FAHRETTIN DEMIR
Chairman
Fahrettin was born in 1959 in Balikesir, Turkey. After finishing his early schooling in Muharrem Haspi Koray High school in his home country, he moved to Germany in 1978 studying at the German language school Goethe institute, Iserlohn.
His education continued at a brief visit to Fachhoch Shule Krefeld and ending at the Business Administration and Corresponding Institute in Munich.
Fahrettin started with a modest job at Pasha Kadife in Istanbul, Turkey before moving to Bangkok, Thailand in 1985 to become the assistant to marketing manager at Chai Wattana Tannery PLC, where his career excelled seeing him become the Marketing Manager for the furniture department in the following year.
In 1992, Fahrettin becomes the Vice President at Chai Wattana Tannery PLC, before resigning to start his own business – Meridian Co. Ltd, where he is currently the owner and Managing Director.
Fahrettin is fluent in speaking Turkish, Thai, English and German.
He is passionate about football, golf, reading and world history.
YONCA TARI
3rd Vice Chairwoman / Treasurer
Yonca was born in 1957, studied in Ted Ankara, KDZ Ergeli Colleges and A.U.Italian Filology. She is fluently speaking English, Italian and Turkish.
Yonca started her working life in Alitalia at Istanbul Airport and afterwards with British Airways. She has had the privilege to travel all around the world as an advantage of being an airline staff.
After officially retiring, she went on to work with Emirates and other travel agencies as a tour guide/leader for a short period.
She finally formed her own company, TEALIGHT COLLECTION LIGHTING in Bangkok, Thailand in 2004 and still owns the partnership.
Currently, Yonca resides in Chiang Mai.
Yonca loves volleyball, basketball and swimming and enjoy listening to Jazz.
AHMET YEGINALP YUCEER
2nd Vice Chairman
Ahmet Yeginalp Yuceer, born in 1959, graduated from Istanbul Saint Joseph French High School and Strasbourg Louis Pasteur Faculty of Economic Sciences
His Native language Turkish, spoken and written languages French and English, spoken languages few Italian, German, Polish and Chinese.
Ahmet started his carreer in Textile and Leather Cloths Industry from 1985 in Istanbul, Ahmet Yuceer created his first company in France in the field of Woman Lingerie.
From 1988 to 1999, he has developed import and wholesale business. In 1999 he has extended his activity in China, where he began
to produce for export to French Hypermarkets and Chain Stores. In addition, he is owning a large scale Underwear factory in the South East of China.
By being the Team Captain and Coach at the high school and the university, Basketball is his favourite sport.
His main hobby is Smiling against all odds
IBRAHIM KOCAGOZ
Secretary
Ibrahim Kocagoz is the Technical Director – SODEXO Thailand responsible for Innovation, Smart City & Systems and Sustainability. Prior to joining SODEXO, Ibrahim worked as a Smart City Project Manager at Lusail City Development Project in Qatar for almost 7 years (More than 20 Billion USD Project).
Ibrahim received a Bachelors Degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Istanbul in 2004 and had more than 15 years experiences at urban development, oil & gas fields, industrial projects where he is really good on engineering, construction, commissioning, research, development, management, especially for systems integration, instrumentation & control systems, and sustainability.
After graduation from Samsun Mithat Pasa High School and started living in Istanbul, his professional working life also started in 1998 with a GSM company and focused on wireless communication systems and radio systems more in parallel to his education in Istanbul University.
Chaos, Chua Oscillator, Chaotic and Non-linear Dynamic systems were the subject of his thesis to graduate from the university. This research took two years which was financially supported by the university and government. Several universities and researchers referred to this research as well.
Ibrahim Kocagoz was born in Mainz, 1977.
Have a great interest in wireless communications and mathematics and a deep passion for playing guitar and keyboard. Other interests include Catamaran Sailing, surfing, camping, rock climbing, parachuting, tennis, swimming and basketball. Holds the following certificates and licenses;
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International search and rescue certificate.
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A class international wireless license.
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International Catamaran Sailing License
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Parachuting and Climbing certificates
Still member of TEMA(Society of Nature and afforestation), TRAC(Society of wireless and radio amateurs). ISUDAK(Istanbul Uni. Search and Rescue Team) and EMO(Association of Electrical Engineers) and General Secretary of TTA (Turkish Thai Association).
HALIT ONUR OGUZHAN
1st Vice Chairman
He was born in 1978 in Izmir, Turkey and married to Channe Oguzhan, who is currently working for the United Nations in Bangkok. Father of 2 . studied primary and secondary school in Yozgat and high school in Ankara. Selected to represent Turkey at Red Cross Nordic United World Colleges in Norway and finished high school diploma in this school.
Selected to represent Turkey at Red Cross Nordic United World Colleges in Norway and finished high school diploma in this school. Studied International Business Management at the University of Maryland in Germany.
He started his career as External Auditor at Ernst& Young and worked for several years in Germany and Ghana.
Later joined DHL in Ghana and worked his way within Finance and Internal Audit departments as Senior Manager in various countries.
Joined MSC in 2011 and currently holds Regional CFO for Africa and Central Asia and holds Board of Director positions in various countries.
AYDIN DEMIRCI
Board Member
Aydin Demirci As the Managing Director of Anatolian Express Co., Ltd., Aydin Demirci is responsible for running all facets of the business. Aydin has a proven executive management track record and over 20 years of experience in the tourism industry.
