Leadership

Zafer Üstüner

Zafer Üstüner received his double major bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and Mathematics from Bogaziçi University, Turkey in 1991 and an MBA degree from Koç University, Turkey in 1998. Additionally, he completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Business Program in 2018.

Zafer began his career at Arçelik as International Sales Manager (2001-2007), before his appointment as Country Manager of Beko Germany (2007-2012). There followed appointments as Country Manager of Beko Russia (2012-2015), and Regional Director of Russia and CIS countries in 2016. At the end of 2016, Zafer became Country Manager of Thailand and Regional Director of APAC (overseeing Australia, New Zealand, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines). He is a recognised expert in Turnaround, Business Management, Negotiation, Marketing Management, Business Planning, Consumer Products, and Sales, established over the course of a career spanning 30 years in the home appliances industry.

Kazushi Kobayashi

Kazushi Kobayashi received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan.

He began his career as an Electrical Engineer at Hitachi Ltd. (1985), where he held various positions in the R&D and Marketing Departments over a period of 25 years, before moving to Hitachi Consumer Electronics as General Manager of the Marketing Division (2009-2018). He then joined Hitachi Appliances, now known as Hitachi Global Life Solutions, in the position of General Manager at the Global Home Appliances Division and, consequently, as Executive Managing Director. Additionally, Kazushi has been the company’s Executive Managing Director and Division Executive of the Global Sales Division since 2019.

Burak Kıroğlu

Burak Kıroğlu received his bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Koç University, Turkey, in 2004, followed by a master's degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences in 2005.

Burak started his career in 2006 as a business development specialist at Ram Pacific’s China office. In 2011 he joined Beko China, where he was responsible for business development across the China market. Between 2013 and 2015, Burak headed business development in the ASEAN region and was subsequently made Regional Sales Manager of Central Europe in 2015. Prior to his role at Arçelik-Hitachi Home Appliances, he served as General Manager for Beko Balkans from 2018 onwards, where he was responsible for achieving approximately US$170 million in sales revenue helming the company’s activities in eight countries across the region.

Umut Özsöz

Umut Özsöz received his bachelor's degree from the English Department of Business Administration at İstanbul University, Turkey in 2002 and a master's degree from the Economics & Political Science Department at Bosporus University, Turkey in 2006. In addition, he furthered his education with an MBA from California Coast University in 2016.

Umut began his career in 2004 at Arçelik’s Accounting Department, where he worked in a number of divisions (2004-2011). In 2011, he moved to Grundig Intermedia as a Senior Specialist before being assigned the role of Accounting Manager at Grundig Nordic in 2012. Later positions include Accounting Manager in the Dryer & Electrical Motors Plant (2014-2017) and Cash Manager in the Finance Directorate (2017- 2018). Umut has been Finance and Accounting Director of Beko’s APAC region since July 2018.

Tolga Akın

Tolga Akın graduated with a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and furthered his studies with the Harvard Business School Disruptive Strategy Certificate Program.

Tolga began his career in 1995 by joining the Arçelik Dishwasher R&D Department as a Structural Design Engineer. During his tenure as the manager of Arçelik’s Structural Design Team (2004-2009), he attained 11 patents and the ‘Innovation of the Year’ award. Further appointments include Dishwasher Quality Assurance Manager (2009-2010), global product lead as Dishwasher Product Manager (2011-2014), and Laundry Product Manager (2014-2018).

As Cleaning Product Manager, responsible for global product management of washing machines, washer dryers, tumble dryers and dishwashers for all brands under the Arçelik umbrella, he participated in numerous M&A projects for Arçelik. The Arçelik-Hitachi joint venture was his latest undertaking and he currently serves as the Marketing Director of Arçelik-Hitachi Home Appliances Co. Ltd. responsible for Brand Marketing and Product Management. Tolga is married with two children and loves to sail in his free time as a member of the Arçelik Sailing Team, for which he has won a number of awards.

Gökhan Engin

Gökhan Engin received his bachelor’s degree from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Middle East Technical University, Turkey in 1989, as well as an MBA from Koç University, Turkey (1988). In addition, he holds a further MSc in Business Administration from Koç University (1998).

During the course of his career, Gökhan has experienced a wide-range of engineering and technical positions across a number of professional environments. These include working as: Production Engineer, Industrial Engineering Team Leader, Production Engineering Manager and Production Manager at a cooking appliance plant; Production Engineering Manager at an electronic plant; Production Technologies and Industry 4.0 Manager in the Production Technologies Directorate (1989-2017); Founder and Director of the Arctic Washing Machine Plant in Romania (2017-2021). Furthermore, he has been a member of the Koç Technology and Innovation Committee (2016-present) and leads the committee’s Next Generation Smart Manufacturing Technologies Working Group.

Emre Fırat Çetinbaş

Emre Fırat Çetinbaş gained his bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Marmara University, Turkey in 2001 and furthered his studies at Zarem Ort Institute’s English Business Development Program in Chicago, USA in 2002.

Emre began his career at General Motors Turkey in the Planning & Logistics Department, where he worked for three years, before moving on to the role of Domestic Operations Chief at Reysas Logistics. He subsequently returned to education and, after completing his studies in Chicago, restarted his career at Erdemir Iron & Steel in Business Development and as a Strategy Specialist from 2002 - 2004.

He joined Koç Group in 2004 as a Production & Procurement Specialist at the Beko TV Factory, where he worked for three years, before moving to Arcelik International’s Sales Development Department as a Sales Development Specialist and Area Sales Manager for two years. After an interim from 2011 as Supply Chain Director of Grundig Intermedia (Germany), Emre has been serving since 2015 as the Regional Supply Chain Director of Arcelik (Northern Europe) from his base Germany.

