BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Ahu Yildirmaz is the Chief Executive Officer of the Coleridge Initiative, a not-for-profit organization, whose goal is to use data to transform the way governments access and use data for the social good through training programs, research projects and a secure data facility. The secure facility was initially built at the behest of the Census Bureau to inform the decision-making of the Commission on Evidence Based Policy.

Previously, as the founder and former Head of the ADP Research Institute, Dr. Yildirmaz created a legacy framework of unique data analyses and insights leveraging company’s administrative payroll data, which included developing the ADP National Employment Report, Workforce Vitality Report and Evolution of Work research series. She is frequently cited by leading business publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, CNBC, CNN, and Forbes.

Throughout her career, Dr. Yildirmaz’s interest in research and data has been guided in their application for public good. Her experience includes several roles with progressing responsibilities at ADP, Johnson & Johnson, and AT&T in the areas of research, strategy, corporate finance, and market insights. She has taught courses in economics and finance at New York University, Manhattan College, and the City University of New York.

Dr. Yildirmaz earned a doctorate degree in Economics from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bogazici University, Istanbul.

Enver Yücel was born in 1957 in Giresun, Turkey. He devoted all his life to education and considers education as the most important problem that needs to be solved in the world. Enver Yücel is the Chairman of the Executive Board of Bahçeşehir Uğur Educational Institutions, which has established more than 200 K-12 schools in Turkey, an international boarding school in Brockville, Canada, a non-profit university in Istanbul, Turkey, and other education-focused companies like school construction and educational technologies.

Mr Yücel then established non-profit universities in Washington, D.C. in 2014, in Berlin in 2014, in Batumi (Georgia) in 2015, in Nicosia (Cyprus) in 2016, and Plymouth (England) in 2019. He established language schools (Mentora College) in Washington, D.C., Toronto, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolila), Azerbaijan, and Turkey.

Mr Yucel serves in the boards of these educational institutions. He was granted the award of “Perfection in Education” by the International American Educators Association (PDK) in 2012 for his successes in the design and implementation of innovative and personal education and training programs, and contributions to international education.

Enver Yücel was granted the award of the “Contribution to Global Education” in the UNCA Awards hosted by the United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon in 2014. Enver Yücel, the first Turkish person to receive this award in the world, received his award from Ban Ki-moon himself.

In 2015, Foedus Foundation in Italy awarded Enver Yücel with the “Foedus Special Award” for his contributions to education. In 2016, Yücel had speeches about the refugee problem and discussed what should be done about it during a session within the scope of the 46th year meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos. He emphasized that education is the solution for this problem. In 2017, Enver Yücel was deemed worthy of the “Leadership in Global Education” award by the Global Education and Research Center (GLOCER) in the USA for his works in the field of education.

Kaya Henderson is the CEO of Reconstruction, a technology company delivering a K-12 supplemental curriculum that situates Black people, culture, and contributions in an authentic, identity-affirming way, so that students of all backgrounds benefit from a more complete understanding of our shared history and society. She is also the co-host of Pod Save the People, and leads Kaya Henderson Consulting.

She is perhaps best known for serving as Chancellor of DC Public Schools from 2010-2016. Her tenure was marked by consecutive years of enrollment growth, an increase in graduation rates, improvements in student satisfaction and teacher retention, increases in AP participation and pass rates, and the greatest growth of any urban district on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) over multiple years.

Kaya’s career began as a middle school Spanish teacher in the South Bronx, through Teach For America. She went on to work as a recruiter, national admissions director, and DC Executive Director for Teach for America. Henderson then served as the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at The New Teacher Project (TNTP) until she began her tenure at DCPS as Deputy Chancellor in 2007. She most recently led the Global Learning Lab for Community Impact at Teach For All, supporting educators in more than 50 countries. A native of Mt. Vernon, NY, Kaya graduated from Mt. Vernon Public Schools. She received her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and her Master of Arts in Leadership from Georgetown University, as well as honorary doctoral degrees from Georgetown and Trinity University. Her board memberships include The Aspen Institute, Georgetown University, Robin Hood NYC, and Teach For America, and she is the co-founder of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC).

Oussama Khatib received his PhD from Sup’Aero, Toulouse, France, in 1980. He is a Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Robotics Laboratory at Stanford University. His research in robotics focuses on novel control architectures, algorithms, sensing, and human-friendly designs for advanced capabilities in complex environments. With an emphasis on enabling robots to interact cooperatively and safely with humans and the physical world, these studies bring an understanding of human movement for therapy, athletic training, and performance enhancement.

He is the President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR) and a Fellow of IEEE. He is the Editor of the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) series, and the Springer Handbook of Robotics, was awarded the American Publishers Award for Excellence in Physical Sciences and Mathematics. He is the recipient of the IEEE Robotics and Automation (IEEE/RAS) Pioneering Award (for his fundamental contributions to robotics research, visionary leadership, and life-long commitment to the field), the IEEE/RAS George Saridis Leadership Award, the Distinguished Service Award, the Japan Robot Association (JARA) Award, the Rudolf Kalman Award, the IEEE Technical Field Award, and the Engelberger Award. Professor Khatib is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Oussama Khatip, is currently the Director of Standord University’s Robotics Lab. His extensive knowledge and expertise in engineering, AI, and robotics can help BAU in the new programs that we are launching.

