Meet Our Speakers
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
Day 2 9:00 am
The Cross-Functional AI Symphony: Redefining Value and Leadership Across the C-Suite
As AI evolves from an operational tool into a core strategic partner, this panel brings together the perspectives of the CFO, CMO, CHRO, and CTO to examine the tangible impact of technological transformation on financial sustainability, customer experience, and talent management. These diverse leaders discuss how they overcome cultural and technical barriers through cross-functional collaboration, sharing real-world insights on how AI-driven business models are boosting corporate agility and ROI. The session concludes by outlining a unified strategic roadmap and the essential leadership competencies required to build an organization that truly embodies the “AI Everywhere” mindset.
Day 1 9:05 am
Preparing for the Agent Economy: Acceleration, Orchestration and Resiliency
We have moved past the “Great Implementation.” As we enter 2026, the global enterprise has reached a critical inflection point where the sheer volume of data, the complexity of multi-cloud ecosystems, and the velocity of agentic AI have outpaced traditional human management. The mandate for the CIO has fundamentally shifted: it is no longer about managing technology, but about architecting autonomy.
Hilmi Koçak
Event Sessions
Day 1 9:25 am
The Evolving Role of the CIO: From IT Leader to Business Strategist
The traditional image of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) as a “gatekeeper of the server room” is officially a relic of the past. In today’s hyper-digital economy, the CIO has moved from the back office to the boardroom, evolving from a functional manager of infrastructure into a pivotal business strategist and growth driver. This panel explores the profound shift in the CIO’s mandate. We will discuss how the modern technology leader balances the “keep the lights on” operational requirements with the high-stakes demand for digital transformation, data-driven innovation, and customer experience.
Barış Fındık
Event Sessions
Day 1 9:25 am
The Evolving Role of the CIO: From IT Leader to Business Strategist
The traditional image of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) as a “gatekeeper of the server room” is officially a relic of the past. In today’s hyper-digital economy, the CIO has moved from the back office to the boardroom, evolving from a functional manager of infrastructure into a pivotal business strategist and growth driver. This panel explores the profound shift in the CIO’s mandate. We will discuss how the modern technology leader balances the “keep the lights on” operational requirements with the high-stakes demand for digital transformation, data-driven innovation, and customer experience.
Murat Özkan
Event Sessions
Day 1 9:25 am
The Evolving Role of the CIO: From IT Leader to Business Strategist
The traditional image of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) as a “gatekeeper of the server room” is officially a relic of the past. In today’s hyper-digital economy, the CIO has moved from the back office to the boardroom, evolving from a functional manager of infrastructure into a pivotal business strategist and growth driver. This panel explores the profound shift in the CIO’s mandate. We will discuss how the modern technology leader balances the “keep the lights on” operational requirements with the high-stakes demand for digital transformation, data-driven innovation, and customer experience.
Çiğdem İltemir Carino
Event Sessions
Day 1 9:25 am
The Evolving Role of the CIO: From IT Leader to Business Strategist
The traditional image of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) as a “gatekeeper of the server room” is officially a relic of the past. In today’s hyper-digital economy, the CIO has moved from the back office to the boardroom, evolving from a functional manager of infrastructure into a pivotal business strategist and growth driver. This panel explores the profound shift in the CIO’s mandate. We will discuss how the modern technology leader balances the “keep the lights on” operational requirements with the high-stakes demand for digital transformation, data-driven innovation, and customer experience.
Özden Doğan Saraç
Event Sessions
Day 1 9:55 am
AI-ready Data: Democratizing Access to Data to Lay the Foundation for Artificial Intelligence
Işıl Kılınç
After graduating from the Economics Department at Hacettepe University, Işıl Kılınç Gürtuna began her career at the Turkish Economy Bank (a BNP Paribas Group company) and Deutsche Bank. She later led sales and business development activities in financial services technologies across Oracle’s Central and Eastern Europe (EE&CIS) region.
Joining IBM Türkiye in 2020, Gürtuna has held leadership roles responsible for digital and commercial clients, ecosystem management, and cloud sales strategy. In 2022, as Head of Technology Sales, she focused on artificial intelligence, data, sustainability and hybrid cloud solutions.
As of July 1, 2023, she serves as the General Manager of IBM Türkiye, aiming to drive innovation and impact in the technology sector through a transformational and positive leadership approach.
