Enterprises Programs. In 2009 he was assigned as the Business Development Group Manager.

Burak Aydın carried out many important works in collaboration with non-governmental organizations, public and private sectors for the implementation of the innovative projects in Turkey. In addition to Turkey he played a prominent role in the preparation of strategies and work plans for the Middle East and Africa region. He is the General Manager of Intel Turkey since July, 2011. He is a board member of TUBISAD (Information Industry Association). Aydın, who also is a member of TUSIAD, is currently running the STEM working group within TUSIAD.

Elif Bilgin is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University pursuing a double degree in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science.  She graduated from Koç High School in 2015. Along with her elementary and high school education, for 7 years she attended to BİLSEM, an institution for the gifted children, graduating in 2014, after successful completion of their Math and Biology programs.

In 2013, she represented Turkey at Google Science Fair with her project,  “Going Bananas! Using banana Peels in the Production of Bioplastic as a Replacement of Traditional Petroleum Based Plastic”. According to Google, thousands of students, aged 14-18 from 120 countries entered this competition and her project won 2 of the 5 grand prizes:

• Scientific American Magazine’s “Science in Action” award for being  innovative, easy to put into action and reproducible in other communities.
• Voter’s Choice award for being voted number 1 by the people all over the world

This success at the age of 16, draw a big attention from media all over the world. She’s been invited to speak at Google Zeitgeist America 2013, at Tedx Vienna, at Tedx İstanbul, at Turkish Exporters Assembly, at European Union Inovation Conference in Brussels, at the Technology Development Foundation Turkey’s Technology Awards Conference, at the Google for Education Conference in Austin, Texas.  She was invited to CERN in Geneva by Turkish scientist Bilge Demirköz.  She was filmed by TRT for a documentary on her project which aired in Asia-Pasific countries.  Also, British publishing company, Harper Collins reserved 3 pages of an English Grammer book to her project, under the title of “Think differently”.

A Second year student at Johns Hopkins University, Elif Bilgin is also a part of a research team at the Dolen Lab of the university, working on exploring the social brain in health and diseases like otizm and schizophrenia.

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.

Mert Fırat was born in Ankara in 1981. After graduating from high school, he went to Sweden to receive training in radio and television.

Later he moved back to Ankara and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Theater from Ankara University Faculty of Language, History and Geography.

He has starred in a series of television programs and movies since 2005. He also played the lead role in the film “Love in Another Language”, the script of which was written by Fırat himself along with director İlksen Başarır. Fırat also wrote the script for the film titled “Atlıkarınca” (Merry-go-round).

Fırat, who has been involved in theater for many years performing on various stages, still performs in striking shows titled “Bütün Çılgınlar Sever Beni” (All the Crazy People Love Me) and “Parkta Güzel Bir Gün” (A Beautiful Day at the Park) on the Moda Stage.

He took part in a wide range of corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects and public awareness campaigns. He also taught acting and drama classes to children in Samsun İlkadım Learning Unit within the scope of “I Read, I Play” project carried out by the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV). He contributed greatly to setting up clubs for deaf and hearing impaired people and opening sign language courses by the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey. He participated panels on incestuous relationships held by Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Foundation. He played a significant role in making the issue of incest come to the forefront. He gave active support to the anti-fur campaign named “Take Off Your Fur, Wear Your Conscience” (Kürkünü Çıkar Vicdanını Giy) launched by the Bana Göz Kulak Ol Association.

Fırat, who took part voluntarily in various public awareness campaigns launched by the Mother Child Education Foundation (AÇEV), the Foundation for Children with Leukemia (LÖSEV) and a variety of LGBT and youth organizations is still involved voluntarily in many different campaigns and activities.

Last but not least he played an active role in national and global activities on gender equality and violence against women. Within this scope he voiced the infographic video on violence against women prepared by BİANET and also provided volunteer support for the video to reach a large audience. Furthermore Fırat took part in video-making process of “The Ozgecan Law” campaign started on Change.org platform. He appeared in the public awareness film of the campaign. He supports the HeforShe campaign, a solidarity campaign for gender equality initiated by the United Nations.

