Alihan Duran
Founder & Chairman
Alihan is an expert in telecommunications. He has established and managed his own company and taken part in national and international projects in both government and private sectors. He also has a philantrophic record, chairing and conduction voluntary work with NGO’s.
Alihan has moved to the UK with his family to use his business background to establish both a new business and an NGO called the ‘British and Turkish Business Association’ and takes an active part in it’s management.
The Founder’s aim is to be the ambassador between Britain and Turkey and develop a collaborative professional network. The British and Turkish Business Association will create new opportunities to build these relationships.
Gökhan Şahin
Board Member
Gokhan is a digital marketing executive. He is involved in wide range of projects; including public and private sectors, and NGOs. He specialises in Digital Media Marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and Web Design.
He opened Hp Advertising and Web Solutions Company in 2006. This company has worked in Digital Media Marketing, Web Design, Mobile Application and Software. He was ‘Turkey – Greece Natural Gas Transmission’ project contractor, responsible for a company presentation, website design and outdoor advertising businesses. In 2011, He was responsible for the Kocaeli University Food and Agriculture Vocational School website design. In 2015, he was responsible for developing projects with ‘Differences Defense Inc.’ with Turkey’s Defence Ministry. He took part in product promotion and product promotion videos in unmanned aerial vehicle production project development unit. He was involved in the municipal police information project For the Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara.
Gokhan has voluntarily supported many NGOs such as Turkey Food Federation and ran PPC campaigns pro bono for non-governmental organisations. Gokhan graduated from Kocaeli University Food Technology department in 2011. Gokhan holds a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from İstanbul Bilim University. He speaks Turkish and English.
Ömer Hakkı Demir
Board Member
Omer Demir is a chartered accountant and immigration adviser who has acquired his qualifications in the UK. Since 2011 he has helped countless clients operating across a range of industries in the SME sector, providing accountancy, tax planning and business strategy advice. Specifically, Omer has a great deal of experience in the property, logistics, food and hospitality sectors. Recently he has obtained his immigration advisory practising certificate to broaden his services.
Following his master’s degree in Financial Engineering, Omer started his accountancy career at the world’s number one professional services firm, PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP) in 2011 as a part of the assurance (audit) team. During his career at PwC he worked on mainly logistics, transportation, restaurant chains and hospitality sector.
After leaving PwC in early 2015, Omer joined a listed company Millennium & Copthorne Hotels as a Regional Internal Auditor. Later, in 2016 he joined Mapeley Estates Limited as a management accountant. Mapeley is one of the largest commercial property owners in the UK with over 1 million square feet of usable commercial space on over 800 properties. He has been providing financial advisory to the commercial teams in the property industry ever since.
During his corporate career, Omer has always provided advices to individuals and SME’s in accountancy matters via his own chartered accountancy firm, FD Chartered Accountants. Omer’s corporate clients’ portfolio over the past a few years includes DHL, Wagamama, Volkswagen, Mont Blanc, Allen Ford and Photier.
Ali Gizer
Board Member
Ali Gizer is currently serving as research and sustainability consultant with GTAlign London and AG Platform Istanbul. He is an expert on sustainability, SDG alignment and reporting such activities.
He graduated from Journalism and PR Department of School of Press, and did his MA in Program of Radio and TV in the Institute of Social Sciences and continues his PhD on “Sustainable Cities” at Istanbul University. In his 29 years of professional life with his researcher identity, he had been a manager and consultant for TRT, PRNet, MetCap and Agromet companies; instructer for Koç Idea; lecturer at Istanbul, Yeditepe and Bahçeşehir universities; served as research supervisor at URYAD. He is a member of TUAD (Turkish Researchers Association), ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Market Research), KALDER (Turkiye Quality Association).