Speakers 2026 – People Make The Brand

Akan Abdula

Founder, FutureBright Group

Akan Abdula is a strategist with international experience in marketing, brand strategy and consumer insight. FutureBright Group, the company he founded, now runs projects in more than 35 countries and serves hundreds of global and local brands with data and foresight services. One of the few strategists to have sat on the Grey Group Worldwide global strategy council, Abdula personally advises Türkiye's largest brands on strategy. He is the author of the best-selling book "Öngörülemeyenler" (The Unpredictables) and writes columns for Gazete Oksijen and Forbes on foresight, the future and decision-making culture. Most recently, he was named among the "Top 200 Data Minds" in a study conducted jointly by LinkedIn and Favicon.

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Ali Yalçın

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Türkiye İş Bankası

Mr. Ali Yalçın, born in Bilecik in 1977, graduated from the Industrial Engineering Department of the Faculty of Engineering at Istanbul University in 1998.

Having started his career at İş Bankası Enterprise Architecture Division in 2001 as an Assistant Specialist of Organization and Methods, Mr. Yalçın served as Assistant Manager in the Operations Planning Division in 2009, and as Unit Manager in the Enterprise Architecture Division in 2012. He served as Tribe Leader in the Micro SME Banking Agile Organization Pilot Project in 2018, and as Division Head in the Agile Management Division established in 2019. Following his appointment as Enterprise Architecture Division Head in February 2021, Mr. Yalçın was appointed as Human Resources Division Head in December 2021.

In 2025, he completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School and was promoted to Deputy Chief Executive Officer on November 19, 2025.

Mr. Ali Yalçın speaks English, is married, and has a child.

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Arda Erdik

Creative Chairman, Tribal Istanbul

Arda Erdik is one of the most awarded creative directors in Turkey.

He started his career in advertising as a copywriter in 2001 and joined DDB Istanbul Group in 2006. In 2012, he took a sabbatical to see more of the world.

After the break, he returned to Istanbul and joined Tribal Worldwide Istanbul in 2013 as Executive Creative Director. In 2016, he became the Creative Chairman of the agency.

Under his creative leadership, Tribal Worldwide Istanbul was restructured and became one of the most creative and fastest-growing agencies in Turkey.

“Most Awarded Agency” (2025 & 2026) Crystal Apple

“Creative Agency Of The Year” (2022 & 2023 & 2025) Felis Awards

"New Generation Agency Of The Year" (2014 & 2016 & 2018 & 2019) Felis Awards

“Top 3 Most Admired Agency Of The Year” (2023 & 2024 & 2025) Capital Magazine

“Creative Agency Of The Year” (2022 & 2023) The Cat Report

“Chief Creative Officer Of The Year” (2023) MediaCat Dream Team

He has been a jury member in competitions such as Cannes Lions and Golden Drum, and has served as jury president on multiple occasions for competitions such as Crystal Apple and Felis Awards.

In addition to his leadership roles, Arda Erdik continues to work as a commercial director.

He is also a partner in startups such as Platon.Ai, which provides data-driven strategic solutions leveraging artificial intelligence, and the creative animation company Rafa Film.

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Arif Ergin

Author and Climate Change Expert

Arif Ergin is one of Türkiye's pioneering figures in climate finance. Working in the field since 2010, he has served as lead consultant on Türkiye's first and largest-scale climate finance programs, advising private sector organizations, municipalities, and governments at both national and international levels on the green economy, sustainability, and the climate change. He currently leads the design and management of international climate finance funds and green transition projects in Türkiye and across several countries, guided by an approach that positions finance as one of the most powerful instruments in climate action.

Throughout his 26-year professional career, Ergin has combined engineering discipline with financial depth and strategic vision. Alongside his career in business, he is also a prolific author. His debut novel, Tekvin (Genesis), became a bestseller upon publication; his second, award-winning novel, Gizlenen (The Hidden), which blends dystopia with history, achieved the same success, earning Ergin a distinctive place in Turkish literature. He also serves as a script consultant for numerous feature films and series.

