Advisory Board

Alper Atamtürk is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Bilkent University in 1992 and 1994, and PhD. Degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1998 with a major in Operations Research. Dr. Atamtürk is a national security fellow of the US Department of Defense. He serves on the editorial boards of Discrete Optimization, Operations Research, Mathematical Programming Computation, Networks and Journal of Risk. His research interests are in optimization, integer programming, optimization under uncertainty with applications to energy, portfolio and network design.

Director General for Productivity of the Turkish Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology. Since 2011, he has overseen government’s national policy formulation, promotion and monitoring activities in the productivity area. He is also the vice president of the European Association of National Productivity Centers and a board member of the World Confederation of Productivity Science, Turkish Informatics Association and Turkish Quality Association. Previously, he had served in the State Planning Organization, Turkish Prime Ministry, where he had work experience in the fields of telecommunications, IT, e-government, privatization, government support to industry, public investments, project management and strategic management. He was appointed to various posts such as advisor to the state minister for economy, advisor to the undersecretary and director of the Governance and Strategic Management Department. He taught e-business and systems analysis & design courses as a part-time university instructor. Mr. Yilmaz has earned several degrees, BS in industrial engineering and MS in economics from Bilkent University and MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.

Barış Karakullukçu graduated from Bilkent University with a degree in Industrial Engineering in 1996. She started her career at as a SAP Consultant, and after a short time she became management consultant in PwC. During this period, she attended Certificate Program in Management Information Systems at Bogazici University and completed the Executive MBA Program in Koç University. In the next step of her career, she joined Accenture consulting firm in Munich. In 2005, Karakullukçu, came back to Accenture Turkey to build and enlarge the real sector of business. In this position; she managed various projects in many sectors, like retail, fast moving consumer goods, automotive and industrial equipment, and pharmaceuticals. By the age of 35, she became the Managing Partner in charge of the Real Sector in Accenture Turkey. Karakullukçu has been a management consultant for 16 years, and worked in Accenture for 11 years, her path crossed with Mudo during a consulting Project. Karakullukçu worked for Mudo as CEO and trying to achieve sustainable growth while preserving the values, while starting the transformation program between March 2012 and June 2016. After short break to achieve her social entrepreneur dreams and plans; she started Turkcell as Chief Data Officer and Advanced Analytics Director in the beginning of 2017. She is Next Generation Entrepreneurship Group PresidentNext Generation Entrepreneurship Group President in Türkiye İş Bankası since 2022.

She graduated from Bilkent Industrial Engineering in 2005. While she was on her academic career path through school, her path crossed with McKinsey & Company and started working in the industry. She completed her MBA at Harvard Business School in 2008 with the sponsorship of McKinsey, where she started working as an analyst. She mostly worked with Turkey’s leading companies on issues such as strategy, marketing, sales and regulation in the Bank, Telecom, Retail, Private Equity sectors. In 2012, she started working to establish the Mass Banking team at GarantiBBVA. Starting with the audience segment, she also included micro-enterprises in her areas of responsibility. She still works at GarantiBBVA, responsible for all sales and marketing activities of these two segments. She is married and has 2 children. She loves to tango, sing, take nature walks and take photos.

Dilek Şen Güven was born in 1982 in Ankara. After graduating from Ankara Atatürk Anatolian High School, she received Bilkent University Industrial Engineering and Middle East Technical University MBA degrees. Following her undergraduate studies after 2 years of experience in private sector as “System Specialist”, she founded Prosis Consulting that gives service in the fields of Human Resources, Education, Productivity and Customer Relationship Management in 2005. She is currently serving as Managing Partner in Prosis Consulting.

Evren Canturk graduated from Bilkent IE in 1996. He has an MBA degree from Warwick Business School and an Artificial Intelligence Management diploma from MIT Sloan School. Canturk started his banking career as an Executive Trainee (MT) at Interbank, and managed the Deposit and Investment Departments of Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Dogus Group banks. Following the establishment of Odeabank (Retail & Wealth), he worked in Akbank until 2023 as the Head of Investment and Board Member of Ak Yatirim. He is currently Deputy CEO of Misyon Investment Bank. Evren Canturk is one of the first bank executives to hold the CFA ESG certificate and the Angel Investor title in Turkey. He is also involved in research and development activities for investment services using Blockchain, NFT and Metaverse technologies.

Erdinç Mert was born in 1981 in Istanbul. He completed his undergraduate  at Sabancı University Mechatronics Engineering Department with a scholarship. Moreover, he has master’s degree at Bilkent University Industrial Engineering Department. Erdinç Mert, who has worked at Aselsan for more than ten years after his master’s degree, has undertaken a managerial role in many large defense industry projects. Erdinç Mert, who later turned to the field of management consultancy, joined the global management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company as an expert consultant in 2017. In 2019, Erdinç Mert was appointed as the Vice President responsible for Strategy and Market Development at BİTES Defense, a subsidiary of Aselsan. Eventually, Erdinç Mert decided to establish BeNova Consulting in 2020 and is currently the General Manager of the company.

