Sema Basol is a global marketing and public relations executive with over 25 years of experience both in the U.S. and Turkey. She has worked with multi-billion dollar corporations, small businesses, start-up ventures, non-profits such as educational and cultural institutions, business executives, government representatives and public figures in both countries. She has launched new businesses and organizations, organized high profile events and executed publicity programs for corporations and individuals.

Sema worked close to 19 years at Mattel Inc. where, as Director of Consumer Products, she built Mattel brands into new businesses that generated annual sales of $300 million in international markets. Under her leadership, sales tripled in the last four years through product launches in new categories and channels as well as through dramatic improvements in quality and design of licensed products.

Over the years, Sema has taken an active role in non-profit organizations, Turkish-American affairs, community organizations and arts. She is currently Program Director for Global Women’s Leadership Network, sponsored by Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

During the last fifteen years, Sema has organized numerous events and fundraisers for U.S. government representatives such as Congressmen Dan Burton, Jim Moody and Stephen Solarz. She has also hosted Turkish diplomats, visiting Turkish business executives and government representatives.

Collaborating with the museum officials and the U.S. organizing committee, Sema coordinated the Southern California fundraising benefit for the Treasures from the Topkapi Exhibit on the West Coast. As the Turkish-American community liaison, Sema had the opportunity to work with the internationally acclaimed theatre, opera and television director Peter Sellars who produced and directed the biennial Los Angeles Festival, a celebration of arts from around the world.

Sema has a B.A. degree from Bogazici University and an M.B.A. from UCLA Anderson School. Her studies in the U.S. were jointly sponsored by U.S. AID and Turkish Educational Foundation. Sema is married to Dr. Bulent Basol and has two sons. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and San Jose, California.

Arzuhan Dogan Yalçindag, who was elected chairman of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSIAD) on January 25, 2007, is the acting CEO of Dogan TV and a Dogan Holding board member.

Yalçindag started her professional life in 1990 in Milpa, founding the company Mail Order with the German firm Quelle. She has remained a manager in this company until 1992.

She participated in the establishment of Alternatif Bank between 1993 and 1995 and joined the board when the bank went into operation.

Having served in the management of Milliyet Magazine Group between 1995 and 1996, Yalçindag moved on to Kanal D in 1996.

Already CEO of Dogan TV and a Dogan Holding board member, in 1999 Yalçindag initiated collaboration between CNN International and Dogan Media Holding in order to establish a news channel. The project, in association with the U.S. Time Warner Group, was launched in 2000, under the name “CNN Türk.”

Yalçindag is one of the founders of the Aydin Dogan Foundation and remains a board member of the institution. She is also a member of the Turkish Education Volunteers Foundation (TEGV), Turkish-American Businessmen’s Association, and Turkey Third Sector Foundation, as well as the founding member of the Women Entrepreneurs Association.

She is currently lobbying for Turkey in the European Union member countries in her role as the founding president of the Women’s Initiative for the European Union.

Sourcely: Turkish Daily News

Vice President Philips DAP
General Manager - Philips DAP International Sales Organization

Yenal Gokyildirim (39) started his career in Sales and Marketing fields and worked for the companies: Singapore Airlines, Honda, 3M and DAF before joining Philips in his native Turkey, bringing with him a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yildiz University in Istanbul as well as a MBA.

In 1997 he joined Philips Consumer Electronics Turkey as a Marketing Manager then he became General Manager of DAP (Domestic Appliances & Personal Care) in 2001. Within 3 years he advanced to General Manager MEA Region, managing the countries of the Middle East and Africa region from the Dubai based headquarters.

The next move, both career-wise and geographically, happened early in 2006: Yenal Gokyildirim became VP DAP, General Manager Philips DAP CEE & MEA, being responsible for over 60 countries in the regions Central and Eastern Europe & Middle East and Africa. The headquarter is in Vienna, Austria.

Yenal Gokyildirim is married and has a daughter, all live in Vienna.

Mustafa Ugur Gungor is the vice president of Thermasteel Corporation in Radford, Virginia, which is a leading innovator of “Build Green Structural Insulated Panels”, using recyclable Steel and EPS for residential, commercial and industrial applications. The operations of the company are extended into Mexico, Australia, Russia, South Africa, Poland, Guam, Philippines, and Turkey.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1971, Ugur holds a B.S in Electrical Engineering from Bosphorus University and MBA from Koc University. He has developed a new antenna array system called Angular Division Multiple Access for GSM networks and has written his final thesis on this with a group of engineers. During MBA his studies were concentrated on Finance. He has also studied in the U.S. at schools such as Vanderbilt University and Univ. of California at Santa Barbara during these years. He has finished his classes towards his PhD at Marmara University Institute of Banking and is at his thesis stage to get this degree which is still pending.

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Osman Semerci, senior vice president and head of EMEA Global Markets, has been promoted to run fixed income and equities worldwide.

He is responsible for all debt and equity businesses in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Most recently, Mr. Semerci served as head of Pacific Rim Global Markets from September 2003 to January 2005, where he was responsible for the Debt and Equity businesses in Japan, Asia and Australia.

Previously, Mr. Semerci was head of Pacific Rim Debt Markets and prior to that head of EMEA Investor Client Group.

Mr. Semerci joined Merrill Lynch’s International Private Client Group in Geneva in June 1992 as a financial consultant. In March 1993, he moved to London as a fixed income salesperson in Global Debt Markets. Between 1996 and 1998, Mr. Semerci formed and led Merrill Lynch’s institutional fixed income cash and derivatives client businesses in European Emerging Markets. From 1999 to 2001, he built and was responsible for the new Strategic Solutions Group in EMEA, a group focusing on providing tailor-made solutions for investor and issuer clients in Europe.

Before joining Merrill Lynch, Mr. Semerci began his career in 1990 with Turkinvest, first as a trader of Turkish equities in Istanbul and subsequently as a commodity trader in Switzerland.

Born and raised in Turkey, Mr. Semerci holds a postgraduate degree in management from Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey, and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Bosphorus University, also of Istanbul.

Kenan Eyup Sahin, Ph.D. or Kenan Sahin is a Turkish-American scientist and entrepreneur.

Dr. Sahin came to the United States from Aydin, Turkey at 16 on AFS exchange program and was hosted in Inglewood, California in 1957-58. He served as a Member of the Board of Directors of AFS-USA.

Dr. Sahin is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of TIAX LLC, a leading collaborative product and technology development firm that accelerates innovation to help clients achieve growth and create an impact in the market—and in people’s lives. TIAX was formed in April 2002 from the Technology and Innovation business of Arthur D. Little, Inc. and continues to operate at Acorn Park in Cambridge, Mass., with over 50 laboratories and more than 200 engineers and scientists.

Dr. Sahin’s role as CEO of TIAX caps an already prolific career as academic, technologist and entrepreneur. Most recently, he was chosen by the World Economic Forum as one of its 40 Technology Pioneers for 2003 and received the New England Business and Technology’s first “Circle of Excellence” award in 2004.

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