2008 Board
Executive Board of Directors
One year term, starts April 2008, ends March 209
Didem Şeyhoğlu
President
Didem Şeyhoğlu was born in İstanbul. She completed high school education in Üsküdar American Academy and then graduated from İstanbul Technical University in 1997, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She recently received her MBA degree from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Didem came to the US first in January 1999 as part of a foreign assignment from Ford Otosan in İstanbul. Her assignment duration was one year; however she accepted a job offer at Ford Motor Company at the end of the assigned time and has been living in Michigan since then. She’s currently still employed at Ford Motor Company as a Lead Product Design Engineer, responsible for design and release of safety / restraints systems in truck programs.
Didem has participated in the executive board of many non-profit organizations in the past, recently in TACAM. She has been an active member of TACAM since 2004 — she served as the Treasurer for 2006 – 2007 term and as the President for 2007 – 2008 term. She recently got elected again as the President for 2008 – 2009 term. As being very proud of her Turkish heritage, she takes it very seriously to volunteer in TACAM activities to promote Turkish culture and traditions. She believes that it’s extremely important to ensure that the Turkish community remains intact through its own customs. She sees it as a responsibility for Turkish-American individuals to introduce our culture to others and advance the image of our country among other nations. She also has worked very hard during her presidency to ensure proper representation of Turkey in public affairs arena, keeping close ties with Turkish and American media to promote Turkey. As committed to the Turkish community here, Didem will work hard during her presidency to ensure TACAM meets its historical, cultural and financial goals in the best possible way.
Serkan Özdemir
Vice-President
Serkan Özdemir was born in Witten, Germany in 1977. He graduated from İstanbul Technical University (İTU) in 2000, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Serkan was involved in several student organizations during his university education. He was a member of the Engineering Orientation Club in which he organized numerous activities such as field trips, career days, concerts and student festivals. He played a major role in establishing the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) student chapter and TEMA (The Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats) ITU-Section.
Following his graduation, he started to work as a Project Engineer at TRW Automotive in Germany, where he specialized in NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness). After 4 years service, in 2005, he was transferred to TRW Headquarters in Livonia, Michigan. His current position is Lead Product Engineer, responsible for NVH research and development of vehicle brake systems. He is fluent in Turkish, German and English.
Serkan has been an active member of TACAM (Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan) since 2006. He was elected to the Board of Directors for the 2006-2007 term and served as the Vice President for 2007 – 2008 term. He recently was elected again for Vice-President position for 2008 – 2009 term.
Ferid Ahmed
Treasurer
Ferid Ahmed is recently retired from the convenience store business after nearly twenty five years. He is currently employed part-time as a substitute teacher in the Anchor Bay (New Baltimore) school district.
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan he graduated from Cass Technical H.S. in 1964 and later from Eastern Michigan University.
He is a veteran of U.S. Army having served two years from 1967 to 1969. He is married to Leylâ Ural and has two sons Murat and Erol.
Leylâ Ahmed
(Replaced Tûba Süzer-Gürtekin)
Secretary
Leylâ Ahmed has been living in Michigan for 25 years. For over 20 years, she worked for TACAM in various positions as a volunteer, board of director, treasurer, secretary and the president of TACAM for the 2005-2006 term.
She has a civil engineering degree from Turkey and a land surveying degree from Michigan Technological University. She has been a licensed surveyor since 200: currently she works at a civil engineering firm as a project manager and senior surveyor.
She is married to Ferid Ahmed and has two sons, Murat and Erol Ahmed.
She says working with TACAM as a volunteer gives her the opportunity to spend time with her Turkish friends and to help preserve the ties we have to our culture and country.
Board of Directors 2008 – 2009
One year term, starts April 2008, ends March 2009
Feridun Bek
Feridun Bek (35) is a Turkish-German, who was born in Munich. He relocated to U.S. in October 2007 with his family due to his job transfer.
He studied Business Administration of Management in different universities in Germany, U.K. and Turkey. He has a master degree for Management from the Henley Management College (Henley/U.K.) and is currently at the end of his Executive MBA program. Furthermore, he has a post-degree in commercial IT technology.
Feridun worked for the Business Management & Strategy division of the Volkswagen Group Global Headquarters in Wolfsburg/Germany. Here he wrote the first “Sales Organization Handbook” (341 pages) which was distributed to approx. 100 Volkswagen markets. Furthermore, he developed a Business Management Analysis concept which in year 2000 had a market value of approx. 1 million German mark.
Since 2001, he has been working for an American Management Consulting Company/Group (Focus: Business Management & Strategy) and had different roles, such as Consultant, Trainer, Account Manager, Senior Account Manager, Senior Manager - Business Development etc. In Europe he was responsible for 25 markets. Currently, he is responsible for global Business Development & Strategy projects.
Also, Feridun has dedicated background with Turkish-German & Turkish-European Associations. In the last six years until he came to U.S., he was in the Executive Board of the German Atatürk Association (Atatürk’cü Düşünce Derneği) and actively worked for the European Headquarter as well (www.ataturk.de). He was the head of youth activities and also worked to organize different conferences where high profile people were invited, such as Yıldız Kenter, Talal Halman, Mumtaz Soysal, İstemihan Talay, Yasar Nuri Öztürk, Erdal İnönü, Şukru Sina Gürel, Alpaslan Işıklı, Vural Savas, Onur Oymen, Emre Kongar etc (see www.he-add.org for the entire list). Feridun acted as the moderator at these events as well and presented the Turkish Community in diverse TV programs, radios and newspapers. Furthermore, he was the Public Relations manager of Turkish Theater Group, “Umran Ertok Frankfurt Oyuncuları” for three years. In addition, he was one of the founders and a board member of the Turkish-German Student Organization ITEA (www.itaeonline.de) in the Frankfurt University.
