Having spent years as a student himself, Basar recognized that current education apps weren't fixing two of the major issues that he saw in the $100 billion private tutoring market. First, access across emerging markets, and second, one-on-one connections between instructors and students. That's why he co-founded Kunduz, an ed-tech venture (YC S2018) with a mobile platform that helps students around the world get their questions answered via quick photos through its tutor network and AI technology. With support from the likes of Social Capital and First Capital's Dorm Room Fund, Kunduz is a hub for education professionals and students, with over 35,000+ professionals answering 20 million questions from millions of students in two countries. And that's just so far. 

Prior to founding Kunduz, Basar was a Business Specialist at Dogan Holding and a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company. In addition to serving as CTO of Hallowd Labs, he has over a decade of experience in software development across companies such as Rocket Internet, Wildfish, Hitachi Consulting, and Jooysoft Software Consultancy. Basar holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Boğaziçi University, an MA from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mustafa Cokol is the Director of Global Logistics at Thrasio. He has over 15 years of experience in supply chain management. Mr. Cokol worked in third-party logistics & import-export companies. He is currently the director of Global Logistics at Thrasio that is an e-commerce company and the fastest US company ever to reach profitable unicorn status. He is also an adjunct faculty at Metropolitan College, Boston University where he teaches grad-level course on international trade and logistics.

Mr. Cokol received my MS degree in Transportation Management with concentration in international logistics from State University of New York, Maritime College. He has a BS degree in Business, Management and Finance with concentration in international business from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College.

Can Erbil is currently working as Professor of the Practice of Economics at the Department of Economics of Boston College, where he holds a full-time faculty position and teaches undergraduate courses. He is also the Director of Economic Modeling School and Research Fellow at EcoMod, Global Economic Modeling Network. Previously, he worked as a Senior Scientist and Senior Lecturer at the Heller School of Social Policy at Brandeis University, where he applied economic modeling into the fields of health and development policy. Erbil specialized in international trade and development economics with a focus on trade liberization, tax reforms, and macroeconomic policy recommendations in an open economy framework. In his research, he employs advanced economic modeling tools such as CGE models and integrated modeling platforms, as well as intuitive and simple innovations such as the "debt burden index."

Between 2001 and 2011, Erbil worked as a full-time faculty at IBS and the Department of Economics at Brandeis University. Erbil teaches courses in international trade and globalization, development economics, econometrics, microeconomics, macroeconomics, quantitative analysis, economic modeling with general equilibrium: theory and practice, political economy and international monetary economics and finance at Harvard University.

Tulin Erdem joined New York University Stern School of Business as a Leonard N. Stern School Professor of Business and Professor of Marketing in July 2006.

Before joining Stern in 2006, Tulin Erdem has also been the E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Marketing at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, where she served also as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Marketing Group Chair, and the Ph.D. Director at the Haas School of Business.

Her research interests include advertising, brand management and equity, consumer choice, customer relationship management, decision-making under uncertainty, econometric modeling and pricing. She has published several papers in top field journals. She has received best paper awards, as well major research grants, including two major National Science Foundation grants. She served as an AE at Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research and Quantitative Marketing and Economics. She was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Marketing Research (2009-2012). 

Tulin Erdem also served as the President of INFORMS Marketing Society (ISMS).

Tulin Erdem has a BA (Bogazici University) and MA in Economics and Ph.D. in Business Administration (University of Alberta. Major: marketing; Minors: economics, statistics).

Sinan Erzurumlu is a professor of innovation and operations management at Babson College. His main areas of research include technology and innovation management, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. He uses an operational lens to startup and growth challenges, with particular attention on how operations design can guide strategic decision making in technology development and deployment. He also studies incentive mechanism design for sustainable innovations in creating economic and social value.

Through collaborations with academics and practitioners, Erzurumlu identifies the core problem and work on insight generating models and methods. He uses qualitative methods, like design thinking to address new insights about a problem, and mathematical models of decision making to guide strategic decisions with rigor. He then proposes solutions on how to implement high-impact processes to enable new strategic direction for small and large organizations.

His personal approach with entrepreneurial thought and action is 1) keep a learning mindset and get involved with challenging projects and cases; 2) develop a broad repertoire by looking into the innovation process for organizations in various industries; and 3) build customer/user empathy in addition to technical rigor. He has taken this approach to a number of different industries and topics including sustainable mining, formulating sustainability strategy for a large fortune 500 organization in food sector, and examining operations strategy for clean technology ventures to help find funding.

