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Vice President, Strategy and Industrial Relations
Dogus Holdings
Istanbul, Turkey
“World village people” is the term Oz Denizmen uses to characterize herself and her MIT Sloan compatriots — comfortable in different cultures, intelligent and stimulating, eager to share knowledge. “In 2001, when Turkey experienced the biggest market crash in history, I could just call my friends in Argentina and ask for their perspective,” she notes.
Since she was a teenager, Denizmen has moved seamlessly between Turkey and the United States, graduating with a degree in industrial management from Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School and joining Merrill Lynch's investment banking program.
When she was considering an MBA, she went to Turkey to decide whether she wanted to work there or the United States following business school. A year in investment banking for a business unit of Dogus Holdings, one of the largest conglomerates in Turkey, convinced her to return to her roots.
Today, Denizmen advises Ferit Sahenk, chairman of Dogus Holdings, on strategy and business development.
As she explains, “I see more of a trend now for U.S.-educated MBAs to return to their home countries because those countries are ready to absorb new ideas. Dogus is a private, family-owned company, but it is run by professionals. My boss is young and listens to the ideas of newcomers. We have the empowerment and the systems, structures, and governance to survey what's best around the world and bring it into the company.”
Denizmen is now working with Sahenk to bring greater focus to Dogus, which is highly diversified.
“It's a challenge to consistently stand behind my ideas, but it's a challenge that MIT Sloan classroom discussions prepared me for,” she adds. “I don’t have as much experience in any one sector as my chairman and his other advisors, but I can use my research tools to develop scenarios and project trends. I know how to look at the world. MIT Sloan taught me that I can do a lot in life and gave me the confidence to move ahead. I have found that Turkey is a good place to be a woman in business — I could see far more of a glass ceiling when I worked on Wall Street.”
Denizmen refuses to call her MIT Sloan contacts a network — they are friends.
As she explains, “Teamwork is the essential ingredient of success at MIT Sloan. That message comes directly from the faculty. Team members, including faculty, continue their relationships, remaining lifelong friends and colleagues.”
Two of her mentors are Professor Simon Johnson, who has coauthored a case on Dogus Holdings, and Professor Lester Thurow, who has led discussions with groups of top Turkish professionals brought together by Denizmen in Istanbul.
Denizmen's ties to MIT Sloan have grown even stronger since Ferit Sahenk joined the Dean's Advisory Council in 2002.
Conceding that she is a “big juggler,” Oz Denizmen has recently become a mother, which she says has given her a renewed perspective on life. No matter how busy she is, she stays connected to her world village people. “I love doing everything I do,” she says.
© 2009 MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT