As Founder & Chair of Borusan Ventures, Defne is actively involved in fund and investment activities.

Defne started her career in different group companies, worked in several roles at steel pipe, automotive and heavy machinery businesses of Borusan.

She currently holds the role of Chairperson of the Board and Dealer Principal at Borusan CAT, responsible for setting the vision, long term value creation and investment strategy of Caterpillar business. She is also Board Member at Borusan Otomotiv and Borusan Pipe.

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Timo is the Head of Borusan Ventures. He leads the fund’s strategy, operations and investment activities.

Timo joined Borusan Ventures from Yamaha Motor Ventures ($300 million AUM), where he served as principal and was responsible for investments in early-stage startups focused on mobility, logistics, robotics and data & AI startups across North America and Europe. Prior to Yamaha, he was at Sony Innovation Fund, investing and pursuing partnership opportunities for Sony’s business groups, and at JetBlue Technology Ventures, a corporate venture arm of JetBlue Airways.

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As an Associate, Oğuzhan is responsible for sourcing deals, evaluating opportunities, involving in due diligence, and preparing market research.

Oğuzhan started his career at Borusan Holding as a management trainee and then joined the group as Strategy & Business Development Specialist.

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As the Venture Development Advisor, Tolga is responsible for possible strategic partnerships with startups and Borusan Group companies, also assisting the team in sourcing, evaluating and due diligence.

Tolga has +10 years of Strategy, Business Development and M&A experience. He has been part of Borusan Group for 8 years currently working as Strategy Manager, defining group strategy, initiating new businesses & projects within the Group, and executing M&As. Prior to that, he was holding different roles in diversified conglomerates.

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Deniz currently holds the position of Group Chief of Strategy responsible for development of Borusan’s strategy, business development, M&As and digitalization initiatives. Throughout her +20 year career, she was part of the Borusan’s growth story of becoming a group with $6.5 billion turnover, doubled since 2010; executed successful M&As and exits in telecommunications, logistics, energy, heavy machinery and steel, and contributed to transformation of the group.

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Erkan Kafadar holds the role of CEO of Borusan since 2020.

Before appointed as the CEO, he was a member of the Executive Committee for 4 years; responsible for automotive, flat steel, steel pipe and logistics businesses and held board positions in several group companies.

Prior to that, he was serving as General Manager of Borçelik for 11 years; during which the company started modernization and new production line investments which led Borçelik to become the galvanized steel producer with the largest production capacity in Turkey.

After his successful leadership and management, he is now leading Borusan, as Group CEO, creating new growth stories for the group; and bringing a new sustainability approach around Climate, Human and Innovation.

Since the beginning of his role as CEO, Borusan grew by around 35% in profits annually, and added three new promising businesses to the portfolio.

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Girish Nadkarni retired as the CEO of TotalEnergies Ventures, the $500 million corporate venture fund of TotalEnergies SE, based in Paris.

Prior to that, he was the founder and President of ABB Technology Ventures; ran the global automotive business for ABB’s Robotics Division and was the global head of strategy and marketing for the Automation Division.

He also took several roles as the head of business development in GE Capital; chief operations Officer in United Healthcare; and then founded vSimplify, a cloud based (ASP) business services startup.

He has been listed on the Global Corporate Venturing Power List 100 for the past 8 years and in the top 20 for the past 2 years.

Girish’s current roles:

• Investment Commitee of Stanford High Tech Fund
• Senior Advisor, Twin Tower Ventures, the CVC arm of Petronas
• Board of Directors of Gentari, an independent company formed by Petronas to house all its clean energy, hydrogen, and clean mobility business.
• Venture Partner and Investment Committee Member of the Alchemist Carbon Removal Fund
• Senior advisor to OGCI Climate Investments
• Strategic Advisory Board, Clean Energy Ventures
• Investment Committee of Creadev, the venture arm of the Mulliez Family, the largest family-owned business in France
• Board of Advisors of the UCLA Institute of Carbon Management

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Ebru Dorman serves as Board Member at NATO Innovation Fund, world’s first multi-sovereign Venture Capital fund with €1 billion to invest in early-stage start-ups and VC funds focusing on emerging technologies of priority to NATO. She is also Independent Board Member at HSBC Turkey and Saran Group.

Prior to that, she served as CEO and Board Member of MV Holding, a privately owned conglomerate with investments in technology, renewable energy and hospitality sectors. During this period, she also served as Chairwoman of StartersHub, a seed stage VC fund, and as LP Advisory Committee Member of Revo Capital VC and Taxim Capital PE fund.

She started her career at McKinsey & Co., followed by roles at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Strategic Ventures and Orange Ventures in London. Her telecoms career includes Vice President roles at France Telecom in Europe and Maxis in Malaysia. She also worked as Deputy CEO at Acıbadem Healthcare Group (IHH).

Between 2020 – 2023 she served as Independent Board Member at Borusan Lojistik.

Ebru is also an angel investor under the umbrella of Dorman Capital and mentor to entrepreneurs of all ages.

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After actively working in steel pipe and automotive businesses, Levent Kocabıyık currently is the Chairman of the Borusan Group Audit Board and a Board Member of the Board of Directors of Borusan Holding.

Levent is also Chairman in Supsan, co-chairman in Borusan Otomotiv and member of the Board of Directors of various Borusan Companies including Borçelik, Borusan EnBW Energy and Borusan Lojistik.

He is the founder of Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport, which won 16 championships since 2008, including Italy 3 H Endurance Champions Cup; took the second position in GT4 European Series PRO-AM category (2020). He is also a professional pilot, represented actively the team on tracks between 2012-2019.

He is also an executive board member of Turkey – US business council.

After his graduation from NYU in 2021, Emir joined Borusan EnBW Energy specializing in Renewables Engineering and now currently playing an active role in shaping the strategy of BORENCO, the new EV Charging business of Borusan ENBW Energy; aiming to become the biggest local EV charging network operator.

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