Event Sessions
Day 1 10:15 am
The Enterprise in 2030
AI isn’t just enhancing the business model. By 2030, it will be the business model. Leaders are recognizing that the future of business is a hybrid of people and software. Every process that can be automated will be. Every role will be enhanced by intelligent systems that learn and adapt
Gurkan Arpacı
Event Sessions
Day 1 10:30 am
Powering the Hyperscaler Shift: Managing Integrated Value Chains from 5G to Cloud
Ceyda Yalçın
Event Sessions
Day 1 10:45 am
Unlocking the Potential of AI: CIO and CEO as Strategic Partners
Gökhan Erdoğdu
Gokhan Erdogdu received his BS and MS degrees from Middle East Technical University Mechanical Engineering. At the same time, he completed his minor studies in the Department of Business Administration / Corporate Finance of the same university. He started his professional career at Aselsan as an RD Engineer. Gokhan is an experienced professional in the business application market, with over 15 years of industry expertise. He has successfully founded and grown three companies, taking them from inception to a substantial workforce. He speaks English and German.
Event Sessions
Day 1 11:20 am
AI Promise to Business Reality
Artificial intelligence has moved beyond experimentation into everyday business use. Yet despite widespread adoption, measurable impact remains inconsistent. The core reason is not the lack of AI capabilities, but the lack of consolidated, reliable data. This session focuses on how fragmented data environments limit AI effectiveness and why data consolidation is the true foundation of Business AI. It explores the shift from isolated tools to unified data models where AI can understand context, operate across workflows, and deliver real outcomes. Organizations will learn how to turn AI from a disconnected assistant into an execution layer powered by a single, trusted source of truth.
Erbuğ Sağlam
Erbug Saglam is a senior cloud solution architect with over 12 years of experience delivering large-scale migration, modernization and AI transformation programmes across regulated enterprise environments. Skilled in multi-cloud platforms such as Huawei Cloud, AWS and Azure, he leads end‑to‑end solution lifecycles from assessment to production and has designed secure, multi‑AZ architectures and air‑gapped custody environments. His career includes driving multi-cloud and hybrid‑cloud projects at SabancıDx and digital transformation initiatives at Bosch and IBM. Saglam holds a BSc in Management Information Systems from Marmara University and multiple cloud certifications.
Event Sessions
Day 1 11:35 am
AI-Ready Infrastructure: Powering the Next Era of Digital Transformation
Yusuf Tok
Yusuf Tok is Chief Technology Officer at OBSS, where he leads the company’s technology vision, architecture direction, and engineering standards across a large-scale delivery organization. With more than 25 years of experience in enterprise software engineering, he has built deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud transformation, application modernization, and AI-native software delivery. At OBSS, he has played a central role in scaling the engineering organization from 30 to more than 800 professionals, while helping shape the company’s evolution into an engineering-led technology consultancy. His work spans mission-critical platforms, large-scale modernization programs, and AI-driven transformation, particularly in banking and other complex regulated environments.
Event Sessions
Day 1 11:50 am
Anatomy of the AI-Native Operating Company — What Replaces Two Thousand Years of Hierarchy
Since the Roman army organized soldiers into eight-man tents -contubernium-, every reorganization has worked around the same fact: a human can manage perhaps eight others. Hierarchy was not strategy; it was the workaround we built because we had no alternative. Intelligence is now abundant, and ironically even modern defense is moving past command-and-control. A new shape is taking form — the AI-Native Operating Company. This talk maps its anatomy: a Harness, four stages of work, and the loop that compounds every cycle into a smarter organization — and the changed role of the people inside it.
Taylan Tandoğan
Event Sessions
Day 1 12:05 pm
From Artificial Intelligence to Autonomous Activation
Pelin Alp
Mert Sarıkaya
Erdem Seherler
Suraj Rana
Yağız Furtun
Kadir Mustafa Öztürk
Uğur Serkan Taşkın
Engin Kavas
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.
Tarkan Ateşoğlu
Murat Erez
Reha Gerçeker
Mehmet Ali Erdin
Serkan Demir
Kerim Turnacı
Orkun Süer
Emre Deniz
Taylan Özkök
Uğur Dede
Uğur Dede is a technology professional with 20+ years of experience, specializing in cloud-native data infrastructure and AI-driven architectures. At MinIO, he enables organizations to modernize their data platforms by building S3-compatible, high-performance, and scalable infrastructures.
Throughout his career, he has worked with multiple global technology vendors, developing deep expertise in distributed systems, Kubernetes, and data-intensive workloads. He is recognized for turning complex data challenges into simple, fast, and business-impacting solutions.
He believes that in the AI era, true differentiation comes not from technology alone, but from well-architected data infrastructure.
