CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium
Overview
The CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium honors the technology leaders who are shaping the future of Türkiye’s digital landscape. As enterprises across the country accelerate investment in AI, automation, data & cloud modernization, cybersecurity resilience, and industry-specific digital innovation, the role of the CIO has become pivotal. IDC’s research consistently shows that organizations in Türkiye are moving from experimentation to scaled digital execution, positioning technology leadership as a primary driver of business growth and sustained innovation.
The CIO Excellence Awards recognize “The Power 50” – visionary leaders who leverage technology to shape the next era of organizational growth and success. These CIOs drive impact across the entire ecosystem, inspiring collaboration and delivering value to customers, employees, partners, stakeholders, and the broader economy.
Join a community of visionary tech leaders and your peers to uncover the future of digital innovation in Türkiye. This exclusive event features industry’s best speakers, top IDC analysts along with the region’s finest technology influences for a day of insightful discussions and engagement. It is not only a celebration of excellence but a forum that underscores the expanding strategic impact of the CIO role in shaping Türkiye’s evolving digital economy.
Introducing CIO Excellence Awards
Through the IDC CIO Excellence Awards 2026, IDC intends to honor those organizations and IT leaders that have conceptualized and successfully delivered digital transformation initiatives that brought about tangible results.
The Power 50: Recognizing Excellence in IT Leadership
IDC Keynote
The Evolving Role of the CIO: From IT Leader to Business Strategist
As organizations navigate rapid digital transformation, the role of the CIO is undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to overseeing IT operations, today’s CIO is a strategic business leader driving innovation, growth, and competitive advantage.
This session will explore how CIOs are expanding their influence beyond technology, aligning digital initiatives with core business objectives, and leveraging emerging technologies such as AI, cloud, and data analytics to deliver measurable value. Attendees will gain insights into how modern CIOs collaborate across the C-suite, shape customer experiences, and lead organizational change.
Eren Eser | IDC
Associate Research Director, Türkiye
Eren Eser
Eren is a seasoned analyst with 20+ years of experience in the ICT sector. He directs all IDC ICT research and consulting engagements in Türkiye, and all sustainability research and consulting projects across the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa (META).
Based in Istanbul, Eren has been involved in projects ranging from market forecasts to strategic consulting engagements on market entry, competitive analysis, go-to-market strategies, technology marketing, and end-user studies. Eren’s vast experience in the IT services, cloud, software, and telecommunications domains helps IDC clients understand the impact of technology-enabled, sustainable transformation processes in the context of sustainable digital business strategies, operations, products, and services. In addition to his research and consulting activities, Eren is a speaker at industry events.
Prior to joining IDC in 2017, Eren spent more than a decade in IT industry roles spanning portfolio management, channel and business development, pricing, and software development at companies including Turk Telekom and TAI.
Eren earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering and an MBA focused on technology road mapping for strategy and innovation, both from Middle East Technical University. He received a master of science in information systems, with a thesis on modeling mobile telecommunications services, from Middle East Technical University. During his academic endeavors, he studied for one semester at the University of Copenhagen, and for one semester at Harvard University. He is pursuing a marketing PhD focused on sustainability.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 9:05 am
The Evolving Role of the CIO: From IT Leader to Business Strategist
As organizations navigate rapid digital transformation, the role of the CIO is undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to overseeing IT operations, today’s CIO is a strategic business leader driving innovation, growth, and competitive advantage.
This session will explore how CIOs are expanding their influence beyond technology, aligning digital initiatives with core business objectives, and leveraging emerging technologies such as AI, cloud, and data analytics to deliver measurable value. Attendees will gain insights into how modern CIOs collaborate across the C-suite, shape customer experiences, and lead organizational change.
