Startupbootcamp Istanbul Managing Director Çiğdem Toraman is one of the top experts on marketing, digital media, finance and commerce in Turkey.

She has consistently played leading roles in her career of 26 years, which include building the electronic trading system for Borsa Istanbul (BIST) in early 1990s, managing all of the research and development activities of Karma International in the second half of 1990s, a 10 year period in Doğan Holding (one of Turkey’s largest conglomerates) with positions including Group Director responsible for Media Sales, Marketing and Technology in Doğan Gazetecilik and later the General Manager of Doğan Online’s private shopping site.

After managing the country-wide operations of the global personalization technology company in 2012-2013, she started her own business in digital media (yumurtaliekmek.com – a specialized news site covering daily news and information in a format that is compatible with the perception of children and teenagers) and e-commerce (arkofcrafts.com – a unique shopping site with a vast collection of works from artists performing traditional Anatolian arts and crafts).

Along with these activities, Çiğdem also acts as a business advisor to several startups (Voscreen, Newsmeter, Neredennereye) and teaches classes at several companies and universities on e-commerce, digital and social media, business development, sales and marketing. She is also the marketing lead at StartersHub.