Mert Fırat, who works with various associations and foundations on corporate social responsibility, appears as a partner in two different projects. Firstly he put the “Sanat Mahal” project into practice with his partners in Bursa. This is a new social enterprise project aimed at creating an art space for the neighborhood and the city. Secondly, Fırat, one of the founders of www.ihtiyacharitasi.org contributes actively to planning and functioning of the project.

Nicolas Douillet is a member of UNDP’s Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) since November 2015 as Regional Communications Specialist for Europe and the CIS at the Regional Hub in Istanbul, Turkey. Nicolas served as Regional Communications Specialist for Africa from 2009 to 2015, and Web Content Manager at the UNDP Office of Communications from 2005 to 2009. Prior to joining the UN, Nicolas worked as chief editor of a Paris-based newsmagazine. He started his career in journalism at AFP and has also worked with the BBC in Paris. Nicolas holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

He was born in Kırşehir in 1975. He graduated from Public Administration Department at Hacettepe University and then he started working at State Personel Presidency as an assistant state personnel expert. He became State Personnel Expert in 2002. He has got his master’s degree from University of Illinois at Springfield in 2007. During this time, he volunteered at Illinois State Museum. Between 2009-2010, He worked as a human resources policy officer at European Environment Agency. He completed his PhD. with his thesis “Volunteering, Voluntary Organizations and State Collaboration: The Case of AmeriCorps and A Model for Turkey”. Currently, He is an acting General Manager of Education, Culture and Research General Directorate for Ministry of Youth and Sport.

During his university years, he published some literary magazines with his friends and wrote stories. His writing journey is still continuing in scholarly field.

Born in 1973, Hatice Gökçe graduated from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts and established her own design atelier in 1998. A pioneer in Turkey’s men’s fashion design, Gökçe was awarded her first professional prize in a 1998-competition for Best Design. A year later, she also won the Unique Design Award in Japan. As the founder and board member of the Fashion Designers Association of Turkey (MTD), Gökçe has been actively involving in civil society projects.

Since 2008, she’s been working as the brand coordinator of the UN-supported social responsibility project “Argande”. After signing a contract to become the design coordinator for Chinese menswear brand “Ilchi” in 2011, Gökçe presented the Leather Age Project respectively to a large audience in Beijing and Shangai. Designer, Milan Fashion Week in September 2015 The Leather Age showed the project.

She is known for her experimental approach to the use of new materials and shapes to reflect in her designs not only the perfect balance between the harmony of nature and the assertions of technology, but also the comfort and detail, lushness and profundity. Her brand brings into life the perfect unity of simplicity and elegant grandeur

Ercan Gümüş is the Managing Partner at Cool Digital Solutions, which is a project house located in San Francisco, Istanbul and Izmir, mainly focusing on USA and EU market to deliver its services. He also act as the country manager at 11Sight, which is a San Francisco based video conference company. Gümüş is a part-time lecturer at 9 Eylul University, a digital marketing consultant and a mentor at Startup Bootcamp.

Previously worked at Manggis Information Systems as managing partner, Huawei Telecom as business development manager, Gama Holding as product development manager. He has a bachelor’s degree on industrial engineering from Yeditepe University and a master’s degree on entrepreneurship from Özyeğin University.

Meral Guzel is Empower Women Regional Coordinator of UNWomen for Europe and Central Asia, working on women’s economic empowerment issues.  With  over 10 years of experience in international development and financial services across Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East through work at the World Bank Group and the private sector, Meral’s expertise includes banking on women, financial inclusion (MSME development, remittances, access to finance), as well as women’s entrepreneurship. She has worked with both the private and public sectors in program strategy, design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative programmes. Prior to joining United Nations, Meral established the Women Banking department at Turk Ekonomi Bankasi and rolled-out initiatives and functions from the ground up.

Meral is an economist and holds Master’s degrees in International Franchise, International Finance and High European Studies . She speaks Turkish, English, French and Spanish and has three sons.

Tom Hannen worked at the BBC since 2004, making videos in 29 languages for BBC World, World Service, Newsnight, and until 2015 for BBC Media Action, the BBC’s International Development Charity.  He was one of the pioneers of drone journalism within BBC News, and has produced many data visualisation / infographic videos, as well as longer documentary films internationally, incorporating many innovative techniques. In September he moved to the Financial Times to take a role as Executive Producer for Video.

