Board of Directors

Siemens San. ve Tic. A.Ş.
Chief Legal Officer and Board Member

Attorney Bige Yücel is Head of the Legal and Compliance Department of Siemens Türkiye and a member of the company's Managing Board. For nearly 20 years, Yücel has taken on various responsibilities in the legal sector with passion and commitment. Before joining Siemens Türkiye, she worked at the law firm Bıçakcı & Tanverdi from 2003 to 2005, and then at the law partnership Hergüner Bilgen Özeke from 2005 to 2020, where she served successively as a lawyer, managing lawyer, and responsible partner in the Litigation and Non-Contentious Processes Department. After graduating from St. Georg Austrian High School, she completed her undergraduate studies at Istanbul University Faculty of Law and her master's degree in Economic Law at Istanbul Bilgi University. Bige Yücel is proficient in English and German and is the mother of two children, one girl and one boy.  

FGİ Kapı ve Yükleme Teknolojileri A.Ş.
Board Member

Ali İhsan Güneş was born in Dortmund as the second child of a guest worker family. He completed his entire education in this city where he was born and raised. He studied Business Administration at Dortmund University and successfully graduated with the title of “Diplom-Kaufmann” (a master’s level degree in business administration).

After completing his university education, he moved to Türkiye with his brother to establish their own business. He continues to manage the company they founded 28 years ago. Today, the company employs 82 people.

Güneş is married and has two children.

Mercedes-Benz Türk A.Ş.
Secretary General, Director of Legal Affairs, Compliance, and Sustainability

Gamze Gökçen Pilevne graduated from the Faculty of Law at Marmara University in 2006. After graduating and working in different law firms in Istanbul, providing legal advice to companies in a wide range of sectors, she realised that she wanted to provide legal support as part of a commercial enterprise and decided to become a corporate lawyer. Since 2011, she has been working as a lawyer for the Mercedes-Benz Türk family. As a business partner, she provided legal support to all processes of the company in the fields of production, distribution and marketing. Since 2016, she has been General Secretary and Head of Legal and Compliance at Mercedes-Benz, overseeing the Legal, Compliance, and Public Relations team. As of January 2022, she has been appointed as the Chairman of the Company's Sustainability Committee and coordinates the activities within the company to achieve Mercedes-Benz Türk's global transformation commitments as well as its environmental and social welfare goals as a local industrialist. At the same time, she strives to contribute to the ecosystem through her roles as a board member of the German-Turkish Chamber of Industry and Commerce and as Chair of the Sustainability Committee in the Automotive Dealers Association. 

German-Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Türkiye)
Board Member and Secretary General, Official Delegate of German Business in Türkiye

Burkhardt Hellemann comes from the small town of Wiedenbrück in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. After graduating from high school, he went to Latin America for two years and completed his voluntary service in Chile. He then studied religious pedagogy and later - parallel to his professional career after his first degree - political science. After completing his second degree, he began working for a Catholic NGO, first in Cologne and then in Yaoundé, Cameroon. In January 2016, he moved to Accra, the capital of Ghana, where he became the representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. His work focussed on political party cooperation and economic policy support for the private sector. Through the latter commitment, he got to know and appreciate the worldwide activities of the German Chambers of Commerce Abroad (AHK), for which he became office manager of the AHK Ghana in April 2021. After spending about 3 years in AHK Ghana, he joined AHK Türkiye, which has offices in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, as a Board Member and Secretary General as of May 2024. Burkhardt Hellemann lives in Istanbul with his wife and four children. 

Mehmet Eskiyapan was born on December 13, 1950, in Ankara. He graduated from TED Ankara College in 1968 and completed his higher education in Germany. In 1974, he graduated from Fachhochschule Dortmund with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Throughout his professional career, Eskiyapan has held numerous significant positions. He is the Chairman of the Board and owner of SEDO A.Ş. Additionally, he serves as a Board Member of Nuh Çimento Sanayi A.Ş. and Nuh Beton A.Ş. He is also a Board Member of Ahmet Eskiyapan Holding, the Ahmet Eskiyapan Foundation, and the Nuh Çimento Sanayi Foundation.

Beyond his active roles in business, Eskiyapan holds memberships in various institutions and organizations. He serves as a Council Member of the Kocaeli Chamber of Industry, a Delegate Member of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), and a member of the TOBB Industry Council. Furthermore, Eskiyapan is a Board member of the German-Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Türkiye) and holds the position of Vice President at the Turkish-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TD-IHK).

Ejot Tezmak Bağlantı Elemanları Teknolojileri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş.
General Manager

Andreas Radel, born in 1964 in Bremen, is married. He completed his high school education and military service in Bremen and Oldenburg.

He studied Business Administration at the University of Bayreuth (Bavaria) and Aston University, Birmingham, UK, Dipl.-Kfm.