Yaman Acar
Fatih Akar
Gülsün Akhisaroğlu
Darço Akkaranfil
Enis Ozan Akkaya
Harun Yaşar Aksöz
Şirin Aktaş
A. Fahri Arkan
Vedat Arslan
Meltem Atay
Emrah Gökçe Aygün
Evren Ayorak
İsmihan Baysal Anderson
Tunç Bergsan
Güngör Bingül
Gungor Bingul studied Mathematical Engineering at Yıldız Teknik University and MBA at Yeditepe University. In 1997 he started his career as System Network Pecialist at BIM A.S., between 1998 and 2000 worked at Uzel Makina as SAP System Manager. Since 2004 Mr. Birgul is working at Korozo A.Ş. as CIO.
Serdar Birlikçi
Mehmet Bütün
He received his bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Boğaziçi University. He worked as Business Analyst & Project Manager in Turkcell and Türk Telekom (Avea). In 2010, he worked as a Business Development Manager and Miles & Smiles Loyalty Program & CRM Department Manager roles at Turkish Airlines. In 2012, he joined Teradata as Senior Industry Lead and managed Telecommunications and Media sector in Turkey as well as within EMEA region. In particular, he served in the area of large data and analytics solutions for more than 3 years, and was appointed as the Vice President of Digital Services at Turkish Airlines in 2016 January. He managed digital channels & services of Turkish Airlines and Anadolujet brands and the airport passenger systems. On November 1, 2018, he joined Vakıf Katılım Bankası as Chief Information Officer, responsible for information technology and digital banking.
Dr. Aslıhan Çandır
Yasin Çarkcı
Şevket Süreyya Çelikkanat
Serkan Demir
Metin Demirel
Serdar Dilmen
Dursun Dinçer
Mehmet Ufuk Dokuzluoğlu
Vefa Erdem
Metin Erhan
Gül Erol
Barış Fındık
Ersen Gelçin
Bilal Genç
İbrahim Gökalp
Gökhan Gökçay
Gökhan Gökçay is Senior Vice President responsible for Digital, Payments and Data Technology in Akbank. He considers ‘information’ as a shared corporate asset and aims to produce solutions generating value and actionable insight. Prior to Akbank, Gökhan was SVP responsible for Information, Customer and Workflow Management solutions in Yapi Kredi, and the head of Financial Services industry in NTT Data Turkey where he delivered transformation programs for leading banks and telcos. He also worked for other technology consulting companies such as CSC and Siemens Nixdorf, and served large corporates such as Lloyds Bank, Barclays Capital and Legal & General. Gökhan has Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Boğazici University.
Sabri Gökmenler
Sinem Gözaydın
Ali İnal
Tayfun İşbilen
Aykut Işık
Kemal Kaplan
Born in 1967 in İstanbul, Kemal Kaplan graduated from Akdeniz University Electronic Engineering department. He worked in Sony, Netaş, Pimaş and Yapı Kredi Bank as a specialists and in Esbank, Etibank, ZB and HSBC Bank as an administrative. He has participated in various projects about reconstruction, integration of financial organizations, call-centers, credit-cards, ATM and banking applications/technologies and health application/technologies. Besides his studies on mobile technologies, wearable technologies and Research and Development projects, during various seminars he has been sharing his experiences on health technologies with the industry. He works as a technological consultant in some public organizations on behalf of Acıbadem Sağlık Grubu. He’s a member of the Board of Management of Life Sciences and Information Technologies in Health Organization. He currently works as an Information Technologies Director in charge of technological management in Acıbadem Sağlık Grubu hospitals, university and all subsidiaries.
Önder Kaplancık
Yaşar Karadeli
Hayriye Karadeniz
Timur Karaman
Engin Kavas
Hilmi Koçak
Kaan Konak
Özgür Korkmaz
Köksal Küçükada
Koray Kurt
Korhan Kuyu
Berke Menekli
Funda Öney
Ege Örer
Mert Oruz
Şerafettin Özer
Sinan Erdem Özer
Sinan Özkan
Haldun Selik
Fahri Şengül
Altuğ Soydan
Orkun Soylu
Orkun Süer
Uğur Serkan Taşkın
Hakan Cem Topal
Ethem Topgül
Emel Tural
Kurtuluş Yavuz
Oğuzhan Yıldırım
Cihan Yıldız
Serdar Yılmaz