Keynote Speakers

Tarkan Maner - President, CEO, Wyse Technology

Mr. Maner was named President and CEO of Wyse Technology in February, 2007. He joined Wyse in May, 2005, as Chief Marketing Officer. He was most recently President, Worldwide Field Operations for Wyse, and led Wyse’s global sales, marketing, channels, business development and customer service organizations and programs. Prior to joining Wyse, Mr. Maner led marketing, product management, business development, and strategic business alliance initiatives at Computer Associates, where he was instrumental in developing the company's corporate vision, strategy, and brand. Earlier, at IBM, Mr. Maner led global product marketing initiatives for the company's Internet Security, Network Computing, and eCommerce divisions. Before this, he held senior product management and marketing roles in the eCommerce Software Group at Sterling Software and later, Sterling Commerce.
Mr. Maner graduated from İstanbul Technical University with a B.S. degree in Engineering Management, received his MBA degree from Midwestern State University, and attended the invitation-only Executive Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Mr. Maner is a sought-after speaker and commentator on current IT and business issues worldwide.

Murat Yalçıntaş - President, İstanbul Chamber of Commerce

Murat Yalçιntaş was born in 1965 in İstanbul. He has studied at the French Lycee Saint Joseph and has continued his education at the Bosphorus University in Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and got his master degree at Boston University, Brussels. He had two years of experience in one of the European Union's institutions in Brussels as an expert and 3 years of experience in an international development bank as Project Officer. Mr. Yalçιntaş took several initiatives to establish companies in different sectors after returning to Turkey; such as telecommunication, casting, heating-air conditioning in which he is presiding. Murat Yalçιntaş is elected on March 15, 2005 as president of the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce. He is also member and co-founder of several social, cultural and economic foundations.

Hakan Tekin - Consul General, Consulate General of Turkey in Los Angeles

Born in 1967 in Ankara, Turkey. Graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of International Relations in 1989. Worked in the T.C. Ziraat Bankasi (Agricultural Bank of Turkey) from 1989 to 1990. Joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey in December 1990. Worked first in the Cultural and then in the Central Asian Department until August 1993. Served as Third Secretary at the Turkish Embassy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from August 1993 to September 1995 and as Second Secretary at the Turkish Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria from September 1995 to August 1998. Attended the NATO Defense College Senior Course in Rome from August 1998 to February 1999. Upon returning from his first tour abroad, worked as Second Secretary in the Human Rights Department and then as First Secretary in the Balkans Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from February 1999 through August 2000. Served as First Secretary and then as Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations in New York from August 2000 to November 2004. Following the end of his tenure in New York, took office as Chief of Section and then as Head of Department at the Personnel Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from November 2004 until April 2007. Assumed his post in Los Angeles as Consul General on 15 April 2007. Married with a ten year old son.

Elin Suleymanov - Consul General, Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles

On November 14, 2005, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev appointed Elin Suleymanov as Azerbaijan’s first Consul General to Los Angeles, California with personal rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Prior to that he served as Senior Counselor at the Foreign Relations Department, Office of the President in Baku, Azerbaijan and as Press Officer of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Washington, DC. Before joining diplomatic service, Mr. Suleymanov worked with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Azerbaijan and with the Open Media Research Institute in Prague, Czech Republic.
A graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts, Mr. Suleymanov also holds graduate degrees from the Political Geography department of the Moscow State University, Russia, and from the University of Toledo, Ohio. Mr. Suleymanov speaks Azerbaijani, English, Russian and Czech languages.
For Elin Suleymanov’s profile by the Fletcher School click here

Ali Kutay - President & CEO, Golden Gate Software Inc.

Since 2004, Mr. Kutay is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GoldenGate Software, Inc., a privately held systems software company located in San Francisco, CA. GoldenGate’s products are installed in close to 500 Global companies providing real-time data movement solutions. Prior to GoldenGate, Mr. Kutay was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AltoWeb, Inc., a provider of e-business infrastructure software. From 1997 to 1998 he was a director, President and Chief Executive Officer of WebLogic, Inc., the company that pioneered the Application Server technology which became one of the major building blocks of web-enabled applications. WebLogic merged with BEA Systems, Inc. in 1998 forming one of the major infrastructure software providers in the industry. Previously he was the President and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation's Commercial Software Business Unit, Formtek, from 1990 to 1997. Formtek, Inc. was one of the earliest spinoffs from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1983. Mr. Kutay served at various roles at Formtek including as its President and CEO from 1985 until 1989 when it was acquired by Lockheed Corporation. His graduate and thesis work at Carnegie Mellon was the foundation of Formtek. Mr. Kutay holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Engineering from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey and has completed graduate work at Carnegie Mellon University. He has published in the areas of database technology, management and entrepreneurship, and holds several technology patents. Mr. Kutay serves on the boards of several public and private companies.