Özlem Kalkan
Özlem Kalkan has over 21 years of experience in digital transformation and business model innovation within the technology and telecommunications sectors. Throughout her career, she has held various leadership roles at prominent organizations such as SabancıDx, Türk Telekom, and Avea, where she specialized in technology partnerships, customer-centric solutions, and team leadership. She holds a degree in Microelectronics Engineering and Telecommunications and completed the mini-MBA program at INSEAD. A strong advocate for female leadership in tech, her efforts have been recognized with global awards from Microsoft and IDC. In addition to her executive career, she has served as a Board Member for Teknosa and Lumnion and remains active in non-profit organizations such as Women on Board Turkey and the Woman in Technology Association (Wtech). Currently, at Oredata, she manages projects focused on expanding the Google Cloud market in Turkey, leveraging the transformative power of cloud technologies and AI to deliver sector-specific solutions that meet client needs and create tangible value.
Burak Duman
Gökçe Öztürk
Işıl Başak Keçeci
Baycan Kaçan
Serkan Sevim
Serkan Sevim is a serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Medianova, a CDN and cloud company operating across 50+ global locations, delivering 30 billion hits/day to 150 million end users. Recognized by Gartner, Frost & Sullivan, and Deloitte Fast50 five consecutive years, Medianova serves 600+ enterprise customers with CDN, WAF, DDoS, and edge services. Previously, Sevim co-founded Mezun.com — named Fastest Growing Private Company in Baltimore — and built an online flower business to 150,000+ customers before a successful exit. An EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in Maryland, he holds a physics degree from Boğaziçi University and an MIS master’s from the University of Baltimore.
Canan Kuralay
Emre Özbey
Engin Mutlu
Seçkin Özel
Seçkin Özel is a Senior Solution Engineer at Strategy with 15+ years of experience in business intelligence, data analytics, and cloud technologies. He works with enterprise customers across Türkiye, the Middle East, and South Africa, helping them drive digital transformation through modern data platforms and AI-driven solutions.
Şirin Aktaş
Emel Tural
Ömer Kara
Altuğ Soydan
Çiğdem Kılıç
Kürşat Alp Yiğit
Vefa Erdem
Köksal Küçükada
Serkan Çil
Serdar Günizi
Özgür Korkmaz
Fırat Akın
Hasan Ali Kendir
Yasin Çarkcı
Ahmet Hilmi Ersoy
Gülay Avcuoğlu
Operations and Business Development Deputy General Manager
ESARJ Elektrikli Araçlar Şarj Sistemi
Read bio
Gülay Avcuoğlu
Event Sessions
Day 2 9:00 am
The Cross-Functional AI Symphony: Redefining Value and Leadership Across the C-Suite
As AI evolves from an operational tool into a core strategic partner, this panel brings together the perspectives of the CFO, CMO, CHRO, and CTO to examine the tangible impact of technological transformation on financial sustainability, customer experience, and talent management. These diverse leaders discuss how they overcome cultural and technical barriers through cross-functional collaboration, sharing real-world insights on how AI-driven business models are boosting corporate agility and ROI. The session concludes by outlining a unified strategic roadmap and the essential leadership competencies required to build an organization that truly embodies the “AI Everywhere” mindset.
Barış Nefesoğlu
Event Sessions
Day 2 9:00 am
The Cross-Functional AI Symphony: Redefining Value and Leadership Across the C-Suite
As AI evolves from an operational tool into a core strategic partner, this panel brings together the perspectives of the CFO, CMO, CHRO, and CTO to examine the tangible impact of technological transformation on financial sustainability, customer experience, and talent management. These diverse leaders discuss how they overcome cultural and technical barriers through cross-functional collaboration, sharing real-world insights on how AI-driven business models are boosting corporate agility and ROI. The session concludes by outlining a unified strategic roadmap and the essential leadership competencies required to build an organization that truly embodies the “AI Everywhere” mindset.
Ali Öztayıncı
Event Sessions
Day 2 9:00 am
The Cross-Functional AI Symphony: Redefining Value and Leadership Across the C-Suite
As AI evolves from an operational tool into a core strategic partner, this panel brings together the perspectives of the CFO, CMO, CHRO, and CTO to examine the tangible impact of technological transformation on financial sustainability, customer experience, and talent management. These diverse leaders discuss how they overcome cultural and technical barriers through cross-functional collaboration, sharing real-world insights on how AI-driven business models are boosting corporate agility and ROI. The session concludes by outlining a unified strategic roadmap and the essential leadership competencies required to build an organization that truly embodies the “AI Everywhere” mindset.
Emrah Yıldız
Ozan Akçora
Burak Demirtaş
Burak Demirtaş is a visionary leader specializing in e-mobility and financial technologies, with a profound focus on digital transformation and organizational agility. An alumnus of Middle East Technical University in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Demirtaş seamlessly integrates his technical foundation with Design Thinking methodologies acquired from the Hasso Plattner Institute to drive human-centric innovation.