Ergin holds a degree in industrial engineering, followed by a master's degree in the same field, and later expanded his academic background with an Executive MBA and a third master's degree in finance.

An engineer seeking to understand systems, a financier seeking to understand risks, and a novelist seeking to understand human nature, Ergin has devoted his career to the greatest of all ‘known unknowns’: the future shaped by the climate crisis. In other words, he writes about the darkest possibilities of a dystopian future in his novels — and works to prevent them in his profession.

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Berna Öztınaz

Chairman of the Board, European Association for People Management (EAPM)

Berna Öztınaz is a senior executive with nearly three decades of international experience in strategy, leadership and organisational transformation. She is recognised for her contribution to leadership, organisational transformation and strategic people management at both European and global levels. She serves as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at London-headquartered international energy company Genel Energy, while also serving as President of the European Association for People Management (EAPM) and a Board Member of the World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA).

Her career spans the energy, manufacturing, retail and technology sectors, where she has led organisational transformation, leadership, culture and talent initiatives, working closely with boards and executive teams across diverse international environments.

Berna is the first woman elected President of EAPM and the first woman to represent Europe on the Board of the WFPMA.

Her work focuses on the future of leadership, organisational transformation, the impact of artificial intelligence on business, and the strategic role of people management. She is an international keynote speaker on these topics and is currently writing her first book on the future of leadership.

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Beti Yuhay Almozlino

Head Of Human Resources, Trendyol Group

Beti Yuhay Almozlino is an HR leader with over 25 years of experience across leading companies in Türkiye, including Doğan Media, Turkcell, Global Bilgi, and Sütaş. A graduate of Boğaziçi University’s Department of Psychology, she has built her career across different stages of organizational growth and transformation.

Beti joined Trendyol six years ago and currently leads Human Resources and Administrative Affairs across Trendyol Group. In her role, she focuses on building high-performing and engaged teams, developing talent, and strengthening organizational capabilities to support Trendyol’s growth in Türkiye and international markets.

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Chengwei Liu

Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioural Science, Imperial College Business School

Chengwei Liu is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioural Science at Imperial College Business School. Trained as an economist in Taiwan, Chengwei later worked as a consultant in Singapore. He received his PhD from Cambridge and has held research or visiting positions at Oxford, Wharton, NYU, MIT, INSEAD, Warwick, and ESMT Berlin.

Chengwei’s research has been published in leading journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategy Science, and Academy of Management Annals. His work also appears in practitioner outlets like the Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, New York Times, and the Financial Times, as well as interdisciplinary outlets such as PNAS, Social Networks, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

His book on luck was a finalist for the Best Book Award at EGOS. Chengwei has been recognized as a leading management thinker by Thinkers50 and named a Top 40 under (now over) 40 Business School Professor by Poets&Quants. He is the chair of the Theoretical and Organizational Model Society and Senior Editor at Organization Science.

Chengwei’s forthcoming book, "Smart Contrarians: Thinking Differently about Thinking Differently" (Harvard Business Review Press, Spring 2027), coauthored with Balázs Kovács of Yale, explores how to challenge conventional wisdom and think strategically contrarian.

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Deniz Kayadelen

Psychologist, Becomes the First Turkish Woman Athlete to Compete in the World Open Water Ice Swimming Championships.

Deniz Kayadelen is the first Turkish woman to compete at the World Ice Swimming Championships, with 6 world titles, 2 European titles, a Guinness World Record and the Triple Crown, open water swimming's most prestigious achievement. Alongside her athletic career she is an industrial psychologist; she spent more than 15 years at EY as a senior manager and consultant, working on talent management, change management and leadership development. An ICF-accredited executive coach, Kayadelen speaks at Fortune 500 events with her Peak Flow methodology, which combines lessons from extreme conditions with neuroscience and positive psychology. Her book "Out of Comfort Zone" has been published in three languages, and in 2025 Microsoft MSN named her "Most Inspiring Leader".