Enis Bengü Kökeş

Enis Bengü Kökeş received his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Yıldız Technical University, Turkey in 1997, followed by a master’s of science degree in business management from Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany.

Enis began his career at Maersk, where he spent three years working in the logistics sector, before transitioning later on in his career to become a purchasing specialist at Arçelik in 2004. Here, he is proud to have completed over seventeen years in the company’s Purchasing Department as: Purchasing Manager-Processed Parts (2011-2014), Purchasing Manager-Components (2015), Purchasing Manager-Raw Material/Metals (2016-2020), and finally Purchasing Group Manager–Processed Parts (2020-present).

Enis has also served as a member of TÜRKBESD (the White-Goods Manufacturer’s Association of Turkey), from 2017-2020, and as a representative of Arçelik in relations with BEYSAD (the White-Goods Supplier’s Association of Turkey).

Vedat Kader

Vedat Kader received his bachelor’s degree in Software Development from Ege University, Turkey in 1997.

Vedat joined Arçelik in 1998 as an Information Systems Business Analyst in the HQ SAP Team. After completing Arçelik’s first SAP implementation project in 2001, he was assigned to lead IT at the Çerkezköy/Turkey Plant, where he managed the IT transition during the establishment of new Vacuum Cleaner and WM Engine production facilities. Vedat then joined Koç Holding’s first Greenfield project outside Turkey as IT Manager of Beko LLC Russia.

Ryuji Ikeda

Ryuji Ikeda began his career as an Engineer in the Production Engineering Department at Hitachi Ltd. in 1989, before being selected for enrolment at the company’s corporate university in 1992, where he studied for a period of one year in the Electrical Department.

Ryuji has worked in various technical capacities in Production Engineering, R&D and Quality Assurance, spanning a thirteen year career at Hitachi Ltd. He joined Hitachi Appliances, Inc., now known as Hitachi Global Life Solutions, Inc., in 2002 and was previously Senior Engineer of Quality Assurance (2012-2015). He has been Department Manager of the QA section at Hitachi Consumer Products (Thailand), Ltd. since 2016.

Mark Early

Mark Early joined the Arcelik-Hitachi Home Appliances leadership team as Human Resources Director in July, 2021.  He has over 25 years of experience in Human Resources, and is responsible for leading all HR activities at the Arcelik-Hitachi Home Appliances global locations.  Prior to joining Arcelik-Hitachi Home Appliances, he served for more than 23 years in various HR leadership roles at Eaton Corporation, which is a global power management company.   He has extensive international exposure, having lived in multiple countries including South Africa, USA, Thailand, South Korea, Turkey, and the Philippines.  He has held senior HR leadership roles with responsibility for locations in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, UK, Belgium, Turkey, Israel, India, Thailand, China, Singapore, South Korea, and the Philippines.  He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Management from Bluefield College, a Master’s Degree in Human Resources Development from Webster University, and a Certificate in Human Resources from Duke University.

Tamer Kucukceran

Tamer Kucukceran received his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Bogazici University, Turkey in 2011. He started his career in 2011 as a copywriter in Marjinal Porter Novelli Communications Consultancy in Istanbul, then he transitioned to an Account Specialist, responsible for clients in technology and e-commerce industries. He then joined Weber Shandwick Public Relations in 2013 as Account Manager, specializing in consumer electronics, food-beverage and energy industries. He transferred to Arcelik Global Communications in 2017 as a Senior Communications Specialist responsible for Beko brand and subsidiaries in Asia-Pacific region. In 2021, he was appointed as Head of Corporate Communications at Arcelik Hitachi Home Appliances to direct external and internal communications activities including media relations, leadership communications, corporate reputation management, crisis communications, corporate social media management and product communications.

Cagri Toraman

Cagri Toraman received his bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey in 2013 and an MBA degree from Bahcesehir University, Turkey in 2015. He is a PhD Candidate in Business Administration from the same university. Cagri began his career in Medical Device industry in different companies as Strategic Planning and Business Development Specialist (2012-2015), before he joined Arcelik at the end of 2015 as Price and Cost Analysis Specialist (2015-2016). There, he continued his role as Financial Controlling and Analysis Senior Specialist (2016-2018), and Strategic Planning Senior Specialist (2018-2020). In 2020, Cagri joined Beko Thailand as Business Development Project Manager of APAC (overseeing Australia, New Zealand, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines). Cagri became Head of Strategic Planning, Corporate Performance and Business Development of Arcelik Hitachi Home Appliances since its first day. He is an expert in Strategic Planning, M&A deals, Business Planning, Restructuring Strategies, Profitability and Feasibility Analysis.

Damla Tomsuk Kökeş

Damla Tomsuk Kökeş received her Bachelor’s Degree from Middle East Technical University in 2006, majoring in Industrial Engineering with a minor degree in Computer Engineering. She later obtained her MS degree from Bogazici University in 2010. Starting her career as an IT Engineer in Arcelik in 2006, she worked as International Sales & Marketing Team Leader in Arçelik AŞ between 2011-2016. Later, she was appointed as IT Manager – Business Analysis & Business Relations for International Sales in 2016 for 5 years. In parallel starting from 2018 for 3 years, Tomsuk Kökeş was assigned the position of business process owner to work directly with EMENA&A CSO. In 2021, she was appointed as Head Integration & Business Process Development at Arçelik Hitachi.

Tomsuk Kökeş is skilled in ERP (including functional module consultant as well as solution architect and integration design), Process Analysis & Redesign, Project Management, Digital Transformation and Stakeholder management with over 15 years of experience in the home appliances industry.