12 years as logistics and sales manager in the power plant industry, he started his position as Sales Manager at EJOT GmbH & Co. KG in Germany in 2001 and has been working as Managing Director since 2003.

Since 2009, he has been working as General Manager at EJOT TEZMAK Fastener Technologies Industry and Trade Inc. in Istanbul.

EJOT is a family-run, medium-sized, family-owned group of companies based in Bad Berleburg (North Rhine-Westphalia) and is a leading manufacturer of connection technology with around 4.600 employees. EJOT customers primarily come from the automotive and supplier industry, telecommunications and consumer electronics as well as the construction industry. EJOT offers a wide range of innovative fasteners, in particular self-tapping screws for metals and plastics, technical formed parts made of plastic and metal and a complete programme for fastening the outer shell of buildings.

The EJOT Group has been active in Türkiye since 1996 and has two production sites in Gaziosmanpaşa (2000) and Çerkezköy/Tekirdağ (2022). Around 300 employees produce screws mainly for the automotive, home electronics and construction industries. More than 75% of the products manufactured in Türkiye are exported. 

Bosch Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş.
Vice President - Director of Corporate Responsibility Projects

Asuman Büyükyıldırım graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University in 1990. Since starting her career at Bosch in 1992, she has taken on responsibilities in a wide range of areas, from product development to plant management, and from financial operations to procurement and strategic projects. She has held managerial positions in various locations across Türkiye, Germany, and the Middle East.

As of 2023, she serves as the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility Projects for Bosch Türkiye and the Middle East. She believes in the importance of diversity and inclusion and strives to carry out her work with a strong focus on people and values.

Büyükyıldırım is married and has a daughter.

Babgencel GmbH Türkiye
General Manager

Ercivan Yağış was born on January 4, 1980, in Isparta. He graduated from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Eastern Mediterranean University.

After graduation, he spent three years in Chicago, United States, where he pursued language studies and also gained professional experience in his field. Since 2011, he has been serving as the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Kuzey Sağlık Ürünleri ve Kimya San. A.Ş. The company specializes in the production and export of professional hospital disinfectants, antiseptics, medical devices, and medical wet wipes.

Before starting his own business, he worked for two years as a technical director at an elevator company, gaining valuable experience during that time.

In addition, he is the General Manager of Babgencel GmbH, a company operating in the medical sector, which he founded in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2018.

Yağış is married and has a daughter.

Koluman Holding
Human Resources Director - Member of the Executive Committee

Neslihan Tosun Kayhan graduated from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Dokuz Eylül University in 2004. After graduation, she began working at Ford in Cologne, Germany, while simultaneously completing a Master of Engineering program at Cologne Rheinische Fachhochschule. Her thesis was selected as the best master's thesis of the year, and she graduated as the top of her class.

After returning to Türkiye in 2011, she joined Koluman and has since taken on various responsibilities within the company. She currently serves as the Human Resources Director and a Member of the Executive Committee at Koluman.

Tosun Kayhan has led numerous initiatives, ranging from the establishment of HR software and analytics systems that support data-driven decision-making to transformation projects centered around corporate culture and values. She has also played a key role in developing infrastructures to enhance employee experience and in implementing strategic human resources practices. 

A highly self-disciplined professional who is open to innovation and continuous learning, Tosun Kayhan prioritizes making an impact and creating value through people-centered projects, guided by the belief that “Who you are is stronger than what you say.”

Enerjisa Enerji
CFO

Dr. Philipp Ulbrich is the CFO of Enerjisa Enerji A.Ş., a company listed on Borsa Istanbul (20% publicly traded), with Sabancı Holding from Türkiye and E.ON from Germany each holding a 40% stake.In his role, he is responsible for key functions such as Finance, Corporate Legal Affairs, and Supply Chain Management.

Dr. Ulbrich joined Enerjisa in June 2023, bringing with him nearly two decades of international leadership experience gained within the E.ON Group. Over the course of his career, he has held several high-level positions including Finance Director in France and Head of Global Ventures. He has led large-scale transformation programs such as SAP S/4HANA implementation and working capital optimization. Most recently, he was responsible for the financial management of E.ON’s digital business areas.

Dr. Ulbrich, who has four children, places great importance on exploring Türkiye with his family and actively engages in outdoor activities such as swimming, hiking, and cycling. places great importance on exploring the country as a family and actively engages in outdoor pursuits such as swimming, hiking, and cycling. In 2024, to demonstrate the accessibility and long-distance capabilities of electric vehicles across Türkiye, he embarked on a fully electric road trip from Istanbul to Ağrı with colleagues, culminating in a symbolic ascent of Mount Ararat. He also participates in open water competitions as an active member of the Enerjisa swimming team.

Dr. Ulbrich considers Türkiye his second home and places strong value on German-Turkish cooperation, which is reflected in both his professional endeavors and personal life. He is committed to further strengthening this collaboration under the umbrella of AHK Türkiye.