Dost Can Deniz

Leadership Coach

Dost Can Deniz is the first ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC) in Türkiye and Southeast Europe, the founder of MareFidelis Coaching & Consulting, and the co-founder of the Gestalt Center for Coaching. For more than 24 years, he has worked with senior executives and leadership teams on leading through complexity, cultural transformation, systemic change, and the leader's use of self. His work integrates the Gestalt approach, somatic awareness, mindfulness, and a systemic leadership perspective, with a focus on helping leaders bridge their inner capacities and the realities of their organizations. A graduate of Middle East Technical University (METU) with a degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA, Deniz is the author of Courageous Questions (Cesur Sorular), one of Türkiye's pioneering books on coaching. He is also a long-time meditation and Qi Gong practitioner and instructor.

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Dr. Liz O'Riordan

Speaker, Author, Storyteller

Dr Liz O'Riordan is an international speaker, best-selling author and podcaster who spent 15 years operating in high-stakes environments as a consultant breast surgeon, until a Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis at 40, followed by two further recurrences, placed her on the other side of the system she knew so well. This rare combination of surgical expertise and lived experience as a three-time cancer patient powers her keynotes on leadership and perspective, communication and psychological safety, and resilience and reinvention for organisations navigating pressure, uncertainty and cultural change. Co-author of "The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer" and author of the memoir "Under the Knife", she hosts the podcast "Don't Ignore the Elephant", which tackles the subjects no one else will. A Top 5 Oncology Influencer on X, honorary doctorate recipient and Future Dreams Humanitarian of the Year, she has spoken for Apple, Google, YouTube, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche, equipping audiences with practical frameworks from the operating room to stay calm, think clearly and perform with confidence when it matters most.

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Ella Podmore

Engineer, Motivational Speaker

Ella Podmore MBE is a materials engineer in the automotive industry and one of the UK's most visible advocates for women in science and engineering. Named the IET's Young Woman Engineer of the Year in 2020, she was honoured with an MBE in the late Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours list in 2022 for her services to Engineering, Innovation and Diversity, and today sits among the youngest members of an advisory board to the Chief of Staff Association. Her story even features as a case study in Harper Collins' children's book "Big Idea Engineer". Balancing life in the fast lane of supercar engineering with inspiring the next generation to pursue STEM careers, Ella gives audiences a refreshing insight into thriving as a young woman in a male-dominated industry, staying motivated after early success, and paints an exciting picture of where science is heading.

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Prof. Dr. Selçuk Artut

Faculty Member, Sabancı University

Selçuk ARTUT is an interdisciplinary artist, academic, and researcher who explores the relationships between people, technology, and culture. In his artistic practice, he examines the shifting boundaries of perception, experience, cultural memory, and creativity through creative coding, algorithmic production, artificial intelligence, interactive systems, sound, and audiovisual performances.

His works and performances have been exhibited at international platforms such as Shenyang, Expo Osaka, Sonar Istanbul, ISEA, SIGGRAPH, ICA London, Art Hong Kong, the Istanbul Biennial, and Kanvas UAE. Artut, who holds a Ph.D. in Media and Communication from the European Graduate School, serves as a professor in the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program at Sabancı University.

He has been a member of the avant-garde music group Replikas since 1998. As part of the RAW duo, which he founded with Alp Tugan in 2016, he creates audiovisual performances using live coding and algorithmic systems. His work focuses on rethinking the relationships between art, technology, cultural heritage, and computational systems.

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Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şebnem Özdemir

AI Expert, Academic, Entrepreneur, Author

Assoc. Prof. Şebnem Özdemir is an academic, entrepreneur and author working in AI and data science. She completed her PhD in Informatics at Istanbul University and carried out her postdoctoral research in the United States, first at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and then at MIT CSAIL, where she continued her work on AI. She currently serves in the Management Information Systems Department at Istinye University. The machine learning model she developed earned her the Human Development Research Award from the UNESCO Chair at Koç University in 2016, and in 2020 CIO Türkiye named her "Awareness-Building Leader in AI". She is known for her "Professions of the Future" list, which she has published every year since 2018, along with books and publications on the subject. She holds AI-based projects, patents and international collaborations; her main research areas are AI, data science, decision-making and mathematical modelling.

