Held since 1997 by ‘Advertising Age’, the world’s leading marketing communication publication and organized for the first time in Turkey this year by MediaCat, the ‘Women to Watch: Women Who Make a Difference’ ceremony was held at Swissotel The Bosphorus, Istanbul, on Tuesday, May 14. On this evening organized with the cooperation of Hepsiburada.com, women who make a difference in the worlds of marketing, advertising, business and art and who were chosen as ‘Women to Watch’ received their awards.
“Held for many years by Advertising Age solely for the American business world, Women to Watch has recently taken on a global dimension. One of the first steps in the ceremony’s globalization is being taken right now in Turkey, under the leadership of MediaCat.”
Joining Pelin Özkan as host was Advertising Age Editor-in-Chief Abbey Klaassen. During her speech, Klaassen talked about the development of Women to Watch from the day it started until the present and she described the “Women Who Make a Difference” with the following statement:
The founder of Hepsiburada.com (one of the biggest online shopping websites in Turkey), the sponsor of the event and the Chairwoman of Doğan Online and Doğan Gazetecilik, Hanzade Doğan-Boyner, also gave a speech. “Global organizations like ‘Women to Watch’ are a significant driving force in establishing equal representation of women in society from the time of education to employment, drawing attention to the increasing number of successful women in business and helping bridge the gap in gender inequality statistics,” she said, drawing attention to the fact that events like Women to Watch strengthen the role of women in society. Hanzade Doğan-Boyner finished her speech by thanking MediaCat and Advertising Age. “I extend my gratitude to MediaCat and Advertising Age for bringing this important event to Turkey. We are once more reminded that women do not stand alone.”
The guru of public relations
An idol in the industry, Betûl Mardin is known in Turkey as the person who laid the foundations of public relations by some and as the “guru” of public relations by others.
The life story behind a successful image like this obviously cannot be an ordinary one. In fact, the word “ordinary” could never be used to describe Betûl Mardin’s life. Who would’ve guessed that a girl who stuttered until she started elementary school could be described as the guru of a profession that requires expertise in the art of speech, not only in Turkey but around the world…
IPRA’s first Turkish woman president
Female or male, this is an age that many people wouldn’t even think about, let alone dare, to start a new beginning.
Mardin also served as the president of the Turkish Association for Public Relations, working to promote Turkey in the international arena between 1976 and 1982. Later, together with Alaeddin Asna, she established A&B, known as Turkey’s first public relations company. In 1984, she left A&B and founded her own company, Image PR.
A member of the European Confederation of Public Relations (CERP) and the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), the doyenne of public relations was chosen to be IPRA’s first Turkish woman president in 1995. Two years later, she received the title of “Member Emeritus” (“Master”). In 1998, she received an honorary doctorate in the field of communications from Anadolu University. In addition, she has also received many national and international awards. One of these is the Public Relations Lifetime Achievement 2005 Atlas Award given by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
Noted also for the innovations she brought to the profession, her leading role in helping women make a name for themselves in the business world as well as for her advice on living life to the fullest, Mardin is one of the few people who have managed to have an academic career alongside a professional one without attending college. Having occasionally taught at both Istanbul University and Boğaziçi University, Mardin is still a lecturer at Istanbul Bilgi University’s Faculty of Communications.
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“Who would’ve guessed that a girl who stuttered until she started elementary school could be described as the guru of a profession that requires expertise in the art of speech, not only in Turkey but around the world…”
Towards the peak of a global career
Turkey is increasingly becoming more and more important to Coca-Cola, and it continues to groom leaders. Appointed as the head of nine countries in 2012, Galya Molinas is advancing towards even bigger roles.
Galya Molinas, Coca-Cola, President the Turkey, Caucasus & Central Asia Business Unit
Post-college, Galya Molinas aimed to work for an international company in the consumer products industry. She joined Coca-Cola in 1996; today, her professional rise continues. After working as a part of Coca-Cola Turkey’s international marketing team for destinations including Turkey, Russia, India, the Middle East, Adriatic and Balkan countries, Molinas returned to Turkey in 2009 as President of Coca-Cola’s Turkey Business Unit. Since January 2012, she’s served as President of Coca-Cola’s Turkey, Caucasus and Central Asia Business Unit, responsible not only for Turkey but for Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well.
In addition to these responsibilities, Galya Molinas actively serves in many non-profit organizations. A Founding Member of the Coca-Cola Women’s Leadership Council and Chairman of the Coca-Cola Life Plus Foundation, Molinas is also Chairman of the Business Council for Sustainable Development as well as Vice-President and Board Member of YASED.
International experience
While still in college, Galya Molinas began working for an international company with the goal of “marketing”: “During my last year of college, I went to hiring events hosted by many different companies,” she recalls. “I wanted to work in marketing. Unilever was a strong and enjoyable start, as well as a good learning experience. Afterwards, I joined the Coca-Cola family and had the chance to get experience in the international arena.”