Bilal Gokpinar is Professor of Operations, Technology and Innovation at the UCL School of Management, and Head of the Marketing & Analytics research group.

Bilal’s main research interests are in product and service innovation, technology management, digital transformation and operations management. His recent research examines automation and robotics, frontline innovation, product design and service management on digital platforms, crowd-driven innovation and healthcare operations which has appeared in leading academic journals and has been featured in practitioner and media outlets including Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Forbes, Manufacturing Today, among others. 

Bilal received his PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University, USA. He obtained his BSc in Industrial Engineering (with minors in Economics and Mathematics) from Purdue University with distinction. He has taught in the MSc and MBA programmes at various institutions including the London School of Economics (LSE), HEC Paris and Peking University, and his industry experience includes working with General Motors R&D and Strategic Planning. 

Vugar Jafarov practices Immigration law in all 50 States and throughout the world. Attorney Vugar Jafarov and his professional legal staff have successfully helped local governments and businesses involved in a wide variety of professional fields, including high technology, medical and scientific research, banking and finance, education and manufacturing as well as restaurants businesses with their immigration requirements. In addition, they counsel corporate clients on H-1B compliance issues and employer sanctions. They have successfully obtained immigrant (EB-1, EB-2, EB-2/NIW, EB-3, EB-4, and EB-5, and etc.) and non-immigrant visas (O-1, L-1, E-2, H-1B, and etc.) for professional workers and intra-company transferees. In addition, they represent our clients in removal proceedings before the Federal Immigration Court.

Nitin R. Joglekar is on the faculty at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. His interests involve Digital Product Management Thinking (DPMT), deployment of analytics and machine learning techniques in innovation processes, and digitization & public policy issues in global supply chains. In addition to his academic career, he has overseen product management and supply chain implantations at established firms, and founded a software startup. He holds degrees in engineering from IIT, Memorial University, and MIT. He also holds a doctorate in management science from the MIT Sloan School. Professor Joglekar is the department editor for Technology, Innovation Management, and Entrepreneurship at IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. He is also a department editor for industry studies and public policy at Production and Operations Management.

Through the integration of clinical and laboratory research, Alpdogan (Alp) Kantarci focuses on helping people live healthier lives with healthy mouths. “I see patients in the clinic, and when I work in the laboratory, I am keeping those patients front and center,” said Kantarci. “How can we learn more and improve the oral health of patients? This question is what drives our lab.”

In parallel, he works on the role of osteoblasts and osteoclasts during orthodontic tooth movement and is applying novel techniques to shorten the treatment time for orthodontic patients. These include the use of minimally invasive surgical approaches and non-invasive technologies such as visible light. The benefits of accelerated tooth movement will be especially important for adults who want less time in braces.

Necmettin Kaymaz is the US Country Advisor at the Investment Office of the Presidency of Turkey. He is a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) practitioner with more than 10 years of experience at Invest in Turkey involved in all aspects of FDI from investment promotion to investment facilitation, experience in strategy development and implementation, comparative competitiveness analysis, policy advocacy, and stakeholder engagement including cooperation with international organizations. He has significant research experience in a wide variety of areas from economic development analysis to sectoral studies to produce value propositions. He is also a copy writer and speechwriter for senior officials and politicians. Finally, he has international experience in working with prominent international institutions such as the United Nations and European Union.

Burak Kılıç  joined UPS in 2009 through the acquisition of Unsped-UPS ASC in Turkey, where he was the System Development Supervisor. He was promoted to Country Industrial Engineering Manager in 2010 and was responsible for establishing the Industrial Engineering function in Turkey after the acquisition.

In 2014, Burak was promoted to Turkey Country Operations Director, and in September 2016, he took over the role of East District IE Manager. He was promoted to his current role of Country Manager for Turkey in April 2018. Burak holds BS in Industrial Engineering from Sakarya University. 

Gizem S. Nemutlu is an assistant professor of data analytics in the Brandeis International Business School and a research affiliate at the Institute for Technology Assessment of Mass General Hospital. Prior to joining the IBS, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Institute for Technology Assessment of Mass General Hospital. She holds a PhD in Management Sciences from University of Waterloo, Canada, and an undergraduate degree in Statistics from Hacettepe University, Turkey. Her research interests lie in the applications of stochastic modeling and data-informed decision-making and optimization techniques in healthcare with a focus on policy design and health outcomes research for immunization and cancer surveillance. Her recent work focuses on health economics outcomes research to inform medical decision making for liver cancer, HPV associated anal cancer, and colorectal cancer.