Panelists
(in alphabetical order based on last name)

Burak Alıcı - Equity analyst, Morgan Stanley Investment Management

Burak is an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley Investment Management where he covers industrials and business services companies. Prior to joining the firm, Burak was a co-founder at Alchemy Asset Management, a private partnership in İstanbul investing in multiple asset classes globally - during which he also wrote investment articles for RealMoney.com. Previously, he developed and implemented systematic equity investment strategies at Ernst Research & Management, a hedge fund in Boston. Burak received an MBA from Columbia Business School with a concentration in Value Investing, an MS in Finance from Boston College, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bogazici University.

Bülent Başol - Co-founder, CTO and Executive Vice President, SoloPower

Dr. Bülent Başol brings to SoloPower over 30 years of distinguished innovation in thin film photovoltaics (PV). His work in the field began in the late 1970s, with his pioneering Ph.D. dissertation on “Electrodeposited CdTe Thin-Film Solar Cells.” After graduating in 1980, he continued to lead the development of CdTe PV technology at Monosolar Inc., where he successfully demonstrated over 11% conversion efficiency.
In 1984, this patented technology was sold to BP and subsequently yielded the highest efficiency thin film PV modules in the world at the time. Dr. Başol next co-founded International Solar Electric Technology (ISET), where he headed technology development and acted as Principal Investigator for numerous CIGS- and CdTe-based solar cell development programs funded by the DOE, NASA, DOD, DOC and aerospace corporations.
Among these were novel nano-ink based approaches that yielded the first and the most efficient ink-based CIGS devices (over 12%) at the time. Dr. Başol also developed the first efficient, flexible Copper-Indium-Selenide solar cell structure on polymeric substrates, for which he received an innovation award from NASA. In 2000 he joined NuTool Inc., a Silicon Valley start-up company, as a Board Member and Chief Technical Officer, where he led efforts to develop electroplating, electrochemical mechanical deposition, electropolishing, and electrochemical mechanical polishing processes and tools for IC interconnect application.
In 2004 ASM International acquired NuTool, and Dr. Başol became the CTO of the new company, ASM NuTool. The SoloPower core technology is based on some of Dr. Başol's innovations employing high-throughput, low-cost electroplating techniques for high efficiency CIGS device fabrication.
Dr. Başol has 96 issued and over 60 pending US patents in the fields of PV, materials processing and tools for semiconductor manufacturing. He has authored over 100 publications and has served on the technical committees of many international conferences. In addition to a Ph.D. in Solid State Electronics from UCLA, Dr. Başol holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boğaziçi University in İstanbul, Turkey.

Nick G. Baturin - Director of Risk Management, Barclays Global Investors

Nick is Director of Risk Management at BGI Investment Risk Management team. In this role he develops cutting-edge tools for risk monitoring of multi-asset class hedge-funds and other active portfolios. Prior to this role he led development and implementation of Global Emerging Markets equity strategies within the International Active Equities group where he launched EM-focused hedge funds. He also spent several years in BGI Fixed Income research group where he built BGI's first credit long-short strategy for the US, Japan and Canada credit markets and created a comprehensive bond database. Before joining BGI in June 2000, Nick spent three years at MSCI BARRA where he developed fixed-income pricing and risk models for the US and global markets. Nick received a PhD in Ocean Physics from the University of California at San Diego and an MS (cum laude) in Applied Physics and Mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Nick is a CFA charterholder.