She adds that Coca-Cola has offered and continues to offer her many opportunities for self-development as well as different responsibilities.
Managing change
Molinas says the most significant turning point in her career was when she worked in the Central Europe and Russia Business Unit. She points out the lessons she learned during this time: “I worked in the region during the week and came to Istanbul on weekends to spend time with my family. During this time, I learned to manage change, both in my professional and private lives, as well as got to know myself better and achieved increased awareness.”
Making a difference… But how?
Molinas also has an important piece of advice to those who are just starting out, based on her own story: “The most important piece of advice I could give to my young friends is to not be ordinary, no matter what you do or what profession you choose. You must make a difference. You should contribute to the world’s transformation with your know-how, intelligence and experience. You should do the work you love. You should make good use of time, the greatest value we possess. And you should celebrate every accomplishment you make on your journey.”
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“The most important piece of advice I could give to my young friends is to not be ordinary, no matter what you do or what profession you choose. You must make a difference.”
Sometimes luck complements planning
Ece Aksel successfully met her personal goal of becoming general manager by the age of 40. Her story is exemplary for those who are at the beginning of their careers.
Ece Aksel, Frito Lay Turkey, General Manager
As someone who has worked for a considerable amount of time in several countries, Ece Aksel still dreams about traveling to discover different countries, cultures and lifestyles. Upon returning to Turkey, Aksel marked significant achievements at Frito Lay Turkey, where she was appointed general manager in 2008. Last year, the company drew attention by marketing Lay’s oven-roasted fries and made a splash with its Doritos Fritos campaign.
Target: Marketing
After completing internships in various industries throughout college and viewing a presentation in her senior year, Ece Aksel decided on the career she wanted: Marketing. Her journey began after making that decision. Following the MBA she received in the US, Aksel started her career at P&G’s headquarters in Cincinnati, later working in the Turkish and Moroccan branches of the same company. Due to the success of the team of which Aksel was a member in Morocco, they were put in charge of an additional country.
In 2004, Aksel’s career continued at PepsiCo in five markets, including Turkey. Since 2008, she has served as the General Manager of PepsiCo Food Turkey.
Difficult decision
When she started her career in 1992, Aksel dreamed of reaching her current position. “I aimed to be a general manager before the age of 40, and I managed to achieve that goal,” Aksel says, noting that the most critical decision of her career was to switch from P&G to PepsiCo.
Describing this switch, Aksel says: “When I neared the end of my assignment in Morocco, it was decided that my new appointment would be in Geneva. At that time, based on my family’s wishes, we decided to take advantage of any opportunity that may arise to return to Turkey. My transfer to PepsiCo came after this decision. My switch to a different company and category became another serious turning point in my career.” Aksel also stresses, “Of course, you have to accept that you can’t plan every step of your career. The luck factor also plays a part most of the time. What you have to do is make good use of that luck…”
Uninterrupted personal development
As someone who managed to reach the goal she set at the beginning of her career, Aksel has valuable advice for those who are just starting to climb the career ladder: “Know yourself well. Determine the field of work you enjoy and that will allow you to utilize your strengths. Aim work with passion and perfection. And also understand that there is no end to continuous learning and self-development.”
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“You have to accept that you can’t plan every step of your career. The luck factor also plays a part most of the time. What you have to do is make good use of that luck.”
Fighting no matter what
The Mindshare Turkey office that Demet Ikiler built from nothing became the country’s largest media agency, while the performance of agencies tied to Group M, which she also leads, in the “data darkness” of last year has drawn a large amount of interest.
Demet Ikiler, Group M, CEO
Demet Ikiler’s career didn’t take shape like the climate she missed. With a career spanning 20 years, Ikiler has dealt with many a crisis during this time. To start from the end, about two years ago WPP decided to combine its media agencies in Turkey under the auspices of Group M, and Ikiler was put in charge of this structure. However, during a nine-month span last year there was no data produced in Turkey. Despite this “data darkness,” Group M companies, under Demet Ikiler’s lead, had a successful year.
At the young age of 30, Ikiler received an offer from WPP to set up Mindshare’s Turkey office. Even though, in her own words, she “didn’t have any real company management experience,” she accepted the position as general manager of a company that would be built from scratch. Moreover, this was in 2001, a year when advertising investments were cut in half. In fact, Ikiler describes this deciding moment as the sharpest turning point of her career.
With its foundations laid during that time, Mindshare became a media planning and buying agency serving the largest domestic and foreign advertisers, thanks to Demet Ikiler’s support of and belief in her teammates.
Group M’s success during the “data darkness” was also reflected in its awards performance. A Group M subsidiary, Mindshare was chosen as the year’s media agency at the MediaCat Felis Awards.
There’s still a way to go
Ikiler describes herself as a goal-oriented person who believes in growing and developing. So at the beginning of her career 20 years ago, did she imagine these days would come? “I’ve had dreams all my life, and I’m very lucky that most of them came true. I had dreams on the first day, and what’s interesting is that even today I dream about what’s next. I still don’t think I’ve reached the endpoint.”
Ikiler participated in world-renowned women’s leader Charlotte Beers’s seminar geared specifically towards female leaders, and at the end of the training she was enlightened about two of her essential qualities: The first is that she never gives up, that she fights until the end. The second is the genuine, real relationship she has been able to establish with her team and business partners. Ikiler views the strong relationships based on trust that she has built with her team and business partners as the greatest accomplishment and wealth of her career.
Missing loneliness
Ikiler says she doesn’t take on a different role in her business life, and has this to say about life outside of her professional one: “I’m positive, and I care about spending quality time well. I believe in few but long-term, strong friendships. My family is a top priority and very important to me. Just like my team at work… I can’t be nourished without laughter and joy. I know that it’s necessary to make people happy in order for me to be happy. Yet sometimes, I miss being alone. I need this, even if it’s just to think.”
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“I’ve had dreams all my life, and I’m very lucky that most of them came true. I had dreams on the first day, and what’s interesting is that even today I dream about what’s next.”
The art of problem solving
Çiçek Uyansoy is the General Manager of Nokia, a brand that has achieved Lovemark status for the past five consecutive years. According to Uyansoy, life is an art of problem solving, while the most important virtue in one’s professional life is hard work.
Çiçek Uyansoy, Nokia Turkey, General Manager
Thanks to smartphones, the already-arduous battle that exists in the cell phone category has become all the more difficult. Brands in this category are launching new devices and features one after the other, and drawing up partnerships with GSM operators to always be one step ahead of the competition. But according to MediaCat’s Lovemarks research (published since 2007), the same brand has ranked at the top for the past five years: Nokia. In fact, Nokia isn’t just the leading brand of its own category: based on its score, it’s the most-liked among all brands.
The General Manager of Nokia Turkey since 2011, Çiçek Uyansoy not only helped the brand maintain its place in the heart of the consumer; she also took the company up a notch with her management of Nokia’s relaunch with its Lumia brand.
The family’s growing
“Organizing the Nokia Lumia launch, which could be seen as the relaunch of the Nokia brand, as well as managing the entry of Lumia products into the Turkish market through marketing and sales activities, was my favorite recent project,” says Uyansoy, evidently happy about Lumia’s trajectory. She emphasizes that she loves seeing the growth of the Lumia family and that it gives her hope.
Uyansoy openly admits that she didn’t even consider the job she has today when she took the first steps of her career; yet after some time, she began to feel that she could reach her current position.
Experiences that must be had
“I look at the period between when I first started work and when I became general manager as a learning process. Because when you become general manager, you need to know what each department does, to see the whole that emerges from their parts, to understand the whole correctly and to manage it. My having worked in different departments helped me better understand both the relationships with people abroad and with Nokias around the world, as well as the method of doing work domestically. So I think this was a very healthy process,” says Uyansoy. She believes that every position comes with a specific set of required experiences and that she has obtained these experiences over time.
The critical asset
According to Uyansoy, the critical asset in one’s professional life is hard work: “Life in general is an art of problem solving, and the same thing applies to one’s professional life on a smaller scale. Not giving up when faced with challenges, making good observations as well as developing a visionary outlook and way of thinking can get rid of all the obstacles in your way,” Uyansoy says, adding that there is no end to education – that everyone should pursue continuous professional advancement.
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“Life in general is an art of problem solving, and the same thing applies to one’s professional life, but on a smaller scale.”
Intuitions, instincts and coincidences…
…and a lot of hard work. Gülse Birsel worked so hard that she had to undergo a physical therapy. Although the four phenomena listed above helped shape her career, the successful writer believes that sometimes listening to instincts is better.
Gülse Birsel, Writer – Screenwriter – Actress
The average Turkish viewer could list many shows that have suddenly become rating champions, yet one would name only a bunch of comedy shows. Gülse Birsel is the creator of two of those comedy shows: following Avrupa Yakası, the show that made Turkish television history with 190 episodes over 5.5 years, Yalan Dünya, which started in early 2012, has already proven itself a worthy successor with the buzz it has created.
Birsel acts in both. Her success has put her on advertisers’ radars, and consequently both she and the characters she created are the face of many brands.
You can never leave this world
“I try to contribute, even a little, to commercial scripts in which these characters appear so that the script reflects the characters’ language. Once a script for a commercial is complete, the agency sends it to me and I revise it so that the dialogue and script fit the character and the character doesn’t deviate from the show. This is how I entered the advertising world, and now I can’t get out,” Birsel says. Given her career, she’s actually not that far from the world of advertising.
Birsel oversees magazines that are important in their fields and continues to write for Sabah newspaper. One night, while working late, she answered the phone and found herself on TV, both writing the scripts for and presenting on the advertising show GAG.
Describing that night, Birsel says, “According to what the GAG team told me, they had seven or eight different names in mind. Once they found my extension, they called me. They said, ‘If you didn’t answer, we were probably not going to call you again.’ I got into television thanks to that phone call.” Naturally, this anecdote is one of the turning points in Birsel’s career.
Two critical decisions
There are two critical decisions that Birsel says formed her career: The first was to make Yalan Dünya, and the second was to continue making Avrupa Yakası after Ata Demirer, Bülent Polat and Evrim Akın left the show. “Since I started out as a nobody on Avrupa Yakası as well as on the other projects I took part in, I had that much less to lose. But after Avrupa Yakası was a legend for six years, they told me it took a lot of courage to make another sitcom. Still, I did it with some ignorant courage, and thank God it turned out great.
After three actors left Avrupa Yakası, we thought a lot and asked ourselves, ‘Should we finish it off? The leads are gone; the funniest characters are gone.’ But I said, ‘I like doing this, we could keep going’, thus making another emotional ‘onward’ decision, and the show went on for three more years. I don’t know if this constitutes taking risks, but sometimes making intuitive decisions and acting on instinct can lead to better results.”
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“After three actors left Avrupa Yakası, we decided to go onward, and the show went on for three more years. I don’t know if this constitutes taking risks, but sometimes making intuitive decisions and acting on instinct can lead to better results.”
Much more than a popstar
One of the most creative and prolific names in Turkish pop whose jingles immediately get stuck in our heads, Nil Karaibrahimgil’s introduction to commercials dates back prior to “Free Girl”.
Nil Karaibrahimgil, Popstar – Jingle Producer
After starting out years ago writing copy for advertisements, Nil Karaibrahimgil took part in a Turkcell ad and became the advertising face of the brand. In the following years, she continued her career in music but never said goodbye to advertising. In addition to releasing five unforgettable albums full of hits, Karaibrahimgil also composed, wrote and performed a number of jingles for many brands.
A figure whose introduction to the advertising world dates back nearly 15 years, Karaibrahimgil performed incredibly well last year. Throughout 2012, tons of commercials, both domestic and global, featuring the jingles she wrote ranked at the top of most remembered and most liked commercials lists. This accomplishment has led to us hearing more than one spot with the Nil Karaibrahimgil mark every time we turn on the TV. Her latest achievement is as the face of Digiturk.
Six turns
“I dreamed about these days when I was only six years old,” says Karaibrahimgil, explaining that there are six turning points that shaped her career.
The first turning point in the career of the accomplished musician is getting the chance to enroll at Boğaziçi University and transferring to the International Relations department with a 4.0 average.
The second is starting part-time work as an intern copywriter at Young & Rubicam while she was in college. She would even go on to win a Crystal Apple in the year following this decision – but there was a fork in the road awaiting her.
When she appeared in Turkcell’s Hazırkart commercials as “Free Girl” and performed the song for the campaign, she had arrived at the fork in the road. After hearing the “Free Girl” song, Sony Music offered Nil Karaibrahimgil the chance to make an album.
According to Karaibrahimgil, the four-album contract she signed with Sony Music was a critical point of her career, as was each album on its own.
The last was when she became a columnist. Karaibrahimgil’s column has been published in the daily newspaper Hürriyet’s Kelebek supplement every Monday for the past nine years. She describes this final decision in her long career path with the sentence: “Let me not be an advertiser; let me write and sing songs.”
The soul’s lunchbox
A musician who changed her path from being an award-winning advertiser, Nil Karaibrahimgil’s first love was jingles, one of the most important elements in any commercial. To those at the beginning of their career, Karaibrahimgil gives the following advice: “Do a lot of what you do best, and don’t listen to anyone.”
She says that her professional and social personas are very similar: “Whatever you see in my professional life is who I am. I decided not to split up the two after reading an interview a long time ago. There aren’t seven differences, aside from a little glitter and spotlights,” Karaibrahimgil says. When asked how she spends her time outside of work: “I stimulate my mind and emotions. I need to keep them alive. Each day, I prepare the soul’s lunchbox,” she explains.
Nil Karaibrahimgil’s latest accomplishment is being featured as the face of Digiturk’s commercials, and she also prepares and sings the brand’s commercial jingles.
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“I spend my time outside of work stimulating my mind and emotions. I need to keep them alive. Each day, I prepare the soul’s lunchbox.”
She would remain in tourism had Iraq not invaded Kuwait
Arzu Ünal’s career as a tour guide, which enabled her to get to know and discover all of Turkey during her years as a student, turned into her present career after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Arzu Ünal, Y&R Istanbul, Agency President
Arzu Ünal stood at a critical crossroads about 10 years ago. Serdar Erener, the creative director and president of Y&R agency, where Ünal was vice president, was leaving his job. She had to make a choice and decide whether or not to leave with him. “I didn’t leave with Serdar, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened had I left?” she says when describing those days. Today, Ünal is the CEO of Y&R Istanbul, an executive board member of Young and Rubicam Europe and the Chairman of C-Section, which just joined the network.
Two agencies in the top 10
The split in Y&R wasn’t solely due to human resources. A significant portion of their big clients also left the agency one by one, following the outgoing team. Yet today, Y&R Istanbul together with Team Red, which serves one of Turkey’s top two advertisers, Vodafone, are both among the top 10 agencies.
Arzu Ünal compares that era to today by saying, “After big clients like Garanti and Turkcell left Y&R with Serdar Erener, everyone said Y&R would vanish. I am very proud of myself for we stood strong and rose as one of the largest agencies in the industry.”
The first crossroads was war
When she graduated from the Psychology Department of Boğaziçi University in 1991, Ünal was a professional tour guide. Her career as a tour guide, which enabled her to get to know and discover all of Turkey during her years as a student, took a different path after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Tourism industry entered into recession and pushed Ünal towards the marketing department of Procter & Gamble.
“Procter & Gamble became a total marketing school for me. Had Saddam not attacked Kuwait, I could’ve continued my career in tourism,” Ünal says. The second crossroads that led to her becoming an advertiser was receiving a job offer from Y&R upon the recommendation of a friend who worked at Colgate-Palmolive. “Had I not received the job offer, I don’t think I would have become an advertiser on my own volition; I would’ve continued my career in marketing,” Ünal says of this turning point.
Life rewards your efforts
When asked whether she aimed to be where she is now at the beginning of her career, Ünal replies, “No.” She continues: “I never set where I wanted to be as a goal and shaped my efforts based on that. I always tried to do my best and give my most. I believe that life rewards your efforts as well as sincerity.”
Ünal lists two of her favorite projects as the launch of the Arçelik slogan for “Çeliknaz”: “Designs Innovation with Love,” as well as the relaunch campaign for “There’s a Difference in Vodafone.” She adds: “But I have to confess that I love my job and my clients. I’ve learned a lot from every client and every brand I served, and I’m grateful for all of them.”
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“I always tried to do my best and give my most. I believe that life rewards your efforts as well as sincerity.”
The architect of creative stability
As someone who entered the profession “lightly” (her own words), Ayşe Bali played a large role in making Rafineri, which she established 12 years ago with her friends, a sought-after network today.
Ayşe Bali, Rafineri, Creative Director
One of the largest independent agencies in Turkey, Rafineri’s co-founder and creative director Ayşe Bali is the leading figure behind the stability of the company’s creative performance. Closing the previous year by adding Yapı Kredi to their customer portfolio, Rafineri also drew the attention of global giants. It’s known that McCann Istanbul, on the search since early 2012 for an independent agency to buy, is in close contact with Rafineri.
Young, talented girl
When she started her career in 1992 at Alice BBDO, Bali was, in her own words, seen and protected as the “young, talented girl” there. Yet she adds that making such a light start was an opportunity. Bali’s next step was Güzel Sanatlar, where she says she developed immensely and became a true advertiser.
After the creation of Total by a team at Güzel Sanatlar, Bali joined that team and embarked on one of the turning points in her career. When the draft of a press campaign that Total prepared for Advantage Card got the attention of Cem Boyner, the agency began to make a name for itself.
Bali says this press campaign was one of her favorite projects: “We shot the Advantage press campaign in Milan with an Italian photographer. The shoot was more like art than advertising, without any advertiser pressure, with a very small styling team where we even crafted the models’ accessories by hand.”
Soon after, İş Bank, to whose contests it was a big deal to even be invited, was added to Total’s customer portfolio. About a year later, however, Total experienced an internal separation, and Rafineri was established. Since then, Ayşe Bali has been serving as the creative director of Rafineri.
The taste of the first accomplishment
In her 20-year career, Bali says she felt proud alongside her team many times, but focuses specifically on two projects: “Winning the İş Bank contest changed Total’s fate and made me incredibly happy for days on end. We won many other contests and awards after that, but I guess getting the first taste of accomplishment is unique.
I was also proud of opening the exhibition for the Tasarım Alaturka supplement we created for MediaCat magazine two years ago. I was quite proud of us, as a group of advertisers, for finding the motivation to create projects that could be exhibited in an art gallery, amidst all of the daily work.”
When you become a mother
Ayşe Bali says her work and personal personas are similar, yet confesses that upon having a child she became a more anxious person. Although she tries to conceal her anxiety, at times it reflects in her work. “When you work intensely and have a kid at an older age, you feel like you’re stealing away from your kid, every time you spare a moment for yourself. There’s only one way (that I’ve found) to deal with this guilt, and that’s to not set aside any time at all for yourself, more or less. I try to spend all of my free time with my son, so our social life isn’t exactly the kind to be envied.”
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“I was quite proud of us, as a group of advertisers, for finding the motivation to create projects that could be exhibited in an art gallery, amidst all of the daily work.”
The greatest luxury in life
A graduate of Boğaziçi University, Ilkay Gürpınar says she was making her way towards the marketing department of a multinational company like her schoolmates when she asked herself what her true passion was – and managed to achieve the greatest luxury in life.
Ilkay Gürpınar, TBWA\ISTANBUL, Chief Creative Officer
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the stability TBWA\ISTANBUL achieved in recent years went through the roof last year. Both the new customers that joined the agency’s portfolio and the creativity awards received for executed ideas are proof of this.
One of the key figures behind this performance, Ilkay Gürpınar, experienced similar developments in her career. Originally appointed to the position of chief creative officer, Gürpınar is also a member of the seven-person global creative team of TBWA/Worldwide, called “The Band of Brothers.”
After graduating from Boğaziçi University and completing a Marketing Minor in the U.S., Ilkay Gürpınar was thinking about starting work in the marketing department of a multinational company when she returned to Turkey, much like most of her schoolmates. As she was meeting with agencies to have them review the projects she had created since childhood, she crossed paths with Y&R/Reklamevi and Serdar Erener. After that encounter, she worked at the agency for five years as a copywriter.
Witnessing the foundation of an agency
This is the first turning point in Gürpınar’s career. The second is being one of 14 people contributing to the foundation of Alametifarika. “It’s something else to help founding an agency, to be a part of that excitement. As a very small and very good team, it was a time when we took ownership of and groomed Alametifarika as if it was our own agency.”
In her last year at Alametifarika, she was made creative director responsible for all brands. She moved from Alametifarika, after three years since the foundation of the agency, to TBWA/ISTANBUL as creative director. For over six years, she’s been consistently raising the bar of her creative performance.
Breaking a leg
There’s a third turning point in the career of the accomplished advertiser. The Anadolu Sigorta contest, which resulted in TBWA\ISTANBUL’s victory, is the moment they “broke a leg,” in Gürpınar’s own words.
As for the most critical decision Ilkay Gürpınar made in her career… “The decision I made at the beginning of my career changed many things in my life. As I was going for interviews at companies like P&G and Unilever right after graduation, I decided to veer towards the creative side, where I had no formal training (and where my training in marketing didn’t really make a difference),” Gürpınar says. She made this decision by thinking about what she does at home when left to her own devices and realizing that turning that into her business is the best thing for her to do. “At that moment, I did something right. Doing what you love is the greatest luxury you could have in life.”
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“The decision I made at the beginning of my career changed many things in my life. As I was going for interviews at companies like P&G and Unilever right after graduation, I decided to veer towards the creative side.”
She dreamed of being different
Alev Altınkılıç went from being a mother who looked after her kids to making the critical decision to take on the family’s retail business and create her own brand.
Alev Altınkılıç, Kahve Dünyası, Founder
Alev Altınkılıç is devoted to her family. In fact, when we ask about the people who shaped her career, she points to one person: her husband Birol Altınkılıç. As for the turning point of her career, it’s starting to work in her family’s company, the Altınmarka Group of Companies, as a foreign investment specialist in 1992. The sharpest bend in this turning point was her decision to switch from Altınmarka to Kahve Dünyası.
104 stores, one of them special
Around ten years ago, Turkey was introduced to international coffee chains. Until then, our well-rooted coffee culture consisted of Turkish coffee alone. With the introduction of chains, the imported coffees instantly became available on every street corner, addressing the long deprived curiosity of the aficionados. About a year later, in 2004 Kahve Dünyası was born in order to offer Turkish coffee as well as many other traditional and contemporary brews to consumers.
In a market dominated by global giants, Kahve Dünyası went head-to-head with its competitors and mastered not only in coffee but also in chocolate. Alev Altınkılıç lead the family brand grew to 104 stores, one of them being very special.
Altınkılıç describes this store and her feelings about it by saying, “Opening our store with our own name in the heart of London, next to world-renowned coffee chains, was the proudest achievement of my career.”
Alev Altınkılıç competed with foreign chains on the “away” field, as well. Six months ago she opened a store in London, in a complex belonging to the Royal Family in Piccadilly. With this move, she took the first step in introducing the complimentary hospitality of Turkish culture to the world with the brand she created herself.
Personal life
“A mother who’s devoted to her children. A wife who supports her husband. I just can’t stop… I could think up many things at the same time and get to work immediately.” A woman who’s in charge of a business where there are many overlapping areas, from the management of 104 stores to hundreds of products – from coffee to chocolate, ice cream to pastries, cold drinks to accessories – as well as manufacturing, marketing, accounting, human resources, customer satisfaction, R&D efforts and business development. This is how Alev Altınkılıç describes her personal life.
Tips
Alev Altınkılıç took risks. She went from being a mother who took care of her children to making the critical decision to enter her family’s retail business manufacturing cocoa, chocolate and coffee. She then created her own brand and expanded it beyond national borders. So how did she do it? Here’s the answer, in her own words: “The most important factor is to be different. When dreaming, you also have to dream about being different. The tricks of the trade are to try to do your job well with courage and passion and excitement, and to focus.”
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“The most important factor is to be different. When dreaming, you also have to dream about being different. The tricks of the trade are to try to do your job well with courage and passion and excitement, and to focus.”
A crisis-driven brand
Established by Gülden and Yılmaz Yılmaz, 50 percent of Koton’s shares were sold for approximately 500 million dollars last year. According to Yılmaz, the secret to creating such a brand value is to devote yourself and make intelligent use of the opportunities that arise.
Gülden Yılmaz, Koton, Founder
After starting her career path by opening a store selling export leftovers with a teacher friend in Kuzguncuk in 1989, Gülden Yılmaz didn’t imagine that she would become the founder of a brand that today is one of Turkey’s leading stores in the retail clothing industry. She didn’t plan for the boutique she opened to make use of her summer vacation to become what is now known as Koton. Yılmaz describes those days by saying, “Since I was a teacher, my summer vacation was quite extended. The idea was born to open up a boutique just to make use of our summer vacation. Business was very good for three months, and I realized that I liked the retail market and could continue on this path. In short, when I saw that this was an option as a career change, I wanted to make use of the opportunity.”
When asked about the turning points in her career, the successful entrepreneur says it’s impossible for her to think of her career as separate from Koton: “This is why the second store we opened in Beşiktaş in 1991 and the crisis of 2001 were turning points both in my career and for Koton,” she says. When it comes to her career, she proudly emphasizes the importance of her husband and business partner Yılmaz Yılmaz’s support and constant standing by her side.
Fast fashion
So how did Gülden Yılmaz come to achieve all of this? After the 2001 crisis, when many big companies were downsizing and the small ones were reaching the brink of bankruptcy, Yılmaz decided to create “Big Koton Store Concepts” as well as to extend and increase investments for stores in Anatolia. She positions Koton as a “fast fashion” brand and enacts a strategy of “great variety.” At the end of the crisis, Koton became a well-known brand in Turkey, a leader of its sector that obtained its first application for a franchise abroad.
Gülden Yılmaz says she is a passionate, ambitious perfectionist who is detail-oriented in both her professional and private lives, stating that she wants to enjoy life but adding: “I cannot stand the words ‘unavailable’ and ‘no’ in my professional life.”
Devoting oneself
Like all successful women who make a difference, Yılmaz’s family plays an important role in her life. She tries hard to spend quality time with her family and makes extended travel plans. Yılmaz’s advice to those who are just starting their careers is to do something different when taking on a new job. Yılmaz states that patience, perseverance and motivation must never falter, emphasizing that the key to success is to love your job passionately and devote yourself to it, no matter what it is.
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“My advice to entrepreneurs is to do something different from everyone else when taking on a new job; if they are going to do something similar, add something different and some efficacy to it.”
The secret to her success is a happy family
Gizem Keçeci played a decisive role in the momentum that Vodafone has achieved in the past few years, as well as in forming the company’s new communication strategy. Manager of one of the largest media budgets in the country, Keçeci’s greatest support comes from her family.
Gizem Keçeci, Vodafone Turkey, Marketing Communications and Corporate Diversity Director
“I believe that the key to success, not only professionally but in every aspect of life, is to love whatever it is you do and work hard.” These words summarize the philosophy behind Gizem Keçeci’s accomplishments. Her success story is based on an understanding that we perhaps encounter very rarely in our professional lives: simplicity and ease… Keçeci relays one of her favorite quotes: “I’m sorry I wrote such a long letter. I did not have the time to write a short one” by Abraham Lincoln, who emphasized the importance and difficulty of simplifying a task and seeing what’s easy.
Under her direction, Vodafone Turkey has been chosen as “Turkey’s most recommended operator” for three years, yet the team’s success isn’t limited to this accolade. The marketing communication program that Vodafone started by creating the “Turkish Recipe,” considered to be exemplary around the world due to the incredible growth graphic provided by the “U-turn” program, is one of Keçeci’s proudest moments of her career, one that came at the end of her first year at Vodafone. Another one is the company’s double-digit growth figures since 2009.
Determination and patience
Believing that one of the most important qualities of a good leader is the value he or she places in the team and in teamwork, Keçeci encourages her team to be leaders in their own fields; she describes herself as a goal-oriented manager who knows herself well and is aware of her strengths as well as areas for improvement: “In my professional life, I benefited from being open to continuous learning, self-development and change. To be a good leader, you have to work with determination and patience and transform challenge into motivation. I also believe that learning lessons from mistakes is a virtue.”
Role model mother
Leaders who pave the way for achievement and shape the development and transformation of their industries are professional role models for Keçeci. Nevertheless, the most important factor in Gizem Keçeci’s career is her family. She believes that throughout her career, her family has been her greatest support, stating that the happiness and order in her family life contribute directly to her professional success. She talks about her husband, children and mother with love and pride: “My husband provided great support, particularly in sharing household responsibilities, and together with my kids he made me feel that they’re beside me every step of the way.”
Keçeci’s mother is a high-level executive as well. In describing the woman who successfully raised two children at a time when far fewer women were pursuing careers, Keçeci says: “I’ve been proud of my mother since childhood, and she has always been an important role model to me.”
