I was born in Istanbul into a multilingual family and grew up moving between Istanbul and Zurich. In 1999, I graduated from the full-time high school programme of the Istanbul University State Conservatory. After resettling in Zurich with my family, I went on to study at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), graduating in 2002.

What followed was a career in classical ballet – performing across major European troupes and training under two of the most celebrated choreographers of their generation: Heinz Spoerli in Zurich and Maurice Béjart in Lausanne. It was a formative chapter: demanding, international, and built entirely on discipline, precision, and the ability to perform under pressure. In 2006, I made a deliberate decision to pursue a scientific discipline for the long term. I studied for a BSc in Psychology with an additional major in Business Administration across the University of Zurich and FHNW, and a minor in Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship and Technology at ETH Zürich, before completing my MSc in Psychology at the University of Zurich in 2013. My research focused on quantitative methods, leadership, and power dynamics, with MSc thesis work on interpersonal and inter-group decision-making under power asymmetry, built around an original experimental design.

From 2009 onwards, while still studying, I started my early psychology career at various Zurich City public institutions and a globally leading psychometric talent analytics company. After graduating, I joined a globally top-30 influence-ranked think tank – at the time, one of approximately 11,000 think tanks worldwide – working in the political-economic sphere, where I designed and reviewed statistically driven, evidence-based strategy projects on democratisation, security policy, and economic development. Between 2015 and 2016, in parallel, I served as Head of Psychological Counselling and practising psychologist for youth and families at a successful social enterprise in Zurich. Concurrently in 2016, I also established my first independent psychological consultation practice in Zurich, laying the structural foundation for a private advisory work that continued to become the current EPISTEMIST based in Stuttgart, Germany, alongside a DAX30 corporate managerial career unfolding over the subsequent years.

In October 2016, I stepped into my first corporate role as Digital Product Manager for Connected Car and Aftersales UX technologies at the world’s most iconic car manufacturer, based in Stuttgart. The position took me across two continents simultaneously: I led dual-region product implementation in Eastern Europe, working out of Istanbul, and in the Australia-Pacific region, working out of Melbourne. Alongside this, I developed big-data psychometrics and behavioral-economics-driven business ecosystem optimisation concepts for the Stuttgart headquarters.

In 2018, I joined the global strategy team at the Group CEO and Chairman of the Board Office in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim. Focused on the passenger-car business and long-term corporate positioning, the years that followed brought me into the centre of top-tier strategic management: industrial, geopolitical, and market forecasting; corporate development; and transformation advisory. I worked directly across all Group CxO offices and played a key role in preparing Board of Management submissions for Supervisory Board approval.

I engaged and steered leaders across strategic decision-making committees covering product, brand, and business portfolios, as well as future-mobility initiatives including electrification, connectivity, and autonomous driving. I also led in-depth analyses on the socioeconomic shifts reshaping the global West, set against China’s long-term strategy for economic, technological, and geopolitical expansion across key industries and supply chains.

From 2018 to 2020, I took on an extended thought-leadership role in co-creating the current Group Strategy – authoring a series of core long-term decision-making and stress-testing instruments that informed ExCom and C-suite deliberations and underpinned decisions of the highest strategic consequence. Within the same transformation programme, I was additionally responsible for developing and driving two strategic planning projects, each addressing critical future-technology choices with far-reaching budgetary and strategic impact, through to final approval. Between 2020 and 2023, I co-developed multiple strategy updates for the Group’s global institutional investors.

In 2022, following substantial contributions to brand development and limited-edition strategies, I was appointed to refine and lead the worldwide implementation of the Group’s large-scale top-end brand strategy programmes. Upon their successful completion, I assumed in 2024 the strategic leadership to develop a further exclusive signature brand of the Group and implement it as a new global strategic business portfolio – encompassing unique company assets, established operational processes, and an extensive landscape of development, expansion, and launch initiatives. This remains my current full-time occupation. Throughout my strategic management tenure since 2018, I have also applied my psychological expertise systematically in executive moderation and private consultation settings – a thread that runs continuously through my corporate work and connects directly to what my independent psychological consultation practice represents.

That connection is why EPISTEMIST exists. Over the years, I brought my long-standing psychological consultation and strategy advisory practice into the virtual sphere under this boutique brand – with the aim of making evidence-based, high-integrity psychological guidance accessible to a global audience. Everything in this practice is grounded in the same standards and intellectual rigour that have defined my work across every chapter of this path.