Cenk Kıvılcım is the General Manager of Cisco in Turkey. Cenk joined Cisco from Alcatel Lucent where his most recent role was Chairman of ALU Teletas and Cluster Leader of both Turkey and Azerbaijan. Cenk is a seasoned Information Technology (IT) industry veteran having started at Siemens. He spent over 15 years at ALU holding various leadership positions, including Managing Director and Country Senior Officer for Nigeria and Ghana, Director Carrier Sales for Southern Africa, Indian Ocean and East Africa, as well as Director Export, Access and Data, Europe and South.

Furthermore, he is a board member of a number of influential industry bodies amongst them, the Turkey Industry and Business Association for Communication (TUBISAD) and Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV). He is also member of the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD) Istanbul Technical University Alumni Society, the Besiktas (BJK) Club and American Chamber of Commerce in Turkey.

Cenk Kıvılcım, graduated from Electronics and Communications Engineering, Istanbul Technical University in 1997 and completed the Marketing, Telecommunication Postgraduate program at INSEAD, France in 2002. He also hold a certificate from High Valued Managers Program at Manchester Business School, United Kingdom in 2006.

Cenk holds a BSc Honours degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering.

Outside of work, Cenk enjoys swimming, reading, playing basketball and golf as well as windsurfing.

Kıvılcım, speaks English and Dutch, is married and has two children.

Turkish journalist Emre Kızılkaya started his career at Hürriyet newspaper in 2003 as a foreign news editor. After a stint as the chief editor of the foreign news service, he was promoted as the editorial coordinator of Hürriyet Daily News, the English language edition of Hürriyet. Currently, Kızılkaya serves as the digital content coordinator of Hürriyet. Kızılkaya, who is the vice chair of the Vienna-based International Press Institute’s (IPI) Turkish National Committee, has published several articles on New Media in his columns for hurriyet.com.tr, beside MA degree from Marmara University

Naomi works on the Guardian’s global development professionals network as a writer and content coordinator. She completed a master’s degree in journalism at City University London where she specialised in humanitarian reporting. Naomi has covered human rights stories for the Guardian from Cuba and Palestine, and was shortlisted for the PPA’s new talent awards in 2016.

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.

Ali Ercan Özgür holds a PhD in Local Governments and Decentralization Department from Marmara University with a doctoral dissertation on “Development Agencies in Turkey under the Auspices of the EU”. He is a graduate of Political Science and International Relations Department (Marmara University, İstanbul) and holds a MSc degree in Governance and Development Management from University of Birmingham, UK with a Master’s thesis on “Aid Coordination and Effectiveness in Turkey”. He is British Foreign & Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholar for Master’s degree, Marshall Memorial Fellow of German Marshall Fund of the United States and Black Sea Young Reformer. He is the co-author of the book “Local Governments System in Turkey, France, Spain, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic”.

Ali Ercan Özgür is the Co-founder and Managing Director of IDEMA International Development Partners (www.idema.com.tr). Previously he worked as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Turkey. He started civil society work at Youth for Habitat International Network (now Habitat Governance and Development Center) as International Relations Coordinator in 2001. Then he worked as the Local Governance Fund Manager at United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Branch (UCLG-MEWA), the Projects Coordinator at Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV), the Projects Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey (CSR-Turkey) and the Good Governance Program Manager at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV). Ali Ercan Özgür coordinated research and social projects with the United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the World Bank and private sector. Özgür is the Member of Board and the Secretary General of the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey. Özgür’s fields of work and consultancy are international partnerships, regionalism, regional development, governance, development management, local administrations, corporate social responsibility, non-governmental organizations and international reliefs and funds.

Kamal Malhotra assumed his positions as UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for the Republic of Turkey on 8 April 2013.

Prior to this appointment (late October 2008-31 March 2013), Mr. Malhotra was the UN Resident Coordinator for Malaysia; UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam and UNFPA Representative for Malaysia.

From 1999 to 2008 he worked in UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy, New York as Senior Adviser on Inclusive Globalization (and Cluster Leader) (2002-2008), Civil Society Empowerment Adviser (2001-2002) and Senior Civil Society Adviser (1999-2000).

Before joining UNDP, Mr. Malhotra was Co-Founder and Co-Director of Focus on the Global South, (1995-1999) a global policy research organization located at the Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute in Thailand. During this period, he was also a part-time Regional Adviser on Macroeconomic Policies and Children’s Rights for Save the Children Fund (UK) for South-East Asia and the Pacific.

Prior to this, Mr. Malhotra was Director of the Overseas and Aboriginal Programme at Community Aid Abroad (Oxfam Australia), based in Melbourne, Australia from 1988 to 1995. He also served with the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction in the Philippines (1982-1988) in various positions as Research and Rural Credit Specialist, Associate Director, and Director, International Extension.

Mr. Malhotra holds an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University, New York, with a specialization in economic and political development, a Master’s in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, India with a specialization in finance and economics, and a BA in Economics (with Honors Degree), from the University of Delhi, India.

Mr. Malhotra is widely published with over 75 journals and other articles on the multilateral system and development cooperation. He is also the lead author or co-author of more than five books including the UNDP led Making Global Trade Work for People (Earthscan, 2003) and Globalization and the Least Developed Countries (UNDP, in cooperation with the UN-OHRLLS and the Government of Turkey, 2008). He also initiated and led Virtuous Cycles: The Singapore Public Service and National Development (UNDP, 2011) in cooperation with the Government of Singapore

As BBC Media Action’s Senior Producer, Digital, Elizabeth Mearns (@lmearns) trains and advises digital innovations and social media strategy to production teams both in the UK and worldwide. She is at the forefront of developing new digital media formats and Social Media strategies for projects in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Elizabeth spends a good amount of time travelling to train and mentor BBC Media Action production staff to harness the huge potential technological advancement in developing countries, with a special emphasis on mobile broadband. Her main areas of expertise are multimedia news journalism, radio documentaries, social media and digital tools. Previously, Elizabeth was a producer at NPR, CNNi and BBC World Service. Gaining an MA (Econ) in International Development from the University of Manchester she started her career at Oxfam. Here she learned the importance of the role of media in development and decided to train in media production. Twenty years later she has found herself in a development role again, bringing her knowledge and expertise to the humanitarian sector

Yusuf Omar is Mobile Editor of the Hindustan Times in India. He is currently building the world’s largest mobile journalism team,  training 750 reporters to tell stories using their phones.

Currently in London, he’s attending the Thomson Foundation Media Convergence course.

In 2015, Yusuf won Vodacom Journalist of the Year Editor’s Choice, recognizing five years of mobile journalism and virtual reality stories in Africa. He has been named a ‘Top 20 Global Millennial To Watch In 2016’ by Cliff Central.

At this year’s Mobile Journalism Conference in Dublin, Yusuf won Mobile Journalist of the Year 2016. He has been researching Snapchat storytelling as #DukeMediaFellow in North Carolina, USA – and most recently has used Snapchat to help tell stories of sexual abuse in India.

As a foreign correspondent, Yusuf has reported live from the Syrian front line and other hostile environments,

He was born in the UK, raised in Australia, studied in USA, worked in South Africa and currently lives in India.

Gülsin Onay’s subsequent, truly international career has spanned 70 countries across all continents, from Venezuela to Japan. Gülsin Onay has given concerts in the major musical centers of the world.

An exceptional Chopin interpreter, Gülsin Onay was in 2007 honored with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation. She is also acknowledged worldwide as the finest interpreter of the music of Adnan Saygun, whose works feature prominently in her concerts and recordings, and whose 2nd Piano Concerto (which she has premiered in Turkey and abroad) was dedicated to her.

“An exceptional pianist, endowed with virtuosic brilliance and boundless energy, and an interpretive power both intelligent and emotionally sensitive”, Gülsin Onay has recorded 20 albums that illustrate the breadth of her repertoire as well as her interpretive power.

Gülsin Onay takes a special interest in the promotion of charitable causes, giving charity concerts all around the world – most recently for children in Lebanon, under the auspices of UNICEF, whose Turkish National Committee appointed her “Goodwill Ambassador” in 2003. Since its inception in 2004, Gülsin Onay has been the artistic advisor of the Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival.

