Gülsünay Uysal

A BUSINESS WOMAN who believes that every person is unique, a coach obsessed with the power of awareness, a LEADER whose reason for existence is to work.

In short, that’s me, yes. But how did I become this person?

Middle of three sisters. Number two. The skinny girl who grew up among the woolsacks in our haberdashery in Izmit. My childhood would have been incomplete if I hadn’t climbed the plum tree and ate the tomato paste on the tile. Childhood and adolescence…

I am looking at the sky, lying on the rug, under the mulberry tree in front of Hacı Dede’s house, where I am in my state of existence.

Don’t rush! Saturday, I have a big Sunday ahead of me. My only concern is the batteries for my walkman! Yeni Türkü, Göç Yolları and Yavuz Bingöl, Uzaktan Sevdim. The first tapes I bought myself. I am back to myself. My grandfather died, there was an earthquake, my maternal uncle died, I stay in the village with my grandmother. Many things happened that year. I was 14 years old. The prayers I memorized to get Hey Girl magazine are in my memory from that year.

Journeys between Izmit and Bursa. Songs along the way. 3 hours. “Ömrümüzün son demi”… “Söyleyin güneşe doğmasın bugün”… We are about to arrive there! “Orada bir köy var uzakta…” Grandma waves goodbye, until she’s out of sight. Tears every time. Longing. Sharp. My grandfather Teacher Ahmet Uysal, his voice overflows through the village and fills all the houses.

Izmit. Poverty. Fights between my parents. Sundays are nice, there is roasted mushrooms. Home is cold. The house of the Greek Emigrant Aziz Amca and the streets of Mehmet Ali Paşa. It’s over.

My middle school adventure, which lasted for 3 years, when I started studying German, was interrupted by an earthquake and high school ended in Kocaeli Anatolian High School. Yahyakaptan Yuvacık roads. Full of me, overflowing with itself, a little colorful, a little different. Transitioning from glasses to lenses and realizing myself. I love math and geometry.

Two huge changes in 2003. Istanbul and French. Marmara University, Political Science in French. Difficulty, faculty years in Tarabya. When I learned to drink wine. By watching dolphins. And France! The Seine, the Eiffel… First Europe. Paris, Strasbourg. 4 months. My Pacha Tour guiding journey when I return. I make very good money. I wake up on a bench at the airport at 3:00 am. I can’t distinguish between day and night. Hello to different cultures and tourism brutality!

I will be a journalist! This term, I knock on the door of the news centers of the university in the first year. I met CNN Türk Gürkan Zengin and spent 3 years there. On the one hand, school. ATV, TRT vs. The years I met many writers, politicians and academics. Media is nice but not very suitable for me. I’m different, I can’t express it. Keep searching.

Think Tank, Ecopolitics. It takes 2 years. Editing, researching, organizing, social media, internal communications, writing, journalism, photographer… An opportunity to experience whatever comes to my mind. But most importantly, The project of Turkey’s Great Roof of Vamık Volkan tries to keep people with different identities in one room. Important person. Precious too. He talks, he argues. Kurdish nationalists, Turkish nationalists… Psychoanalyst Vamık Hoca, then I met Ayla Yazıcı, we work under her leadership. On understanding the mourning of mothers after the village evacuation, the days of Yüksek Ova, Erbil, Hakkari, Cyprus, Malatya, Mersin, Istanbul, Van… Murat Belge and the east, whose traces remain! Sümbül Mountains. I never went again there.

My short presenting experience is for TRT. I travel the Balkans from A to Z… I am fascinated. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia… Corrupt countries, dust and smoke. Astonishing mountain landscapes.

The first real journalism experience with the AKŞAM Newspaper. İsmail Küçükkaya leads the newspaper. It’s a productive period. But I continue the search. The newspaper is sold. When I close my eyes and open them, the newspaper has become a different place.