As a successful businesswoman, Joanne has decades of experience creating jobs, helping build a sustainable future and growing the economy. Between 1989 and 2002, Dowdell worked in the DC area for Congressional Quarterly and FDA News. In 2003, she moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to become Vice President and Director of Corporate Responsibility for Citizens Advisers. From 2008 through 2010, Dowdell was the Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Responsibility for the Sentinel Financial Services Company in Montpelier, Vermont. She started running for office in 2011.

Joanne has extensive experience in corporate social responsibility and sustainability, corporate communications and business leadership. She moved to New Hampshire nearly a decade ago to work as a senior executive in the socially responsible investment industry (SRI). Joanne led the environmental, social and governance research on companies being considered for investment. Her accomplishments include helping companies improve the transparency and disclosure of business practices, directing capital to community investment vehicles, shining light on human rights abuses and removing toxic chemicals from consumer products and the environment. Joanne has worked with national and international coalitions of labor organizations, business leaders and both public and private sector agencies to advance public policy, SRI strategies and improve corporate social responsibility practices.

Joanne received her B.A. from the School of Communications at Howard University and is affiliated with organizations that impact a broad range of social issues. She is a member of the board of directors for the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail and served on the board of the Social Investment Forum.

Heath W. Lowry, the Atatürk Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies, has been a member of the Princeton faculty for twenty years. Prior to that time, he was a founding member of the history department at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey, from 1973 to 1980 and a senior research associate at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C., from 1980 to 1983. Between 1983 and 1993, he established and directed the Institute of Turkish Studies in Washington, D.C. Currently, together with his position at Princeton University, he serves as an adviser to the chair of the Board of Trustees of Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul.
Heath began his “ongoing affair” with Turkey as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small Turkish village in the mid-1960s, and since then he has worked on different aspects of Turkish history and culture. He is one of the rare American historians with a superb command of colloquial Turkish and a mastery of different Ottoman scripts used between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. As a result, Heath has produced highly original works based on source material ranging from tax records and censuses to poetry and mosque inscriptions. The fields that he has studied include institutional, urban, cultural, economic, architectural, and diplomatic histories. Heath has researched and written about the entire chronological scope of Ottoman and modern Turkish history.

Adam Saffer is an international business and development professional with over 35 years of global investment, development, and executive management experience in frontier and emerging markets. He is known for his skills in helping companies scale, raising local as well as international commercial as well as concessionary finance, and co-creating implementable strategies and milestones to achieve mutual objectives. This includes a distinct focus on human capital development, internal and external strategic and market alignment, tech-enabled solutions to improve efficiency and profitability, and intra-regional trade.

Most recently, he was the Managing Director of the Nigeria Agribusiness Investment Facility, where he built a local team of 40 Nigerians working in 7 regional offices and raised over USD $50 million in debt and equity transactions from bilateral donors (USAID, DFID, EU, GIZ), multilateral development banks (World Bank, IFC, DFC, African Development Bank), and corporate foundations (BMGF, Master Card, Chevron Foundation). Key interventions centered around governance, attracting, retaining, and developing staff with the right skills and temperament, and facilitating relationships with buyers, suppliers, financial institutions, local government, and other stakeholders that are built on respect, confidence, and trust (2018-2020). Before Nigeria, he was in Egypt for 3 years where he ran an entrepreneurship and enterprise development project for USAID and an agricultural export project for the UNIDO.

Throughout his career, Adam’s insights on organizational development, restructuring capital, behavioral change, and operational improvements within enterprises have improved revenues for small and medium size enterprises ranging from USD $5 million – USD $50 million. From 2008-2010, Adam was the President of the Americas for Coffey Ltd., an Australian publicly traded USD $4 billion engineering and development firm (later purchased by Tetra Tech in 2015). In this role, with full P&L responsibility and a target for acquisitive growth in North and South America, he boosted net income by an average of over 20% annually. In South Africa (1997-2002), he was the CEO of ECI Africa, a private consulting firm focusing on creating market opportunities for black-owned SME manufacturing and service firms. Under his leadership, ECI grew from 2 to over 50 full time staff, raised over USD $200 million in blended finance (soft loans, grants, and commercial investments), and created 18,000 jobs.

Adam holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Cornell University, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a Ph.D. from Pacific University. 

He speaks English and French and currently serves on the board of the Global Policy Institute in Washington, DC. He is also the chair of the Abuja International Choir, an avid guitarist, ocean sailor, scuba diver, wood worker, and squash player.

Cihan Terzi holds extensive experience and expertise at both national and international levels in areas of finance and management. After earning a degree in Economics at Ankara University, Terzi got a master’s in Business Administration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the U.S.