İlker "Ike" Bayraktar - Vice President of International Initiatives, AeroVironment

İlker "Ike" Bayraktar has served as our Vice President of International Business Development since 2002, and joined AV in 1992. He previously held a variety of positions in engineering and management with Southern California Edison, RD&G (Research Decision Support Group), IWT (International Weapons Technology), the Whittaker Corporation, the U.S. Navy, and the Turkish Navy. He graduated from the Turkish Naval Academy in 1976 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and from the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and then an M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1982.

Dr. Izak Bencuya - CEO, Deeya Energy

Dr. Izak Bencuya, joined Deeya Energy in June of 2008. He was the Executive Vice President of Fairchild Semiconductor and the General Manager of the Functional Power Products Group in San Jose, California until the end of 2007. Dr. Bencuya has over 25 years of power semiconductor industry experience. He began his career at Yale University and later worked at GTE Laboratories and Siliconix in various research and management roles to develop and market leading edge Power Devices. He joined Fairchild Semiconductor in 1994 to start the Power Products business which grew to be a $950M annual revenue business under his leadership providing Power Semiconductor solutions for all power supply applications in the computing, communications, industrial, consumer and automotive markets. Dr. Bencuya has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boğaziçi University in İstanbul, Turkey, an M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University and an M.B.A from University of California in Berkeley. He is a member of the IEEE Electron Device Society. Dr. Bencuya holds 22 patents and has published extensively in the electronics field.

Keith Bhatia - Senior Vice President and General Manager, Worldwide Sales, Movius

Keith brings more than 20 years of communications technology, sales and business development experience to the role of Senior Vice President and General Manager, Worldwide Sales . In this role, Keith manages the direct sales, channel sales and technical sales Keith's responsibilities also include managing the Movius Global Partner Team and building channel partner relationships worldwide. Before IP Unity and Glenayre became Movius, Keith was the lead executive at IP Unity responsible for sales, marketing and business development. He was responsible for building the company's extensive partner portfolio and the global market successes achieved through IP Unity's relationships with Siemens, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Motorola, Sonus, Sylantro and many others. He also managed the company's expansion into the Japanese carrier market and had a very prominent role in shaping the company's strategies in IMS implementation, fixed-mobile convergence and video applications. He managed the expansion in the large Enterprise Market, specifically focused on the Education, Retail and Banking verticals. Prior to Movius, Keith served as Vice President for global sales for SS8/ADC, where he led his team to generate more than $100 million in revenue. Prior to that, he led global sales and marketing for ADC and managed a range of wireless business and marketing functional groups at Nokia, Ericsson and Philips Telecom and Data Systems UK.
Keith holds a Doctorate of Business Administration from Nova Southeast University in Florida and an MBA from Sheffield Hallum University in the United Kingdom. He has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. He is a sought-after speaker, chairing technical sessions at many IEC and Pulver conferences on IMS and fixed-mobile convergence in North America, EMEA and Asia, and participating in the Global Communications Strategy Forum, ATKearney’s Global Tech and Telecom Competitiveness Summit, SIP Forum Summits, IMTC/Wainhouse Research Conference and Internet Tele,phony Conferences. In addition, Keith is on the advisory boards of a number of companies and a board member of Highwired Technologies.

Tom Bleier - President, Founder and CTO of Quakefinder a subsidiary of Stellar Solutions

Tom Bleier graduated from Clarkson University in Potsdam N.Y. in 1967 with a B.S.E.E. and has worked for 37 years developing, building, testing, and flying DOD and commercial satellites and ground control systems. He worked for the Aerospace Corporation for 24 years, including a role as manager for the Satellite Control Advanced Planning group. He received a special award for outstanding technical contributions in the planning of advanced satellite control architecture work in 1986. About 25 years ago, he became interested in understanding the physics of pre- earthquake processes, and began developing ultra low frequency (ULF) magnetometers to detect the onset of large earthquakes. In 2000, he established QuakeFinder, a private company affiliated with Stellar Solutions of Palo Alto, California, a successful aerospace engineering services company. Under the aegis of Quakefinder, he conducted a ground-based project as a precursor to a space-based platform. This project involved dozens of high schools in California forming a web-based sensor network for ULF signals. Since then he has successfully launched “QuakeSat,” a 4.5 kg satellite for detecting ULF radiation from space. Quakefinder’s goal is to develop and commercialize the technology required to enable global forecasts of seismic activity within the next decade, and potentially save thousands of lives from the effects of destructive earthquakes.

Serhan Çevik - Director, Global Emerging Markets Economic Research, Nomura International Plc

Serhan is Director of Research at Nomura International Plc responsible for global emerging markets economic research. During his career as a renowned economist, he received various top-analyst rankings for his research. Prior to joining Nomura in May 2008, he spent a decade at Morgan Stanley. Serhan holds MA/PhD degrees in Economics from American University and a PhD in Economic History from London School of Economics (in progress).

Dr. Atilla Ersöz - Chief Senior Researcher, TUBITAK Marmara Research Center

Dr. Ersöz graduated as a Chemical Engineer from Ege University Faculty of Engineering. He got his MSc and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering at Ege University. He worked in Ege University as an Instructor between 1989 and 2000. He has been working as a chief senior scientist at TUBITAK Marmara Research Center Energy Institute since 2000. His experience is based on Chemical Reactor & Process Simulation and Modeling, Reformer Design and Operation, Reaction Engineering and Fuel Cell Systems. He is the author of more than 30 publications in journal papers and conference proceedings. He has experience in coordination of EC FP6 program and national projects. He is also expert of the EC FP 7 Energy Program Committee, member of Task 23 (Small scale reformers for on site hydrogen generation) of IEA Hydrogen Implementing Agreement, member of European Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Platform Research Grouping (N.ERGHY), TUBITAK MRC institutional contact point of EC FP7 program.

Melissa Blythe Johnson - Marketing and Sales Manager, Argela-USA

Ms. Johnson is currently the Marketing and Sales Manager for Argela-USA, a California subsidiary of Argela Technologies which is based in İstanbul, Turkey. In this role, she is working on the marketing and sales of an advertiser-sponsored, international phone calling service, called Tuitalk, which is a brand of Argela-USA. Tuitalk, a provider of free global communications services, is available on both PC and mobile phone platforms. Ms. Johnson's career has been fueled by her fascination with global communications, the Internet, and the evolution of business in today's ever-changing economy. She chose UCLA for her undergraduate work because of its highly-regarded Communication Studies program and began her career at ABC National Network News in Hollywood. Melissa has a BA in Communications, a MBA in Marketing, and has studied at the Universite d'Aix-en-Provence in France. To pursue her interest in international business, Melissa went to work for NOP, an international market research company in London. After earning her MBA in Marketing, Melissa accepted a position starting the Internet Division of an advertising agency in Silicon Valley. Later, she founded her own company, MC2, which specialized in Internet Advertising, Online Media Plans and Web Site projects. As the Worldwide Advertising Manager for Veritas Software, Melissa successfully launched the company's first global branding and advertising campaign which won the Harvey Communication Measurement Award for achieving outstanding readership response. At VERITAS, she also initiated the company's first Internet advertising campaigns and negotiated advertising contracts with CNN, IDG and other Internet portals. Ms. Johnson has a broad marketing background that includes both B2C and B2B experience and has given presentations on Internet Marketing Strategies to other industry professionals. Melissa is a member of the Web Analytics Association, the American Marketing Association, the Mobile Marketing Association and the Alliance Francaise.

Bariş Karadoğan - Partner, Velocity Interactive Group

Bariş is a partner at Velocity Interactive Group who focuses on the Internet and digital media investments. Prior to joining Velocity Interactive Group, Bariş worked six years at U.S. Venture Partners, a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. Bariş’ recent board seats/investments include: Doppelganger, HIP Digital Media, Like.com, SpectraLinear, Redline Communications (LSE: REDL) and Aspendos Communications. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Bariş worked in both engineering and marketing at 3Com/U.S. Robotics, where he worked to develop the company's networking and cable industry products. His efforts at U.S. Robotics resulted in a number of U.S. patents. Bariş holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Lafayette College, where he graduated summa cum laude. Best way to get to know him is to read his blog, From İstanbul to Sand Hill Road which focuses on high technology, venture capital, innovation and creativity.

