Serdar Bilgili was born in İstanbul. He studied at Robert College, and graduated from Redlands University, California in the USA with a degree in Business Administration and Photography. He is the Chairman of Bilgili Holding. He has been the General Secretary and Board Member of Beşiktaş Sports Club (BJK) between the periods 1992-1998. He was the President of BJK between 2000-2004. Mr. Bilgili hosted two photography exhibitions in the States. He had his photography exhibition in İstanbul in 2007, called 'Despite the Barriers...'. He also published the photography book of this exhibition in 2008.
Şerife Ercantürk
Vice President
Şerife Ercantürk was born in Kahramanmaraş. She graduated from Marmara University, Business Admininistration Department. She worked in Martexpert Trading Co., Bağdat Mobilya and Bluson Tekstil in different executive positions. She is the Vice President of Bilgili Holding.
Sevil Temo was born in Kahramanmaraş. She studied highschool in Saint George; graduated from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Architecture Department. She worked in the family group in different executive positions. She is the board member of Bilgili Holding.
Işın Karakaş was born in İstanbul. She graduated from Bosphorus University, Tourism and Hotel Management Department. She started her professional life at Ramada Hotel İstanbul at Finance Department in 1987.and continued her career at Çırağan Palace Hotel Kempinski Istanbul between 1990-1996 and hold various managerial positions at Front Office, Cost Control and Purchasing departments. She worked at Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza Hotels as Assistant Financial Controller between 1996-1998 and as Finance Director at Emperyal Otelcilik A.Ş. between the dates of 1998-2000. Ms. Karakas joined Bilgili Group as Financial Controller at Radisson SAS Conference & Airport Hotel İstanbul in 2000 and transferred to Radisson SAS Hotel Ankara as General Manager in 2004. Mrs. Karakaş is the Managing Director of Bilgili Group since January 2006.
Gülay Tahmaz
Managing Director
Gülay Tahmaz was born in Istanbul. She graduated from Anatolian University, Tourism and Hotel Management Department. She started her professional life at Holiday Inn Istanbul and Crown Plaza Istanbul at Finance Deparment in 1994. First she started to work in Bilgili Group, Radisson SAS Conference and Airport Hotel Istanbul as a Income Auditor in 2000 and than in 2004 she was appointed to the position of Finance Director. After capturing the prize of "Young Leader of the Year" because of her successful performance in Rezidor Hotel Group in 2005, she merged to the internal audit team of the chain and took part in internal audits of Radisson SAS Hotels abroad. In 2007, Mrs.Tahmaz was appointed to the position of Finance Director of W Istanbul and in 2008 she captured the prize of "President Award, Financial Controller" of EAME Starwood Hotels and Resorts. She has been working as a Managing Director in Bilgili Holding since March 2010.
Levent Abay
Projects Coordinator
Levent Abay was born in Ankara. He graduated from İstanbul Technical University, Architecture Department. He started his professional life in Alarko as Field Engineer. Between 1997-1999, he worked at Gökyapı San. Tic. A.Ş. /Israel as Project Manager and Assistant General Manager. He worked at Akarnet Konaklama ve Yatırım A.Ş. as Project Manager between 2002-2005 and he has been promoted as Projects General Coordinator of Bilgili Group. He is in charge of coordination of feasibility studies, construction and project management of all projects within Bilgili Group.
Onur Özgen
Sales and Marketing Director
After graduating from Robert College and receiving his BA in Business Administration at Bosphorus University, completed his MBA at the University of Rochester. Started his professional life in 1997 as the Marketing Manager for Coca-Cola Azerbaijan. Between 2001-2004 worked in Switzerland at Transammonia, a Forbes 100 international trading company. Later, relocated to Turkey and set up two leading companies in their fields between 2004-2008, marketing real estate to international investors. Afterwards, served in various Project Development and Sales & Marketing roles at Doğuş-GE REIT and Sinpaş REIT before joining Bilgili Holding in 2010 as the Sales & Marketing Director, in charge of leading sales, leasing, and marketing functions for all company investments.
Tuğba Ulaşoğlu
Director of Finance
Tuğba Ulaşoğlu was born in Istanbul. She graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Business Administration and attended English classes at St.Giles College, London just before she started her career at the hospitality sector in 1988. She was assigned different managerial positions at credit assessment, collections and accounting at the Finance Departments of Ramada Hotel Istanbul and Mövenpick Hotel. She worked at Citibank Istanbul as Assistant Manager at the Internal Control Department since 1995 for 2 years. Ulaşoğlu continued her career at the head quarter of Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. as of 1997 holding the Division Head position in charge of local and foreign collections and fraud management at the Finance Division; leaded many projects related to individual and corporate customers and acted as Mentor for manager candidates from different divisions. In July 2011, she was awarded "Innovative Financial Risk Application" award by Global Telecom Business, U.K. for the credit tracing and management system developed. She has been working as the Director of Finance of Bilgili Group since August 2011.
Pasquale Baiguera
General Manager of the Radisson Blu Conference and Airport Hotel, Istanbul
Pasquale, who is Italian, holds a Certificate from the Cornell University in Strategic Management and is a certified Mentor. Pasquale, joined Rezidor in December 1996 as Front Office Manager at the Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel in Milano, Italy. In 2000, he took over his first hotel as General Manager in Italy and moved on as City General Manager of the Radisson SAS Hotels in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. From 2003 until 2006 Pasquale was in charge of the Radisson Blu Alcron Hotel in Prague. In 2006 Pasquale was assigned to the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. In September 2008 Pasquale moved to the Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Media City, which is his most recent position. Mr. Pasquale Baiguera as General Manager of the Radisson Blu Conference and Airport Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey, effective 1 August 2011.
James Gancos
General Manager, W Istanbul
James Gancos was born in San Diego, California. He graduated with honors from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and from Harvard Business School with a Master in Business Administration. Mr. Gancos began his career at Ernst & Young's consulting practice in New York where he worked with Fortune 500 clients in various industries, including Travel, Financial Services, Advertising, and Insurance. Mr. Gancos joined Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 2004 as Director of Operations for the North America Division. He performed strategic, financial, and operations analysis support for the division and reported directly to the divisional president. Subsequently, Mr. Gancos has held property leadership positions as Hotel Manager of the Sheraton Kauai Resort and Hotel Manager of the Sheraton Seattle. He was most recently the General Manager of the 2500 room Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino, A Sheraton Resort in Las Vegas. While at Starwood, Mr. Gancos has been actively involved in the compan's environmental stewardship initiatives. He invented the "Make a Green Choice" program which has been implemented in all Sheratons and Westins in North America. Mr. Gancos has been the General Manager of W Istanbul since February 2010.