Terzi is a CPA and worked as a tax inspector and auditor at the Ministry of Finance, Tax Inspection Board, in Turkey between 1985 to 1993 and then went to the U.S. to pursue his MBA degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He then came back to Turkey as the head of revenue budget, statistics and IT departments at the Ministry of Finance (1996-2002). He was responsible for revenue budget, tax policy issues, statistic and research, world bank public financial project for tax administration leg, full automation project of tax offices, participation to IMF stand-by negotiations, participation to several relevant OECD working groups including country reviews.

He worked as the financial counsellor in the permanent mission of Turkey to the United Nations in New York between 2002 to 2005 where he was responsible for administrative and financial committee (5th Committee) matters.

From 2006 to 2015, he worked as an inspector for the UN Joint Inspection Unit in Geneva and served as its chair. Joint Inspection Unit is the systemwide oversight body of the United Nations and other UN organizations’ legislative bodies tasked with systemwide inspection, audit, evaluation and review with a view to increasing efficiency and effectiveness of the organizations.

He has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions of the United Nations since 2018.

Other than his MBA degree, he holds a Fiscal Decentralization and Local Government Financial Management Certificate from Duke University, Tax Analysis and Revenue Forecasting Certificate from Harvard University, and an Accounting Certificate from NYU.

Baglan Rhymes has been instrumental in building, shaping, and branding some of the hottest tech start-ups in Silicon Valley, and she is a thought leader on the topics of entrepreneurship and innovation in technology and digital media with an emphasis on monetization strategy.

As the former Managing Partner and Chief Digital Officer & SVP of Revenue for Wi-Fi security and privacy provider AnchorFreeHotspot Shield, Ms. Rhymes created the global revenue, sales, and business development strategies to help propel the company from a start-up to the world’s largest consumer VPN, valued at exit @$390M. She built the operational infrastructure from scratch, played a key role in raising $53M in Series C funding, and launched four new products that currently account for 98% of the company’s revenues. Her client roster includes Symantec, McAfee, Google, Facebook, and government clients Voice of America and Radio Farda.

She had led the charge in CVE: Strategic Communications, Cyber Crimes, and Information Operations to combat terrorism online and divided her time between Tampa and McLean.

After AnchorFree, Ms. Rhymes served as the GM/SVP of Qualys (QLYS-market cap of $5 Billion) Cloud Security Platform managing 17 cloud security products and a team of 100 distributed globally.

Previously, as Vice President, Media for global online advertising agency LSF Interactive, Ms. Rhymes created the company’s inaugural online media strategy and built departments focused on digital strategy, online sales, media planning, and buying, and she developed advertising campaigns for top luxury, fashion, lifestyle, media, and technology brands including Waterford/Wedgwood, Ghirardelli Chocolates, Yves Saint Laurent Couture, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney, Sergio Rossi, Lancôme Canada, Clarins etc. managing a cumulative budget of over $125 Million.

In addition, she masterminded a public service video campaign, Why You Should Vote: Citizen’s Cry, which was recognized with YouTube’s Most Viewed News and Politics Video of All-Time award.

Ms. Rhymes is named one of the most Influential Turkish Women in the United States of America, and she is an active member of the Forbes Council.

Originally from Turkey, Ms. Rhymes earned her Master of Science degree in Economics from Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir.

Ms. Rhymes had her engineering degree at SEI Carnegie Mellon, where she holds close ties. Ms. Rhymes is an adjunct professor at UC. Berkeley and Harrisburg University and occasional guest lecturer at Stanford University.

Ms. Rhymes co-authored a book titled “Of Love, Autonomy, and Wealth: Work and Play in the Virtual World.” She volunteers for canine rescue groups and plays polo in her spare time.

Sinem Vatanartıran holds a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and Administration and has demonstrated a long commitment to education, with her experience in teaching at and leading educational institutions from Pre-K to University. She worked as an instructor at Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey from 1995 to 2000. Since 2000, she has been working at Bahcesehir Ugur Educational Institutions at various levels: In 2002, she established Ugur Career Services Center offering career counseling programs nationwide and training school counselors and leaders on career counseling. Under her leadership, a career inventory test was developed and implemented nationwide that enabled to draw the career map of Turkey. She was then appointed as the high school principal of Bahcesehir K-12 Schools, the largest independent network of K-12 schools in Turkey, and in 2006 Dr. Vatanartiran established the first Science and Technology High School in Turkey.

In 2008, she established Turkey’s first Children’s Science Museum, housed at Bahçeşehir K-12 Schools. Today, all of Bahçeşehir K-12 School campuses in Turkey holds a children’s science museum. Dr. Vatanartiran was appointed as the Dean of Graduate School of Education, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul in 2012 to 2018. Dr. Vatanartiran has been a prolific publisher in the field of education, including a weekly column in a national newspaper, Vatan. Her scholarly research and publishing focus on higher education leadership, school leadership, educational technologies, educational change and reforms, student achievement, and teacher development. Dr. Vatanartiran is the founding President of Bay Atlantic University.