Before joining Anatolian Express Co., Ltd., Aydin was Executive Manager and Senior Product Manager for other travel agencies mostly welcoming Russian and CIS market, responsible for innovations, contracting and products.
At Anatolian Express Co., Ltd., he was a part of the transformation into an enterprise-focused company while growing the company 3000% in 10 years. He earned a Tourism Business Science degree at the University of Gazi, Ankara. During his education in college, he had been in France via a student exchange program and experienced the European culture and knowledge of the tourism sector.
ATILLA AKKENAR
Business Affairs - Sponsorship and Promotions
Atilla Akkenar was born in 1986 and studied at the Kocaeli Anatolian High School. In 2010 graduated from the Aerospace Engineering department of Istanbul Technical University.
He speaks Turkish, English and basic Thai.
Between 2011 and 2015 worked in Hexagon Studio as a design engineer and meanwhile continued his education at Istanbul Bosphorus University on Automotive Engineering.
After his military duty in 2015, he made a radical change and started travelling far east and settled in Thailand and froze his M.Sc study.
After travelling one year and attending to A Thai language course and learning how to read and speak basic Thai started to work as a Product Development & Project Engineering Supervisor in Aeroklas, one of the leading automotive accessories suppliers in Thailand.
Likes to drive off-road, grilling steak and tasting red wine. Listens to all kind of music, especially experimental electronics and world music.
TAN DEMIR
Committee Member
Tan was born on 20th October 1986 in Bangkok to a Turkish father and a Thai-Chinese Mother. He was raised in Bangkok, attending and graduating from Bangkok Patana School in 2005.
He furthered his education in Australia at the University of Sydney majoring in Biotechnology before returning to Bangkok, when he educational direction. He continued his studies in Communication Arts at Bangkok University followed by a brief internship at Bangkok PR.
Additionally, Tan studied at the SAE Institute and worked part-time as a freelance in the Thai film industry, taking part in front of and behind the scenes.
Currently, Tan has a globe-trotting career, where he is a project manager at Coats Digital driving the digitalization of the textile/garment industry.
Tan can speak fluent English and Thai, but his Turkish can be compared to a 6-year-old.
His interests are in sports; in particular, football, volleyball and wakeboarding.
WICHEN HARNPRAWEEN
Lawyer
Mr Wichien was born on 2 of June of 1963 and obtained his Law Bachelor degree with honour at Thammasat University in 1986. He furthered his education obtaining a master degree from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1990.
Mr Wichien started his law career working at Thai Sheel Exploration and Production in 1987. From 1987 till 2005, he worked for Lawyer & Worachi limited, starting as a junior associate in 1987, moved up to senior associate from 1992 to 2002 and finished as a partner from 2003 to 2005 before become founder and managing partner at Wiseen & Co Limited lawyers from 2006 till the present day.
Mr Wichien professional licenses include Patent attorney issued by intellectual property department, Attorney at law license issued by the lawyer council of Thailand and Notarial service attorney since 2012.
Kursad Yucel
Board Member
Kursad was born in Istanbul in 1977. He is holding BSc in Civil Engineering and MBA with a focus in Strategic Management.
He started his professional career as a civil engineer, notably in project planning areas. However, he decided to make a career shift in 2005 and following his MBA studies, he worked in multiple industries such as medical technology, consulting and FMCG in business development and strategic planning areas both in Turkey and the USA.
Kursad has been living in Bangkok, Thailand, since 2013 and working for CPF Group driving Digital Transformation projects in data analytics related fields for multiple business units following five years of experience in Strategic Planning within the same group.
EBRU GURELI
Board Member - Business, Marketing & Event Coordinator
Ebru Güreli was born in Istanbul, Turkey, on 6 June 1980. She graduated from the University of Yeditepe in 2003.
On the surface, Ebru is the Senior Trade Marketing Head in Luxottica Thailand Wholesales, Bangkok, Thailand. She has been in her current position as Senior Trade Marketing Head since June 2017. She leads a six-person team with more than 15 years of experience; she has strong communication skills and the ability to work with the sales department to ensure that all sales objectives and trade marketing strategies focus on the same goals for maximum efficiency. She is self-motivated with the ability to work independently to implement marketing programs when necessary.
In particular, She has outstanding organizational and time management skills to prioritize projects to meet deadlines while maintaining efficiency. She has an accurate understanding of the trade market, and I possess the skills to evaluate market trends to determine how they will influence sales.
In the past, Ebru had a lot of significant professional experiences as a Sales and Product Management Marketer in several companies such as Coca-Cola Bottler Turkey. She created several tools to help her company evaluate execution requirements more accurately and improve the neat visibility of marketing.
Ebru delivers cutting-edge marketing strategies and innovative campaigns that increase demand, accelerate growth and maximize the budgets for emerging media.
KEMAL DURAN
Board Member
Kemal was born in Malatya -Turkiye in 1955.
He and his family moved to Batman when he was 9 years old, and Kemal graduated from Batman High school.
Between 1973 and 1979, Kemal studied Literature at Bursa Uludağ University and graduated in 1979.
Kemal teached many students at Karşıyaka Havva Özişbakan , Gümüldür and Burhaniye high schools.
Currently, he lives in Kanchanaburi of Thailand as a Farmer.