I was born in Ankara in 1977 and spent my first four years in Adana, at the BOTAŞ Ceyhan facilities where my father worked. After that it was back to Ankara, where I stayed until halfway through my last year of grade school. This little journey — from the sea to the steppe — eventually carried me, at 14, to another city by the sea: Istanbul.

I finished high school at İstek Vakfı Uluğbey and went on to study Business Administration at Istanbul University. 

Life outside school always felt more exciting. During university I acted in theatre, took Art History and Philosophy classes at the Painting and Sculpture Museums, and learned from Yalçın Sadak not just about the subjects but about the cultural value of “knowing one’s place.” I also had the privilege of working with Tomris Uyar. For me, creativity meant filling in the gaps; to complete myself I began to write — first poetry, then short stories, driven by a passion for detailed storytelling.

My first brush with research came in 1996, as an intern at what was then Plus Remark. Research was fun, but my dream was literature. After graduation, when I started looking for a job, research found me again. What began as “I’ll start here and leave when I find something closer to my dreams” has become a 25-year journey. For someone who loves to describe people, what better profession than one built on understanding them? In 2001 I also began a Master’s degree in Arts Management.

I stayed at the same company for ten years, until January 2010. Mergers are common in research, and our company was always among the most admired and sought after. That’s why, even though the name changed five times — Remark, Infratest Burke, NFO Infratest, Plus Remark, Synovate — I stayed with the same core team. Models, methods and names changed, but the team that shaped us stayed together. It’s a rare privilege to work with people you value and enjoy; I was lucky to experience that.

I married Gökalp Okumuşoğlu in 2005. In June 2011 we welcomed our first son, Ufuk, and in May 2014 our second son, Deniz.

In January 2010, I embarked on a new chapter with Sia Insight. Together with Nurdan, Hüseyin, and Başak — colleagues with whom I had grown and shared countless experiences — we built Sia Insight from the ground up. Every detail was shaped with collective insight, and we started afresh from the same place we began our careers: understanding people.

At Sia Insight, we design tailor-made marketing research to support our partners in their strategic decision-making. Each project feels like a new creative journey to us — and that’s exactly what keeps our work exciting.