The smell, the rush, the excitement, the pressure, the reading, the pride, the phone calls, the greeting… Between 18.30-19.00 is critical. The stress of catching up to print. My interviews are still on my memory. Gezi, the Turkish-Kurdish issue, etc.

The media book is closing in 2003 for me. Of my own free will. My professional career begins there. During the transition period, I am finishing my Master’s thesis in Sociology at Galatasaray University. However, I have two important studies here. I was the assistant of the project in which is involved by Prof. Dr. İpek Merçil. The name of the project on Women’s Criminality and the Situation of Women in Prison in Turkey. Every Monday, we interview criminals in Bakırköy Prison, then we prepare the transcription. I remember the children next to the guilty mothers, the woman smoking the finished cigarette butts, the lovers… and Parisa.

The Male Identity that changes in Turkey: New Masculinities. My graduate thesis. I see about 40 men. All with qualifications that will change society. 2 foreign languages, master etc. The identity of the hypocritical Turkish man is revealed. Their mentality that decisively restricts the right to sexuality they see fit for women. It’s striking because it goes on record with what I’ve heard known. One sentence to the academy, 3 years.

Ford Otosan awakens the sleeping beauty from its cave. How is it that a car appears every two and a half minutes? The production line, fordism… Oblomov, who enjoyed his time at the Windmill, I mean, I wake up at 5.00 every day and go home at 21:00 because the factory is in Gölcük. My military. Koç Group is the place that makes me who I am. Engineering discipline is everywhere. Nursel Ölmez Ateş, who has a trace in all my work. I learn a lot from him. by watching. And today, when I’m still struggling, I say from time to time how Nursel would have made a decision. I am a strong, secretive, visionary leader.

After I became a mother, the organizational structure was not the same as before. My Teklas journey begins in 2018.

I’m starting out as a Corporate Communications Manager. After 4 months, I am appointed as Human Resources and Corporate Communications Manager. Then I became a member of the Executive Board and now I am extremely proud to serve Teklas and the Danon Family as the Global HR Director. The opportunities, opportunities and empowering courage they offered me made me a business woman, a decision maker, and revealed my potential and made me who I am. This money cannot be paid.

Teklas, which has production operations in Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Mexico, America, China and sales operations in Germany and France, has close to 6500 employees today. In this organization, I lead operations such as Human Resources, Corporate Communication, Sustainability, Environment and ISG. The happiness of rushing to work is priceless. My manager and CEO Nebi Anıl, who made this possible, is very valuable to me. Everything is possible, you can do it if you want perspective and the stress-free work environment it creates allows me to sprout. That’s all for now!

Pera, who came into my life 4 years ago, is the most important person who taught me leadership and never give up. Cetin, my fellow traveler, penetrating the compassionate forgiveness of love into my soul…

If I had a magic wand and could go back in time, I would make exactly the same choices. I love who I am very much and these roads, paths that made it up… So a big thank you to the universe! I am excited to present this platform with great effort and stolen time.

Sharing my experiences, my design, my voice with people and touching their lives is the reason for my existence. Coaching entered my life about 6 years ago. An Aries took me to a great place when I was going through difficult times. I’m stuck on this road. My Adler school coaching adventure began. After Modules 1, 2, 3, I am now about to finish Practicum. The client hour I listened to approached 200.

On the other hand, Transactional Analysis trainings and finally Hanna Nita Scherler Gestalt journey… I am proud to be the character of a never-ending personal development story.

One of the issues that I am obsessed with is natural resources that are depleted and have come to an end. I’m anti-plastic. I believe in recycling. I support the sharing economy. I wear second hand. I change, I forgive. I rarely get my car washed. Never with Aquarius. I don’t get on a plane unless I have to. If I’m not going to sign documents, I don’t get a printout from the computer. I invite you to this action!

gulsunay.com will be an area where I compile all my trainings, career, coaching and mentoring experiences. Here I will open myself up to music, books, literature, stories. I will regain my soul consumed by social media here! As long as you’re reading.