Selim Olcum is the Director of Engineering and a co-founder of Travera. Prior to this, he was a research scientist at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. During his tenure at MIT, he invented several techniques enabling the rapid assessment of single-cell growth. Dr. Olcum received his post-doctoral training at the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. During this time, he developed high-precision, real-time measurement methods for the attogram-level analysis of cell-derived vesicles and nanoparticles in suspension. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees all in Electrical Engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey. His dissertation work focused on MEMS-based ultrasound transducers for biomedical applications. He has co-authored over 40 journal papers and conference proceedings and is the inventor of several patents.

Dr. Hande Özkapancılar graduated from Gazi University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology in 1994, and completed her Master's degree in Microbiology department in 1998. She completed her Molecular and Genetics Ph.D. in 2005 and then obtained an MBA degree at Bahçeşehir University under the Institute of Social Sciences in 2014.

 She started her career at the Ministry of National Education as a science teacher in Ankara, in 1995, worked as a ‘Strategic Planning Specialist’ and European Union Project Specialist in Ankara Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of National Education between 2005-2008. In 2009, she was appointed as a Minister-Counselor at the Ministry of National Education, and she served as the Deputy General Director of Secondary Education in 2011. 

 Hande Özkapancılar still continues her duties as the Education Attaché to the Turkish Consulate General in Boston. 

Ayhan Ozturk is a passionate, dynamic, results-oriented leader and entrepreneur who has above 15 years of experience with a proven track record of achieving revenue, profit, and double-digit business growth within start-up, growth and in emerging markets. Ayhan has extensive regional leadership experience in highly complex business environments which require diversity, talent, and operational excellence management and deep understanding of multiple markets and functions in the Healthcare and Medical Device industry.

Ayhan was promoted to the Turkey Country Manager role after the acquisition of the Medical device company by Medtronic in 2014 and had been working as the Regional Vice President of TWAL (Turkey, West Asia, and Levant) since 2015. Before joining Medtronic, he established and managed various businesses and operations in Healthcare, Medical Device, and Manufacturing. Ayhan managed to go direct projects, transformed the business from distribution companies to Medtronic successfully in Turkey, and strengthened the team focusing on building sustainable organizations with a robust business model, talent and diversity management, and inclusion in emerging and complex markets. Ayhan holds an MBA degree from Ozyegin University BSc degree in International Relations from American International University. He speaks English, Turkish, German, and French.

Ayhan serves as a board member in various leading Industrial Trade Association; he serves as the President of ARTED in Turkey since 2019.

He is married, has two children, likes sailing and outdoor activities, and is a life-long learner.

John is a seasoned hotel and restaurant operations professional, instructor, and researcher. Some of John's experience includes Kempinski, Four Seasons, Radisson, Omni, Marriott, Sonesta, and Wyndham brand hotels as well as his own restaurant, Seven Hills.

After 25+ years of national and international industry experience, John focused on the academic career and worked as a Hotel, restaurant, and hospitality management educator at various institutions such as Stratford, Texas Tech, Framingham State University, Anne Arundel, and Frederick Community College.

Lodging, F&B Operations, Corporatization, and fermented adult beverages are John's primary research interests. John's current certifications include Ph.D. in Hospitality Administration, MBA specializing in hospitality, ServSafe Food Management, TIPS instructor, and Proctor.

John currently works as an Assistant Professor for the Management, Business & Information Technology Department of Framingham State University to build a well-recognized hospitality program and owns a hospitality consulting company.

Blake Redwine is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, corporate governance matters, and general corporate and securities law matters for public and private companies. He has significant experience representing issuers and underwriters in registered and private offerings of debt and equity securities, including initial public offerings, secondary and follow-on equity offerings. Blake represents clients in a variety of industries with a focus on financial institutions, energy and private equity companies.