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“In my professional life, I benefited from being open to continuous learning, self-development and change.”
A life of tough decisions
With a marketing career, the likes of which is hard to come by in Turkey, Şule Şamlı’s first advice to those just starting out is to work harder than everyone else and invest in yourself.
Şule Şamlı, Eti, Marketing Group President
It’s not a coincidence that Şule Şamlı is mentioned among marketing leaders in Women to Watch. After working for big domestic and international companies, she embarked on the Eti adventure in 2001 by forming the company’s marketing department.
All of the company’s communication activities, corporate social responsibility projects and new product launches are executed under Şule Şamlı’s supervision. In fact, the number of CEO changes at Eti, which could be considered frequent for a company its size, hasn’t disrupted Eti’s marketing communication.
The beast in her heart
Marketing was a dream of Şamlı’s since college, and she started her career at the end of 1989 in the marketing department of Eczacıbaşı Health Care Products. Later, when Eczacıbaşı and Procter & Gamble collaborated to form EPG, she became the brand manager for Ipana toothpaste. She then served as brand manager for Alo at Procter & Gamble and for Orkid at Sanipak.
After serving as the sales and marketing director for OTC drugs under Eczacıbaşı Health Care, Şamlı took on the role of marketing director at DanoneSa for two years. She joined the Eti family in 2001 and worked as the marketing director for the first five years, taking on the roles of Marketing Group President and Board Member in 2006.
According to Şamlı, there were two turning points in her career: The first was transferring to Procter & Gamble, thanks to the vision of then-General Manager Faruk Bayrakdar, while she was working at Eczacıbaşı. It was there that she truly learned about marketing. The second was her decision to work at Eti in 2001.
Şule Şamlı says the Eti decision specifically was the most critical of her career: “After working for multinational companies for years, deciding to work for a family company was a decision I was very scared to make. But today, I think this was the best career decision I’ve made,” Şamlı says, and lists everything she’s done at Eti as her favorite projects of her career.
Three counsels
For those who are just starting, Şule Şamlı has golden pieces of advice, taken from examples of her own life. According to Şamlı, one must never forget that the first years are the time to completely invest in oneself and to work extremely hard.
Another is to observe: Şamlı says one of the best ways to learn is to observe someone that you view as a role model. For her last piece of advice, she says: “You must express and defend what you know to be the truth in every circumstance. If this isn’t allowed, you must either try to change the environment or, if there is absolutely no way to change it, you must leave.”
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“After working for multinational companies for years, deciding to work for a family company was a decision I was very scared to make. But today, I think this was the best career decision I’ve made.”
Learning, growing and making a difference
The success of Unilever’s media strategies, led by media director and regional coordinator Aslı Günaydın, was confirmed by many awards.
Aslı Günaydın, Unilever Turkey, Middle East, Iran and Israel, Media Director
After graduating from college in 2001 and starting at one of the world’s largest advertisers, Unilever, Aslı Günaydın has been the media director in charge of media budgets in Turkey since 2010 and in Central Asia, Iran and Israel since 2011.
The creative media projects that received Günaydın’s approval have received a slew of awards in the past two years. Unilever’s performance at Felis, which rewards creative media projects, was quite significant. Successful media strategies positioned Unilever as the most awarded advertiser of the event. It won the distinction “Advertiser of the Year” in 2012.
Improving yourself alongside your work
2001 was a difficult period, when one of the greatest crises in the country’s history occurred. It was a time when most companies weren’t even hiring. The young administrator views starting her career at that time at a place like Unilever, which has a school-like atmosphere that advances its employees in different areas and gives them different skill-based responsibilities, as her greatest luck.
Günaydın says she believes that a successful career is made through a combination of factors such as luck, personal development, vision and passion to grow. She says, “When I was still in high school, I channeled my passion to achieve the best into always furthering myself and my profession. Starting with this point of view, as a very young leader I believe that I’ll take on even greater responsibilities as I focus on learning, growing and making a difference.”
Considering the movements in her career, Günaydın is evidently someone who can take risks and has dreams. As for other personal characteristics that helped her advance professionally, she lists her focus on leading change as well as lending meaning to everything she does, not being afraid to take action, not backing down when faced with challenges, closely following trends, being able to see the big picture and advanced empathy skills as most important.
First experience: promoting at the market
Aslı Günaydın’s first professional experience was working as a promotional staff member at a supermarket the summer she was 16. Günaydın greatly values this experience in terms of learning how to get to know different people and to persuade them through different methods as well as experiencing the first excitement of contributing greatly to the end result through small changes. She lists the position she’s had since 2010 as the greatest turning point in her career.
As a mother, Günaydın spends time outside of work by spending quality time with her daughter, exercising regularly and playing the flute. When she has extended free time traveling is a priority, as are going to the movies and catching up on books and magazines.
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“As a very young leader, I believe that I’ll take on even greater responsibilities as I focus on learning, growing and making a difference.”