TAİK Talks Business

In this episode, Merih is joined by Sibel Kulaksiz, a senior economist at the World Bank and one of the institution’s leading forces for priorities such as women’s empowerment and climate change.

Listen to the latest episode of TAIK Talks Business to find out more about how governments and businesses can tackle climate change together and create more sustainable, greener economies.

In this episode, Merih Kepez discusses what's next for Turkey-US relations after the first meeting between US President Biden and Turkey's President Erdoğan took place on June 15th, 2021, at the NATO Summit in Brussels. To assess what the meeting means for the two countries, Merih is joined by General James L. Jones, a US Marine Corps four-star general who retired after 40 years of service and now serves as the Honorary Chairman of the US-Turkey Business Council.

As the world slowly emerges from the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, industries start to assess the global business landscape and look for new opportunities, digital sectors are in the spotlight.

In this episode of TAİK Talks Business, we're discussing the digital opportunity for Turkish and US businesses with Derya Matras, the head of TAİK's digital task force and our California State Council Committee, and Facebook's Managing Director for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.

In this episode, we explore the findings of an expansive study commissioned by TAIK, conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), that builds on research on the best ways to increase bilateral TR-US trade to $100 billion. Joining me to discuss all things TR-US trade is Professor Ahmet Kasim Han, faculty member at the Department of International Relations at Istanbul’s Altinbas University.

To mark International Women’s Day, we’re talking with Dr. Tuba Firincioglu-Apaydin, President of the National Coalition of Turkish American Women Political Action Committee (PAC), a PAC set up to support Turkish Americans to play an active role in U.S. politics. The PAC is particularly aimed at supporting more Turkish American women to participate in U.S. public life and this forms the main area of discussion in this episode of TAIK Talks Business.

2020 proved to be one of the most challenging and uncertain for the global business community in recent history due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

As this year gets into full swing and the business world assesses what’s ahead for 2021, we’re discussing the priorities for Turkey’s business community with Pelin Akin Özalp, TAİK board member, businesswoman, and Vice Chairwoman of Akfen Infrastructure Holding, one of Turkey’s largest infrastructure investment holding companies.

In this episode of TAİK Talks Business, we discuss Turkey’s US diaspora business community and explore ways we can better support it to strengthen and grow.

Joining me to discuss this is Derya Taskin, a first-generation Turkish American immigrant who has lived in the US for 25 years. Derya is the head of The World Turkish Business Council (DTİK’s) Americas Regional Committee, where she oversees work to engage Turkish entrepreneurs living in countries of the Americas.

What could the outcome of the next US election mean for Turkey-US trade?

We're joined by two experts in both Democratic and Republican politics. Bryan Lanza is a Republican strategist and former Communications Director of President’s Trump’s 2016 Transition team.

For the Democratic perspective, we have Former US Congressman Toby Moffet, who served four terms in the US House of Representatives representing the state of Connecticut and is now a Democratic strategist.

How will Turkish industries benefit by increasing the number of women in engineering careers and what’s it like being a woman leading one of Turkey’s biggest companies?

We discuss those topics and more on the first episode of TAİK Talks Business with Ebru Özdemir, Chair of Limak Investments and founder of Engineer Girls of Turkey, a UN-backed initiative aimed at increasing the number of female engineers in Turkey.