Joseph Sarkis is a Professor of Management within the Business School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).  He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Buffalo.  His research and teaching interests include Environmental Sustainability, Technology, Operations and Supply Chain Management. He has authored over 500 publications appearing in a wide variety of outlets. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Engineering Management Review. His editorial positions cover many leading journals in Operations, Transportation, Supply Chain, and Sustainability Management.  Prof. Sarkis has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher for each year from 2015-2021 by Thomson-Reuters/Clarivate Analytics (Web-of-Science).  He is also an international program coordinator for the Greening of Industry Network (GIN) along with the Greening of Industry Networks book series co-editor for Springer-Nature Publishers. He has been recognized as one of the most influential global scholars in general business and management as well as the fields of supply chain management, corporate sustainability, operations research, and sustainable supply chains.

Hakan Satiroglu is a serial Education and Technology (EdTech) and social impact entrepreneur and investor. Widely recognized as a leading visionary in Boston’s Tech sector, he cofounded LearnLaunch. Today LearnLaunch is the premier brand in Boston’s EdTech cluster and now the center of an expanding global ecosystem. He has been actively involved in either the founding or acceleration of more than 40 EdTech companies and has been a key player in making Boston a leader in EdTech innovation. In 2018, Hakan launched a new ecosystem called XR InLearning(XRL) focusing on all things XR(extended realities) such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality. XRL will be curating the impact and facilitating the connections of the XR world with workforce development, corporate learning, as well as Higher education and K12 segments. 

Hakan began his career in EdTech entrepreneurship when he founded Xplana Learning in 2004. As its CEO, Hakan established the company as the premier EdTech R&D company creating products for top learning companies such as Pearson, McGraw-Hill Education, Cengage Learning, Houghton Mifflin and many others. The company was acquired in 2009 by MBS Textbook Exchange, then one of the US’s largest textbook distribution companies. Hakan is on the board of several organizations and companies including, the United Nations Association of Boston (Model UN), Boston University Alumni Council, and advisory board of Lynn Charter School. 

He received his Bachelors in Finance and Accounting from Boston University.

Selcuk Sirin is an applied psychologist at NYU.e uses empirical research methods to better understand the needs of children and families, and to arm professionals and policy makers with this knowledge so as to better address the needs of the most vulnerable. He has published my work in top journals, such as Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Review of Educational Research, and Pediatrics, in an effort to inform scholars, practitioners, and policy makers about marginalized children. He has made a concerted effort to get his work to a wider audience both locally and globally, as he believes strongly in “giving scientific knowledge away.” He has also served on several policy committees such as the National Academy of Sciences, the Urban Institute, and the Migration Policy Institute. Finally, he has collaborated with UNESCO and Save the Children, in their efforts to improve the lives of refugee children.

Mertcan Savasci is a business development and growth professional with a high ownership-driven entrepreneurial mindset and various experiences in different industries and regions. He graduated from Bogazici University Electrical & Electronics Department and started his brand marketing career in Procter & Gamble with different roles and responsibilities.

Mertcan took the first step to the startup ecosystem with his social media application startup Chall and it has been rewarded as top 15 startups of the year. After Chall, he continued his brand marketing journey in Perrigo and then moved his career to the international business development area in Evyap International with new market entry and business expansion projects responsibilities for 40+ countries in Europe, North America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

After various experiences in different countries and product verticals, he decided to go back to the startup ecosystem with Kunduz and he is the Head of Expansion at Kunduz, leading the US market entry initiative of the company.

Jorge Riveras is a Senior sales & Management Executive specialized in global sales, business development, and marketing with 20+ years of experience working with high technology products in multiple Industrial segments, developing and leading world class sales, and marketing. He has broad industry experience, both domestically and internationally. He is also has a Mechanical Engineering MBA and a PhD in International Business.

Emin Torunoglu is a commercial attache of Turkish Republic in Boston

Dr. Ünlü  is a recognized expert on photodetectors and nanophotonics. He has presented more than 100 invited talks at conferences, departmental colloquia and other research institutions and participated in international conference organizations. Dr. Ünlü  has authored and co-authored more than 250 technical articles and several book chapters and magazine articles; edited one book; holds three US patents; and has several patents pending. During 1999–2001, he has served as the chair of the IEEE/LEOS technical subcommittee on photodetectors and imaging, and currently serving as the founding chair of IEEE/LEOS technical subcommittee on Nanophotonics. He is an Associate Editor for IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

Dr. Ünlü’s career goal is to continue active participation in advanced research and administration in a broad range of science and engineering, in particular nanophotonic, and biophotonics working in an intellectually challenging environment that will allow him to utilize his broad expertise and skills to reach his full potential.