Bülent Özcan is the director of Directorate of Project Implementation in the Ministry for EU Affairs. He is responsible from the management of various projects implemented by the Ministry for EU Affairs. The main objectives of these projects are to strengthen the capacity of CSOs, to support civil society dialogue between EU and Turkey, to increase the capacities of local authorities in the EU process and to support EU expertise in public and private sector, universities and  civil society organisations.

Murad Tiryakioğlu graduated from Afyon Kocatepe University with a BA and an MA in Economics and an MBA in Business Administration. He received his PhD from the same university with a dissertation on the use of technology transfer as a strategic resource for the acquisition of technological capabilities. Tiryakioğlu, who has been working in the department of Economics in Afyon Kocatepe University since August 2001, has experience in social responsibility projects related to disaster planning. He has been a disaster volunteer for Afyonkarahisar Disaster and Emergency Management Office since 2007 and works for Disaster Awareness Association founded in 2013 by Tiryakioglu. His academic study areas focus on economic and social development, social innovation and predominantly green growth, humanitarian innovation, and economic impacts of disasters in recent years.

Tiryakioglu continues his efforts to establish a “Platform for Development with Disasters” with the vision he gained from his edited book called “Development with Disasters: Experience, Policies and Prospects” (2016) and a forthcoming book under the name of “Social, Sectoral and Regional Dimensions of Development with Disasters

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

Ozan Sakin was graduated from Galatasaray High School and Koc University Business Administration. He started his brand management career in L’Oréal in 2003 and shifted to digital advertising in McCann Erickson. A big believer in the brotherhood of online and offline, he moved on to the client side at Digiturk and Lig TV (Turkey’s largest Pay TV/Digital broadcaster) coordinating all digital communication. The advertising ban on all alcoholic drinks which became effective right after he started in Anadolu Efes (Turkey’s largest alcoholic beverages company) as digital marketing manager put him in a very peculiar position: He had to produce and spread an unreasonable amount of anonymous (or UGC?) content over the internets because of (or thanks to?) this ban. He is now designing new generation content and experience projects for brands.

Ozan Sakin has been working as Sofar Turkey director since December 2013 with Eda Demir, who had originally implemented the global concept in Turkey. He continues to organize independent music gigs in the living rooms of complete strangers, every month.

She graduated from Ege University, from the Department of Journalism, Faculty of Communication, and started her broadcasting career in Sky TV and Ege TV after which she worked at NTV as an anchorwoman for 4 and a-half years also publishing her articles in the NStyle magazine. She then worked at Show TV and Sky Türk for the news and current affairs programs. For a while she hosted the “Haber Makinası” show with Okan Bayülgen. She reached out to masses with her show “Saba Tümer İle Bu Gece” (Tonight w/ Saba Tümer) which was aired in Show TV, Haber Türk and CNN Türk. She also hosted the show “Lütfen Bu Konuya Girmeyelim” (Let’s Not Go Into That) with Pakize Suda in Star TV. Some other TV shows she is known for are “Saba Tümer’le Bugün” (Today w/ Saba Tümer) and “Saba ile Oyuna Geldik” (Let’s Play w/ Saba).

Fatih Türkmenoğlu earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychological Counseling from Boğaziçi University and Master’s degree in Human Resources Management (HRM) from New York University. He started writing in Sabah newspaper and prepared and presented the radio program “Köşebaşı” on Radio 2019. He started working as a correspondent for NTV in 1996. He has covered breaking news from across the country and around the globe and produced a wide range of television programs. He produced and hosted television programs such as “Renkler ve Sesler” (Sounds and Colors), “Sevgi İle” (With Love), “Her Mevsim Bahar” (Every Season is Spring), “Hindistan’dan Masallar” (Stories from India) and “Yolcu” (Traveler) in four and a half years.

He participated in a wide range of trainings and conferences at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta after having been invited by CNN International. In 2001, he started to work for CNN Turk and continued preparing and hosting “Sounds and Colors”. He began working as a reporter and producer for CNN Turk in 2003 and worked as a columnist for Turkish Daily News (the column’s name: A Day Out in Istanbul). He was also the volunteer chief editor of the monthly media organ “B” of the Boğaziçi University Alumni Association (BÜMED).