Richard Mains - Founder/Chairman, Principal Scientist, Mains Associates

Richard Mains Richard Mains has a MS in Physiology and Biophysics. In 1968 he joined the University of California Berkeley, Environmental Physiology Lab, as Research Physiologist and supported development of NASA-funded experiments and bioinstrumentation for an Automated Primate Research Lab, targeted to fly on a US biosatellite. In 1979 he became Senior Scientist in support of the Biosystems Division at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). He coordinated a contractor team that developed life sciences experiment payloads to fly on NASA-sponsored biosatellite missions in collaboration with the Institute for Bio-Medical Problems, Moscow. He supported development of NASA payloads on 6 Russian biosatellites until the end of the program in 1998. Richard established Mains Associates in Berkeley, CA in 1982, a small business subcontractor to Lockheed Martin and other prime contractors at several NASA centers. The company provides science communication and information systems services to NASA space research projects as well as private sector and university R&D clients. He has been author/co-author of over 40 science and technical publications, and his company has received several NASA certificates of excellence, awards for spaceflight mission achievements and associated publications, and commendations for its various products and services.

Vish Mishra - Venture Director, Clearstone Venture Partners

Vish joined Clearstone in March 2002 with over 30 years of leadership and management experience in the high tech industry including software, Internet, networking and telecommunications. He is a founder and served as a board member of Telera, a cutting edge voice web infrastructure company which was sold to Alcatel for $140 million in 2002. Vish was also co-founder of Excelan (1983), which was funded with $7.3 million in venture capital, went public in 1987, sold for $225 million in 1989 and went on to contribute $1 billion to Novell’s revenue in subsequent years.
Vish holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Institute of Technology at Benares Hindu University, an MS in Electrical Engineering from North Dakota State University and MBA work from the University of Minnesota. He is a very active Director and Charter Member of TiE who has dedicated himself to the growth of the organization since its inception.

Babür Özden - Chief Executive Officer, Berggi

Babür Özden is the CEO of Berggi, maker of the ZipClip. ZipClip lets people collect easily content from web sites and move them instantly to mobile phones. In July 2008, its disruptiveness in how content can be moved between web and mobile placed ZipClip in the prestigious The AlwaysON Global 250 Ranking. Berggi has offices in Palo Alto, Beijing, Madrid and Sofia. Prior to Berggi, Babur served as CEOs of Superonline and Lensec, and President & COO of Datacert, and helped establish them as leaders of their markets. Babur is at the board of advisors at Beijing LoongStore Technologies, Alert Logic and DFJ Mercury Venture Fund, and is a member of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, and a Roundtable member of Baker Institute of Public Policy. Babur holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Rice University.

Prakash Ramachandran - CFO, Nordic Windpower

Prakash is a finance professional with over 20 years experience in USA and Asia. Prakash is currently Chief Financial Officer of Nordic Windpower, a company that provides two bladed utility scale turbines to the wind energy industry. Nordic is funded by Goldman Sachs, Impax etc. and is based in Berkeley, CA with offices in UK, Sweden and manufacturing operations in Pocatello, Idaho. Prakash is responsible for all financial matters of the company including corporate financing as well as project financing.
Prior to Nordic, Prakash spent 5 years as CFO at Novariant that supplied GPS based machine control products to industrial markets like agriculture and mining. During his tenure at Novariant, the company grew its revenues from $4 million to over $40 million and raised over $40 million in venture equity & debt and closed two key strategic acquisitions. During this period, the company’s employee base grew from 15 to 150 employees worldwide.
Prior to Novariant, Prakash was Head of Finance for 2 years at Sonicity, a software company with multi casting technology for internet streaming and funded by Sony Corp. Previously, Prakash spent 10 years in Hong Kong in various financial roles including 5.5 years as CFO of Sonex Group, where the revenues grew from $100 million to $300 million during his tenure by expanding into a number of new countries including China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Chile, Panama, Brazil etc.
Prakash has a masters degree in Management from Stanford Business School (Sloan Fellows Program). He is a Chartered Accountant from India (where he scored 13th rank among 10,000 candidates all over India) and is also a Chartered Management Accountant of U.K.