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Yüce Zerey

AI Strategist

Yüce Zerey is a speaker and consultant working on AI strategy, corporate transformation and leadership. He built his career in marketing, e-commerce and digital transformation, holding senior local, regional and global roles at Ülker, Turkish Airlines, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever and Hepsiburada, and earning more than 165 awards along the way. He taught graduate-level marketing courses at Istanbul Bilgi University for 18 years. The author of four books, "The Profesyonel", "Fabrika Ayarlarına Dön" (Back to Factory Settings), "Mima" and "İstila" (Invasion), Zerey now focuses on AI, marketing and growth, and contributes to a range of industries through board memberships and advisory roles.

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Curation & Moderation

EVRİM KURAN

Founder, Evrim Kuran Consulting / Türkiye Leader, Universum

Kuran has a BA in English Language & Literature at Hacettepe University and an Executive MBA degree at Sabancı University. She studied Behavioral Economics, Culture of Innovation and Design Thinking at Harvard Business School where she received a Certificate of Management Excellence. Since 2000, Evrim Kuran has been conducting generational research, organizational attractiveness, DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) studies, and reverse mentoring programs. Kuran has worked with many local and global employer brands. She is the Country Leader for Türkiye of world’s leading employer branding research and consulting company, Universum. She is also the creator and the curator of People Make the Brand conferences since 2013.

Evrim Kuran is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion lecturer at Sabancı University for EMBA students and MEF University for undergraduate and MBA students. She is also an Independent Board Member at Mondelez International Türkiye.

Besides her career as a consultant, she is also a keynote speaker and a columnist, and her articles are published in certain national and global publications and portals. She is also the author of five books, Telgraftan Tablete (From Telegram to Tablet) in which she wrote about the five generations of Türkiye, Z: Bir Kuşağı Anlamak (Z: Understanding a Generation) which scrutinizes generation Z through various research findings, Onlar Göçtü Buradan (They Moved From Here) in which Kuran focuses on the brain drain among the new generations of Türkiye, Başarılı Bir Kadın Olduğum için Özür Dilerim (Sorry For Being a Successful Woman) which covers her research on impostor phenomenon and Cetvel (Ruler) as a collection of her essays.

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SERDAR TURAN

Editor-in-chief, Harvard Business Review Türkiye

Serdar Turan is one of the leading figures who has pioneered the transformation of business journalism in Turkey, drawing on more than 20 years of experience in the content industry. After earning his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and completing a master's degree in Business Administration, Turan joined the founding team of İnfomag Publishing in 2000. In 2005, he played an active role in launching BusinessWeek Türkiye, followed by Harvard Business Review Türkiye. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Business Review Türkiye and hosts Nasıl Başardık? ("How We Did It"), a weekly program broadcast on CNBC-e.

His passion for reading, writing, and research began back in middle school with a wall newspaper, and his connection to content has never wavered since. Over the past two decades, he has been actively involved in nearly every area of content production—from print to digital, from video production to live broadcasts. He has contributed to countless projects across entrepreneurship, technology, leadership, and transformation, working with both domestic and international publications. He frequently takes the stage as a moderator, speaker, and MC across a wide range of event formats, from large multi-stakeholder summits and internal corporate events to executive board meetings and roundtables with major organizations.

Turan is also an avid video game enthusiast, a fan of fantasy and horror literature, a collector of vintage vinyl records, and a devoted reader of Martin Mystère. To help people better understand transformation—whether in the business world or within themselves—he regularly shares content on LinkedIn and offers his insights to readers through a weekly newsletter. He also advises the executive boards of some of Turkey's leading companies.

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Simultaneous Turkish-English translation will be provided throughout the sessions.

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