Feridun has a special interest in Anatolian history, archeology and art. Therefore, in 1997 he paused his study for one year and joined a full-time Cultural Tourist Guide program at Antalya University and traveled with an archeology group three months the main historical places in entire Turkey.
Ramazan Kizak
Güner Sarıoğlu
Long before becoming a Turkish-American, Güner was born in Munich spending his early years in life in Germany. Not knowing he himself would become a “Gurbetçi” one day like his parents Güner started his education in Eskişehir, Türkiye where his family settled after “Kesin dönüş”. Graduating from Anadolu Üniveritesi with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering he started his career as a research assistant at the same university.
Moving to the United States in 1996 Güner graduated from the Ohio State University with a master of science degree in electrical engineering in 1998 from where he moved to beautiful Michigan for a career in the automotive industry. Güner is currently heading the Exterior Electronics Systems department at Magna International developing new camera vision technologies for automotive safety applications.
Married to Beyza for 13 years, Güner is the proud father of daughter Melodi. An active member of the Turkish-American community in the greater Detroit area, Güner most enjoys the outdoors, biking and jogging.
Murat Ulaşır
Born in the pearl of Turkey, İzmir, of course.
Doctors were playing the dumbek, so,the story goes
Winds of change take him to Germany
Then back to Turkey
To İTÜ, you see...
Only to be thrust back out again,
Across the Atlantic ... To Michigan
First comes a Master’s, then a Ph.D.,
This follows a house, a dog, a job and wild adventures, rated PG...
Şimdilik, Gemi dayandı TACAM limanına
Bakalım pusula iğnesi nereyi gösterecek
Bundan sonra...
Beste Windes
Born and raised in İstanbul, Beste earned a degree in Public Relations from the University of İstanbul in 2002. She worked in export marketing for several years dealing with international clients.
In 2003 she met her husband Jason, a Michigan native, while he was working in İstanbul. 3 years later, in 2006, they decided to move to Michigan and attend graduate school. Beste is currently a full-time honor student at EMU in the MBA program with a concentration in International Business.
She is also actively involved in several university associations, helping organize events and conferences, as well as fund raising for social causes. It is Beste’s desire to actively contribute to the cultural, social and economic prospects of Turkish American society.
Board of Trustees
Two year term, end-year alongside name
Ali Kayaalp 2010
Aslı Yashın 2010
Born and raised in Mersin, Turkey, Aslı has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Gazi University in Ankara, Turkey. She moved to London, England in 1988 right after getting married to her high school friend Murat Yashın. While being eager to learn about a western culture, the two years in London actually taught her the great value of understanding and representing Turkey’s rich culture and values. She and Murat moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1990, then to Charlottesvile, Virginia, in 1991. Aslı received an MBA degree from James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 1996. They moved back to Michigan in 1997 when she started her career in banking. She is a Vice President and Relationship Manager in Business Banking. Her job focus is commercial lending. Living in South East Michigan, Aslı finds herself fortunate to work with businessmen and businesswomen from different ethnic backgrounds, whose cultural treasures she truly likes to learn and celebrate along with her Turkish heritage. Aslı served on the TACAM Board as a Vice President in 2002. She appreciated being welcomed by TACAM as a new comer and continuously enjoys being involved in cultural and community activities of TACAM.
Aslı received a Cultural Bridge Ambassador award representing Türkiye, from the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit at “Who’s who in Michigan’s Professional Women Gala”in June 2009.
Aslı and Murat have a son in high school and a daughter in first grade.
İlhan Berberoğlu 2009
Verda Gürol 2009
Mine Özalp 2009
Beyza Sarıoğlu 2009
Audit Committee
Two year term, end-year alongside name
Hâlide Koçak 2010
Yesim Kayaalp 2010
Cihangir Taşdemir 2010
Cihangir Tasdemir was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, and he has lived in the Metro Detroit area ever since. His parents, Server & Nurhan, have always shown Cihangir and his twin sister, Deniz, the importance of their Turkish culture. Cihangir has been an active board member of TACAM since 2000: Treasurer 2000-1, Secretary 2001-2, Director from 2002-5, Secretary 2005-6, Trustee 2006-7 & Director 2007- Present. In addition, Cihangir had been the main webmaster for TACAM.org from 2002 until 2006.
Cihangir has numerous degrees from several colleges: Michigan State University, BA in Economics 1996, BS in Neuroscience Psychology 1998; Wayne State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering 2001; University of Michigan-Dearborn with a MS in Engineering Management and currently studying towards another MS in Mechanical Engineering. Since 1999, Cihangir has worked for the US Army TARDEC as a mechanical engineer in the area of engine research where he has co-authored 6 technical papers.
Cihangir has been married to Dr. Kimberlyn Kucharczyk since 2003 where they live in Livonia with their 3 dogs and 1 cat. In addition, Cihangir and Kimberlyn are happy to announce they are growing their family by adopting a baby from China.
Mehpare Gençyüz 2009
President Emeritus
TACAM president for 2007 – 2008
Didem Şeyhoğlu
Development & Marketing (Non-Board)
Developers of the Anatolian Voice and Web site
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