Arnold Reisman, PhD. - Author, Turkey's Modernization - Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk's Vision

Arnold Reisman received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in engineering from UCLA. He is a registered Professional Engineer in California, Wisconsin, and Ohio, and has published over 300 papers in refereed journals, along with 16 books. After 27 years as Professor of Operations Research at CWRU, Reisman retired in 1994. Among his current research interests is the history of German-speaking exiled professors starting in 1933 and their impact on science in general and Turkish universities in particular. Reisman is still actively pursuing his lifelong interest in sculpting. He is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, American Men and Women of Science, and Two Thousand Notable Americans, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His most recently published books are: TURKEY'S MODERNIZATION: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision; Classical European music and opera: The case of Post-Ottoman Turkey, and Arts in Turkey: How ancient became contemporary. Two other books are due out in 2009. They are: Refugees and reform: Turkey’s republican journey, and Off the beaten path: Reclaiming industrial spaces for exhibiting fine arts in İstanbul. dia) and is also a Chartered Management Accountant of U.K.

Ahmet Lütfi VAROĞLU - Head of International Cooperation Department, Turkish Ministry of National Defense, Undersecretariat for Defense Industries

Mr. Varoğlu was borned in Aydın in 1967. He is a graduate of Hacettepe University Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department. He continued M.Sc. Program at Electrical Engineering Department of Middle East Technical University and graduated from Thunderbird American Graduate School of International Management, AZ (Master of International Management) in 1999 and completed “Senior Managers in Government” Exec Education at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government in 2007.
Since 1991, Mr. Varoğlu has been working for Turkish Ministry of National Defense, Undersecretariat for Defense Industries as project engineer, program manager and director in various defense programs. He was the Head of Department, Comm, Electronics and IT Systems and responsible for C4ISR, Electronic Warfare, Satellite, Radar and Communication Systems, Information Technology, Network Centric Homeland Security Programs between 2001-2007. Currently he is the Head of International Cooperation Department responsible for bilateral and multilateral defence cooperation, export services and promotion of Turkish Defense Industry & Products.
Mr. Varoğlu is the author of articles published in national and international publications and is the Chairman of Ankara Jazz Society, Board Member of Turkish American Business Council, Turkish.
Informatics Society, Turkish Fencing Federation, STM Inc. and Middle East Technical University Technopolis Inc., and the member of Project Management Institute (PMI), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Chamber of Electrical Engineers. He is married with a son.

Faruk Yarman - General Manager, HAVELSAN Air Electronics Ind. and Trade Inc., Turkey

Dr. Yarman was born in 1954 İstanbul/TURKEY. He got his BS from the Technical University of İstanbul, Department of Electrical Engineering in 1978. He has completed his graduate work in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Department of Nuclear Engineering: MS-1982, PhD-1984; performing part time teaching and Research Assistantships; attending Technology Assessment, Political Science, Macroeconomics classes. Back to Turkey in 1984, he joined Department of Electrical Engineering in Anatolian University as Assistant Professor until 1986.
Since then, Dr. Yarman is actively involved in defense business. He started working as the Planning Manager in the Incorporation of Savronic Inc. fully owned by STFA Group and gradually promoted to Managing Director of the company. He also lead defense investments of the Group in activities such as defense electronics (Fire Control Systems, Secure Communication), Military Ship Building, Missiles, Engineering Services. During this period he was also involved in strategic telecommunication network projects of Turkey. He also worked as the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Defense Technology and Engineering Inc.. He became the Deputy General Manager of Havelsan in 1999 for two years. In this period he served also as a board member in Thompson Radar Inc. and Thomson High Technology Inc. He is the General Manager of Havelsan since 2003.
Dr. YARMAN is the President of the Defense Industry Sector Council of the Union of Chambers of Industry, Trade and Bourses of Turkey. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Turkish Defense Industries and Manufacturers Association. He has been the head of Turkish delegation in the former European Defense Industry Group (EDIG), recently ASD, and a member of Turkish Delegation in NATO Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG) for Ministry of National Defense Center for Military Technologies and Industries seven years.
Dr. Yarman has numerous publications analyzing the national and international trends in defense industry, critical technology plans, energy policies and defense electronics. Dr. Yarman speaks fluent English and French.

Moderators

Dr. Çağlan M “Chalan” Aras - Vice President of Product Marketing, Polycom Inc.

Dr. Çağlan M “Chalan” Aras is Vice President of Product Management for Voice Communications Solutions at Polycom. In this role, he leads the strategy, definition and delivery of products and solutions for voice and unified communications products. He previously was with Ditech Networks, a leading provider of voice processing solutions for mobile and VoIP service providers as VP of Marketing, Product Management and Strategy. Previously he was VP of Marketing and Product Management at Jetstream Communications, and at First Virtual Corporation, where he was Director of PLM for all video products. He holds BSEE from the Middle East Technical University, MS and Ph.D in computer engineering from the North Carolina State University, and an MBA from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Dr Aras is the recipient of five patents.

Eric H. Brachhausen - Executive Director, Spaceport America Institute

Eric is an innovative and results-oriented manager experienced at leading breakthrough collaborative teams.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and also holds an MBA degree from the University of Phoenix.
Eric began his career as an aerospace engineer for General Dynamics, where among other things, he invented a biologically-based design for a guidance instrument. Eric then joined the New York investment banking firm of Lepercq, de Neuflize & Co., where he worked for 5 years as a member of its portfolio management team serving institutional clients.
After an extensive career in finance and banking, he went on to join American Technology Alliances, where he developed new collaborative relationships in fields such as rotorcraft technology and quiet supersonic flight. His contributions earned him an award from Vice President Al Gore on behalf of the Partnership for Reinventing Government, as well as an award from NASA Headquarters for consortium leadership. He is now working to develop the educational arm of Spaceport America, New Mexico’s new spaceport dedicated to personal and commercial space flight.

Atakan Çetinsoy - VP of Personal Finance Products, Strands Inc.

Atakan has more than 13 years of customer and product marketing experience with some of the most admired global brands in the high tech industry.
Atakan joined the venture backed online personalization and content discovery outfit Strands Labs in 2006 in the capacity of VP Product Marketing. Prior to that Atakan served 5 years with Apple Computer, where he assumed a leadership role in business intelligence and digital media marketing threads for iTunes Store. His ability to recognize emerging consumer trends in this fast growing segment of the media market led to the first fully personalized application of music recommendations on the iTunes platform serving millions of users. Prior to iTunes, Atakan spent 3 years developing the global enterprise marketing infrastructure and processes for Apple’s US$1 billion+ online direct sales channel.
Atakan holds a B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bogazici University in İstanbul and an M.B.A. from The University of Georgia.

A. Burak Güner - Senior Research Officer, Barclays Global Investors

Burak researches, develops and implements active quantitative investment models. He currently covers BGI's Canada and Japan active equity strategies, which include both long-only and long-short funds. Burak joined BGI in 2005 after receiving his PhD in finance from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His academic work appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies, and presented at the American Economic Association, Western Finance Association, and the National Bureau of Economic Research. His article “Financial Expertise of Directors” was selected one of the 50 best articles published in 2008 in management science and won Emerald Management Reviews Citation of Excellence. Burak also holds BS degrees in economics and electrical engineering/computer science from MIT.

Mazen A. Skaf - Managing Director, Strategic Decisions Group

Mazen Skaf is a partner and managing director with Strategic Decisions Group, an international strategy consulting firm that advises senior management teams of the world’s leading corporations and decision-makers in governments. Dr. Skaf specializes in strategy, financial risk management, negotiation analysis, and deal structuring. He has advised clients in a variety of industries including consumer goods, financial services, telecommunications, energy, and pharmaceuticals. In the public sector, he has advised government authorities in the EMEA region on economic development, sustainable development, renewable energy, knowledge-based industries and infrastructure, and public-private partnerships. Dr. Skaf’s twelve year tenure at SDG has enabled him to work closely with clients on strategy development and implementation and to support his clients through major industry transitions. In 1999, Dr. Skaf and his client Donald W. Spillman from Shell Offshore, Inc. received the first INFORMS Decision Analysis Society Practice award for their work in portfolio management. Before joining SDG, he was a member of the start-up team and a senior director of product marketing at Rapt Technologies, a leader in web media price optimization (acquired by Microsoft). Prior to that, he worked at General Motors in the Decision Support Center where he led the development of the product portfolio strategy for GM’s largest division. During a sabbatical leave from SDG, he was the Chief Business Officer of TRACON Pharmaceuticals where he directed business development activities and overall corporate strategy. He holds a B.S. summa cum laude in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas and an M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University. His doctoral dissertation was on the use of financial engineering and real options in the design of negotiated agreements. In 1998, he was elected Fellow of the Stanford Center on Conflict Resolution and Negotiation.

Why Attend?