Throughout his career, he has shaped IoT policies at the World Economic Forum and held executive directorships at Token Financial Technologies. Currently serving as the Business Unit Lead at WAT Mobilite, Demirtaş leverages an Agile Coaching approach to harmonize complex technologies with high-performance principles, guiding teams through successful, impact-oriented transformation journeys.
Event Sessions
Day 2 9:45 am
Charging Infrastructure as a Living Product
EV charging is a growing frontier of the new reality of mobility. It is a living ecosystem where hardware, regulations, energy dynamics, and user expectations move in parallel, and rarely in sync. WAT Mobilite’s platform had to stop behaving like a delivered project and start behaving like a product that evolves with the ecosystem it serves. In this talk, WAT’s technology leader walks through the architectural decisions, operating model shifts, and hard trade-offs behind that transition, and explains why data and AI are the next layer to tackle in the mobility value chain.
İsmail Arslan
Ismail Arslan is a technology strategist and executive with over two decades of experience in cloud, data, and digital product transformation. Recognised among the early public cloud pioneers in Turkey, he has led large-scale initiatives across finance, retail, and media, and advised global technology leaders on cloud adoption. As VP of Strategy at Runibex, he focuses on building scalable digital platforms and guiding organisations through modernisation. His work connects platform decisions to commercial outcomes. He divides his time between the Istanbul HQ and Runibex’s growing UK presence.
Event Sessions
Day 2 9:45 am
Charging Infrastructure as a Living Product
EV charging is a growing frontier of the new reality of mobility. It is a living ecosystem where hardware, regulations, energy dynamics, and user expectations move in parallel, and rarely in sync. WAT Mobilite’s platform had to stop behaving like a delivered project and start behaving like a product that evolves with the ecosystem it serves. In this talk, WAT’s technology leader walks through the architectural decisions, operating model shifts, and hard trade-offs behind that transition, and explains why data and AI are the next layer to tackle in the mobility value chain.
Coşkun Güler
Event Sessions
Day 2 10:00 am
Beyond Digital Transformation: Building Compliant, Intelligent and Sustainable Enterprises
Faruk Ertin
Event Sessions
Day 2 10:15 am
Strategizing the Right Tech-Ready Infrastructure for any Future
Cem Gülbayır
Cem brings 10+ years of experience in the enterprise software space, spanning from application development platforms to agentic orchestration ones. At Camunda he focuses on the Turkish market with the goal of growing the local ecosystem by connecting customers, partners, and the broader community.
Event Sessions
Day 2 10:30 am
Agentic Orchestration with Guardrails: Operationalize AI and build a truly Composable Orchestration & Automation Platform
Mert Kapancıoğlu
Tuna Özen
Özgür Kaynar
Ali Yıldırım
Ali Yildirim is a Technical Solutions Consultant at Halo Service Solutions, based at the company’s headquarters in the UK. He studied Computer Science at University of York and has been working at Halo since graduating. In his role, he works on technical implementations, supports global customers and partners, and contributes to growth in the Turkish market. He is involved across both the technical and commercial sides of the business and also works with the AI and product teams across implementations and enterprise solutions.
Fulya Doğanay
Fulya Doğanay serves as the Chief Sales, Marketing & Operations Officer at Seneka Yazılım, where she leads the growth, sales, and go-to-market strategies for e-Signature and Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) platforms. She contributes to organizations’ digital transformation journeys by building strategic relationships with decision-makers across both public and private sectors.
Throughout her career, she has taken on key roles in well-established pharmaceutical companies such as Drogsan Pharmaceuticals, where she managed various programs including Turquality. She also played an active role in procurement processes within digital transformation initiatives and coordinated international export and sales operations. At Novagentek, she was responsible for managing tender and business development processes.
Her multifaceted experience in sales, marketing, operations, business development, and digital transformation enables her to approach the strategic importance of e-signature and electronic document management solutions in corporate processes from a holistic perspective. With international work and educational experience in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, she brings a strong multicultural outlook.
Burak İnce
Serdar Susuz
Ahmed ElHamouly
Ahmed ElHamouly is the Head of the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) at Boomi, where he leads the company’s regional growth strategy and works closely with enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives.
Ahmed played a key role in establishing Boomi’s presence across the META region and expanding its footprint across multiple industries including telecommunications, logistics, retail, government, manufacturing, and financial services.
With more than two decades of experience in enterprise technology, Ahmed brings deep expertise in integration, data management, API-led architectures, and modern cloud platforms. He regularly works with CIOs and technology leaders to help organizations unlock the value of their data, modernize complex IT environments, and drive innovation through connected digital ecosystems.
Prior to joining Boomi, Ahmed held leadership roles at global technology organizations including Dell EMC, SAP, and Oracle
Nur Şeker
Kürşad Bayıralan
Emre Yalçın
Fatih Kökçe