board & governıng body
Prof. Dr. Kamil Eren
President and Chairman
Prof. Dr. Kamil Eren completed his doctorate studies in the USA. He was employed as an academician at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Civil Engineering Department between 1980 and 1985. Starting in 1985, he has conducted research studies in Germany as a Humboldt Scholar and later worked as a United Nations Expert for nine years. He was the Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister ofTurkey between 1996 and 1997. He has also worked at Istanbul Culture University from 2004 to 2020. Prof. Dr. Kamil Eren established the Geotech Group of Companies in 1998 that now globally employs over 200 staff, specialised in mapping, geographical information systems, archive automation, and information technologies in the group’s offices in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Netherlands, and the USA. Currently, Prof. Dr. Kamil Eren is also a Member of the Board of Trustees and Advisor to the President of the Istanbul Atlas University.
Cenk Şen
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Cenk Şen graduated from the Turkish Army War College, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department. He served as a signal officer in different fields, including Cable, Radio, and Satellite Communications Systems and Encryption, Information Security, ElectronicWarfare. He completed the Middle East Technical University, Computer Engineering Department, after which he received a Master’s Degreeat Bilkent University, Computer Engineering Department in 2002. He has done further studies on Data Mining and Big Data. Having worked at the Turkish Armed Forces and NATO in different ranks, he has retired in 2014 as a Senior Colonel after 22 years of successful service. He was then appointed as the Deputy General Manager of the Turkish Social Security Institution responsible for operating and developing the nation-wide information system infrastructure and coordinating the institution’s Information System and Cyber Security. Later on, Cenk Şen worked as the General Manager of TÜRKSAT between 2016-2021. He has been a Turkish Space Agency Board member since 2019. Today, he is the Chief Executive Officer of MipMap Technologies.
Mustafa Ay
Director for International Relations (Middle East, Central Asia)
Mustafa Ay completed his master studies on Science and Technology Policies at Gazi University, Department of Mechanical Engineering. He started his career at The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) in 1989 as an Assistant Specialist. His field of expertise extends to science and technology policies, technology management, R&D and innovation supporting mechanisms, SME supporting instruments and national and regional innovation systems. At TUBITAK, he worked as a science and technology policy expert. He worked as an Advisor to the Prime Minister on science and technology policies and SME supporting mechanisms, between 1996-2000. He coordinated the “Vision 2023: Science and Technology Strategies” project run by TUBITAK – the first of its kind in Turkey. In 2006, he was appointed as the Director of the Public Research Grant Group at TUBITAK. Following his retirement from TUBITAK in March 2021, he is now the Vice-President of MipMap Technologies.
Naci Koru
Director for International Relations (Europe)
Naci Koru graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of International Relations. In 1981, he started working at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In his 38-year career at the Ministry, he has worked both in Turkey and in Turkey’s diplomatic representations around the world. He was the Ambassador of Turkey to Saudi Arabia between 2007 and 2009, after which he has worked as the Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Naci Koru was also the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016. He was then appointed as the Ambassador – Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations Office in Geneva in 2016 where he has worked until July 2018. After his retirement in March 2019, he joined MipMap as Director for International Relations, responsible from European region. Mr. Koru runs a much-read personal blog on international politics.
Yavuz Eren
Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
Yavuz Eren graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department at Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey) in 1998. He completed his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (on robotic systems using artificial muscles) at Rutgers University followed by a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University. After working on bionic test systems as a senior researcher at PSI in the USA, he returned to Turkey and became one of the founding partners of JeoIT, located in Bilkent Cyberpark (Ankara, Turkey) where he is currently the General Manager and R&D Coordinator. JeoIT has completed comprehensive projects on e-Government, document management and e-Agriculture. Since 2017, the company has developed Evolved.City, which uniquely integrates Complex Workflow Definitions, CMS (content management system), artificial intelligence and IoT technologies based on a ‘Human-in-the-Loop’ approach.