He has interviewed various world-renowned celebrities such as Hillary Clinton, Aga Khan, Glafcos Klerides, Liza Minnelli, Sophia Loren, Carla Bruni and many others. He has traveled to more than 70 countries in pursuit of countless stories and always brought humans factor into the forefront in a great deal of political and social news. He won the award for “Best TV Program” from the Marmara University Faculty of Communication in 1997 along with many other awards presented to him by various local organizations and private companies. He also received an award for the Best News Report at the CNN World Report Awards, 1999. He has been presented the “Broadcaster of the Year Award” many times by various institutions.

His first book “Üç Kuruş Fazla Olsun, Kırmızı Olsun” composed of 27 stories was published by Epsilon Publishing House in 2003. His second book “Amerikan Rüyası Tabirleri” was also published by Epsilon Publishing House in 2005. Türkmenoğlu conducted weekly interviews and wrote travel articles for the weekend supplement of Milliyet Daily newspaper. He prepared and hosted “Sahil Günlüğü” (The Coast Diary) for more than 10 years. He hosted CNN Turk shows “Görülmesi Gereken 50 Yer” (50 Must-See Destinations), “Afiş” (Poster) and “Hayat Gezince Güzel” (Life Is Beautiful When You Travel) for 13 years. The seventh edition of “Türkiye’de Görülmesi Gereken 101 Yer” (101 Must-See Places in Turkey) that he co-wrote along with Saffet Emre Tonguç was released and it was also translated into English. His last book “Hayat Gezince Güzel – Sahilde” (Life Is Beautiful When You Travel – On The Coast) was published by Inkılap Publishing House.

He participated in a series of seminars as a Visiting Research Fellow at Northwestern University last year. He produces documentaries, biographical and corporate films. He emcees at special events and teaches courses on media relations, presentation skills, Generation Y and positive psychology.

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 is also a member of UNDP’s Eurasia communications team, based in Istanbul, responsible from partnerships, events and press relations.

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 8 years in different departments including programme and external relations.

Rastislav Vrbensky is currently the Manager of UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub for Europe and the CIS. The Hub serves more than 20 countries and 18 UNDP offices in the region. Prior to this assignment, he served as UN Resident Coordinator/ UNDP Resident Representative in Montenegro, UNDP Country Director in Tajikistan and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Serbia. Between 2000-2004, he held a number of positions in UNDP Regional Centre in Bratislava including Assistant Director and Sustainable Development Policy Advisor. Prior to his career with UNDP, he worked for the Government of Slovakia Ministry of Environment and some international NGOs.

Rastislav Vrbensky holds a PhD. in Development Studies and a Master of Environmental Science from Comenius University Bratislava as well as a Master of Environmental Management from University of Amsterdam. In 2007, he was a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics

Deniz Yılmaz was born in Istanbul on July 29^th, 1998. She completed her primary and secondary school education at Hisar Schools. Deniz Yılmaz, who is still a 12^th grade student at Robert College, enjoys horse riding, yoga, reading and cooking. Deniz, who turned her greatest passion, cooking into a product, published a book titled “Youngster’s Kitchen” in the recent months. She also has a foodblog under the name of “youngsterskitchen.com”. Deniz’s goals include helping make inclusive and social businesses more prevalent in Turkey and increasing the private sector’s involvement in such projects. In this sense, Deniz Yılmaz worked as a research assistant in Professor Zeynep Gurhan Canli’s UNDP supported research, “Inclusive Business: A New, Sustainable and Innovative Private Sector” in the summer of 2015, and in order to deepen her involvement in this field, she interned at the Yunus Center of Bangladesh, founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus in the summer of 2016. Deniz Yılmaz came up with her idea of an inclusive-business clothing line at a social service project that she attended in Bayburt- a city in Northeastern Turkey. The “El Emegi” (“Hand Made”) project took root from her observations there. She used her family company, Koton, as a channel to put her idea to life. Koton partnered with ÇATOM (Multi-Purpose Social Centers), a joint venture of UNDP the government. The clothes, which are designed by the design team of Koton within the scope of Koton Hand Made Project, are embroidered by 350 women living in Soma, Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep, Mardin, Adıyaman and Batman, and offered to millions of Koton customers in 45 stores. In 2016, the pilot phase of the project successfully came to an end, as the project became one of Koton’s official clothing lines. The “Hand Made” project will be sold in 200 stores in the winter season of 2016, reaching almost 10,000 women.