Erhan Bostan was born in Adana in 1969. After graduating from Bilkent University Industrial Engineering Department, he had worked for Raks Group at various departments such as production, quality assurance, product management and sales. Then, he had been the  Managing Director of Vestel Foreign Trade, Turkey’s leader export company, from 2000 to 2006. With in this period, he had managed an export sales of more than 9 billion USD. In 2006, he joined to Turgut Aydın Holding as the MD of Aydın Örme. He was the founder MD of English Home, the leading home textile retailer of Turkey from 2008 to 2010. Since 2010, he has been the CEO of A101, food retailer with 6700 stores. At the same time, since 2015, he has been assigned to be the president of the retail group in Turgut Aydın Holding, covering also English Home and EVE, drugstore retailer of the group. He is married and has 1 son and 1 daughter.

He is founder and CEO of Supply Chain Wizard, LLC (an Inc.5000 company and Gartner Cool Vendor of a management consulting & digital solutions firm helping clients establish and execute cost-effective and scalable digital transformation programs via data-driven decision making by leveraging state-of-the-art technology.As a former consultant at McKinsey & Company and a supply chain executive at Sandoz/Novartis, Dr. Ozkaya led various business transformation programs in industries such as pharmaceuticals, healthcare, consumer goods, industrial, logistics and private equity.Evren Ozkaya received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology with his award-winning thesis on Demand Management in Global Supply Chains. Dr. Ozkaya has been selected to the inaugural list of “40 Under 40” by Georgia Tech Alumni Association in the class of 2020. Ozkaya’s academic service activities include being an advisory board member in Rutgers Business School, Georgia Tech Industrial and Systems Engineering, Middlesex County College and Bilkent University, while he is involved in part time teaching in executive education program at INSEAD.

Hakan Ergen has started his career at Procter & Gamble, after graduating from Bilkent University Industrial Engineering in 1997. He worked for 11 years within P&G in various roles including customer business development, category management and human resources. In 2009, he joined J&J as the Sales Director and after leading the transformation of the Go to Market Model and trade strategy he undertook the General Manager role for J&J Turkey Consumer in 2010. In his current role, he led the market entry and growth strategies of major brands such as Johnson’s Baby, Listerine, Le Petit Marseillais and Neutrogena. He has also focused on the opportunities of the OTC categories in Turkey and has given particular importance to categories such as Smoking Cessation, which has important influence on the community health. Hakan Ergen also lectured at the Bahçeşehir University on Innovation and Breakthrough Thinking and Creativity in Social Media. He is the Founding Vice President of the American Turkish Business Development Council in Turkey.

Hakan Polatoğlu was born in Ankara, 1962. Having graduated from TED Ankara High School in 1979, he studied Mechanical Engineering in Boğaziçi University where he graduated with BSME degree in 1983. He continued his education in University of Minnesota where he got his MSME degree in 1986; his PhD in IE from Bilkent University in 1990; PhD in Business from University of Wisconsin in 1995. He also attended Harvard Business School AMP program in 2010. He started his professional career in Arcelik as a Process Engineer in 1986, later joined Aselsan as Mechanical Design Engineer in 1988. He also worked as an Assistant Professor in Bilkent University in 1992, and in Suffolk University between 1995-97. Later, he joined Protek Computer Systems in 1997 and worked as Vice General Manager until 1999. After that he started in Eti Gıda A.Ş. as Technology Coordinator in 2000 until 2006, and later became an Executive Committee Member where he acted, respectively, as the Technology and Product Development Group President until 2009, and Supply Chain Group President until 2011. Now he is working as the CEO of the company since 2011. He also is a member of the Management Board of Eti Makina A.Ş. since 2014.

She graduated from Bilkent University Industrial Engineering in 1994. She started her career at Procter & Gamble. She took part in sales and marketing projects in the Information Technologies department. In 1999, she became the Group Manager responsible for technology for Turkey, the Balkans and the Central Asia Region. In 2002, she transferred to Aventis Pharma as IT Solutions Director. She continued her duty in the structure that turned into Turkey’s leading pharmaceutical company with the mergers of Sanofi, Zentiva and Genzyme. She led projects focused on ERP, digital marketing, business intelligence and digital transformation. Then, as Sanofi Turkey Business Operations Director, she worked as a senior manager in strategic planning, market analysis, field performance management, data and business intelligence for 5 years. At the beginning of 2021, she transferred to the world organization of Sanofi. She continues her duty as Sanofi Global Customer Interaction Analytics Leader. She is married and has a son.

Married and father of 2 children, Kudret Arman has been working at Procter & Gamble since 2006 after graduating from Bilkent University Industrial Engineering. Since 2006, he has been working in fields such as customer management, supply chain planning, distribution and logistics in Turkey; Europe, Africa, He worked in Switzerland as the category innovation leader responsible for the Middle East and Russia. He has been working in Azerbaijan since 2019 as the Supply Chain Director responsible for the Caucasus and Central Asian Republics.

He is a 2005 graduate of Bilkent University Industrial Engineering. He has worked in the management consulting and healthcare industries. In the management consultancy sector; He has worked in the areas of strategy, restructuring, institutionalization, acquisitions and mergers and digitalization in the regulated (smart grid, energy and health) and public sectors. He is involved in supply chain, sales, business development, productivity and general management in the pharmaceutical industry. Specialized in energy and health and advanced technology entrepreneurship; is interested as a mentor, entrepreneur or investor. He has a master’s degree in business administration and is currently carrying out doctoral studies on artificial intelligence and machine learning in the field of finance.

He was graduated from Middle East Technical University, Department of Industrial Engineering in 1990.   He had worked in Tepe Mobilya in 1991 as production planning engineer and TOFAŞ in 1992 – 1993 as supplier audit and development engineer.  He joined Arçelik group in 1994. He had worked in technical and administrative roles in Purchasing, Production, Information Systems, Automation and Information Technologies, Production Planning, Production processes. He had worked as production manager in Ankara Dishwasher Machine Plant between 2011 and 2106 He is working as Supply Chain Planning Group Manager as of 2017.

She is a graduate of METU, Department of Operational Research and Statistics. She worked as a Quality Assurance engineer at TAI company between 1986-1990. She has been working as a manager in the Planning and Inventory Management department of FNSS Savunma Sanayii A.Ş. since 1990.

After graduating from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Bilkent University in 2010, Sarhan commenced his career as an Assistant Auditor at the Electricity Generation Corporation (EÜAŞ). Following engagements in the field audits of numerous publicly owned power plants, he assumed responsibilities at the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in 2012. Throughout his tenure in the Ministry, he held roles as an energy expert, group coordinator, and acting department head. Between 2019 and 2023, he served as the Head of the Department for Energy Supply Security, Markets, and Statistics, specializing in energy policies, long-term planning, energy supply security, and energy statistics.

During his term as the department head, he spearheaded the development of the "Türkiye National Energy Plan", the first-ever publication by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. This plan outlines the necessary steps in the field of energy to achieve the country's net-zero emissions goal by 2053. Since April 2023, Sarhan has continued his career as an energy consultant at the World Bank. Simultaneously, he is pursuing postgraduate studies on the resilience of energy systems at the Middle East Technical University's Earth System Science Program.

Özhan Özesenli is supply chain general manager of Kerevitas and Yıldız Holding’s Edible Oil Business (Marsa and Besler). Özhan is responsible for supply chain and procurement operations of Kerevitas, Marsa and Besler.

Kerevitas’ activities include processing, sale, distribution, import and export of various foodstuffs, such as frozen vegetables, fruit, seafood and meat products, as well as baked goods, including pizza and pastries. Besler and Marsa produce consumer margarines, oils, industrial and bakery margarines.

As an experienced supply chain professional, Özhan has worked across multiple supply chain disciplines in multinational companies and regional market leaders in fast moving consumer goods, pharma and telecom industries. He loves trying to help companies to establish integrated supply chain systems, solve complex supply chain problems and improve supply chain, procurement and business metrics. Before his current assignment, he has worked as Supply Chain Senior Director of pladis global who is responsible for network and sourcing decision; Supply Chain Director and executive board member in Nobel Pharma, hold various planning, logistics and procurement roles in PepsiCo, Aria / Avea.  Özhan has graduated from Bilkent University Industrial Engineering Department in 2001, he holds BS, MS and Ph.D. Degrees in Industrial Engineering.

Pinar Keskinocak is the William W. George Chair and Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the co-founder and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Institute of Technology. She also serves as the College of Engineering ADVANCE Professor at Georgia Tech. Her research focuses on applications of operations research and management science with societal impact (particularly health and humanitarian applications), supply chain management, pricing and revenue management, and logistics/transportation. She has worked on projects in several industries including automotive, semiconductor, paper manufacturing, printing, healthcare, hotels, and airlines. Her research has been published in journals such as Operations Research, Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, IIE Transactions, Naval Research Logistics, and Interfaces.

He joined McKinsey in 2017 and has served a wide range of clients on digital business builds, ecommerce transformation and growth strategy, omnichannel and digital transformation projects in Banking and Telecommunications industries.Sertan has 20 years of of banking, telecom and retail industries around business building and ecommerce transformation.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Sertan was the Founding Managing Director of R/GA for Istanbul and Middle East serving to banking, telecom and retail clients in digital strategy, digital product design and development and innovation

Sertan had 10 years of hands on digital & technology industry experience at Turkcell. He played director role in digital channels transformation of Turkcell including establishing the agile digital unit to build an online shop for smartphones and accessories and omnichannel experience. He led ventures arm of Turkcell and built 4 startup ventures. He also spent 6 years in building GarantiBBVA Digital Banking online channels

Sertan holds B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University, and MBA from Boğaziçi University.