Cem Erciyes, Publishing Director at Doğan Kitap, graduated from Bornova Anatolian High School in İzmir and earned a degree in International Relations from the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Marmara University. He later completed a master’s degree in International Relations at Istanbul University.
He began his journalism career in 1992 at Dünya Newspaper, where he worked for Dünya Kitap magazine and the newspaper’s culture and arts pages. In 1997, he joined Radikal, taking on roles such as Culture and Arts Editor, Publishing Coordinator of the Radikal Book Supplement, and Manager of Supplementary Publications. He edited the newspaper’s culture and arts pages, and in 2001 launched the Radikal Book Supplement, which he directed for fifteen years.
His articles on culture, the arts, and media have appeared regularly in a variety of magazines, newspapers, and online publications. He has also produced and hosted television and radio programs on culture, the arts, and history for TRT and Açık Radyo.
Since 2016, he has been working at Doğan Kitap.
Orçun Ejder is a senior executive specializing in culture and arts, the entertainment industry, experience design, and culture marketing. He completed his undergraduate degree at Middle East Technical University (METU) and earned a master’s degree in Marketing Communications at İstanbul Bilgi University.
He began his career in 2007 at Pozitif, where he worked for approximately nine years in artist management, event and festival production, project management, and business development. During this time, he worked on large-scale culture and arts events and platforms that built multidisciplinary bridges between creative communities, artists, and brands.
Between 2016 and 2018, he served as Deputy General Manager at Zorlu Performing Arts Center. From 2018, he worked in culture marketing at Anadolu Efes, supporting independent culture and arts projects and coordinating brand collaborations. He now continues his work in culture marketing at Red Bull.
Kariyerine 2007 yılında Pozitif bünyesinde adım atan Ejder, burada yaklaşık dokuz yıl boyunca sanatçı yönetimi, etkinlik ve festival prodüksiyonu, proje yönetimi ve iş geliştirme alanlarında görev almıştır. Bu süreçte yaratıcı topluluklar, sanatçılar ve markalar arasında çok disiplinli köprüler kuran büyük ölçekli kültür-sanat etkinlikleri ve platformları üzerinde çalışmıştır.
2016-2018 yılları arasında Zorlu Performans Sanatları Merkezi’nde Genel Müdür Yardımcısı olarak görev yapmıştır. 2018’den itibaren Anadolu Efes’te kültür pazarlaması alanında çalışarak bağımsız kültür-sanat projelerinin desteklenmesi ve marka işbirliklerinin koordinasyonu süreçlerini yürütmüştür. Şu anda Red Bull bünyesinde kültür pazarlaması alanındaki çalışmalarına devam etmektedir.
Pelin Başaran is a curator, producer and cultural leader working across contemporary performance, internationalism and artistic freedom. She is Artistic Director of LIFT and Creative Director at Battersea Arts Centre (BAC).
Since joining 2021, Pelin has brought a distinctive artistic identity to BAC rooted in experimentation, internationalism, and engagement with the political and social questions of our time. She has shaped BAC’s creative strategy and expanded BAC’s programme, bringing leading international artists including Florentina Holzinger, Back to Back Theatre, Miet Warlop and Tiago Rodrigues to London. Pelin has also developed longer-term pathways, commissioning models and partnerships for UK based artists to create, present and take their work nationally and internationally. Her work has contributed to BAC becoming recognised as a key London home for international contemporary performance, winning The Stage International Award in 2024.
Başaran began her career in Istanbul as part of the founding team of garajistanbul, one of the city’s key spaces for contemporary performance. In 2011, she founded PARC, an independent organisation for artistic research, production and presentation, building international collaborations and creating new possibilities for independent practice in Turkey. She also found and co-directed Siyah Bant – Freedom of Expression in the Arts, a research and advocacy platform documenting censorship and defending artistic freedom. After an extensive career in Istanbul, she moved to the UK, working at Contact in Manchester before joining BAC.
Over more than two decades, Başaran has built spaces, programmes and international networks that give artists opportunities to take risks. Her work champions experimental performance, marginalised voices and artists working beyond established forms, driven by a belief in culture’s capacity to open up new ways of imagining how we might live together.
Tülin Hadi graduated from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Faculty of Architecture in 1993 and co-founded TeCe Architecture with Cem İlhan in 1994. Her practice focuses on urban design, urban commons, and public architecture typologies. She has won numerous awards in national and international competitions, served on jury panels, and led design studios at various universities focusing on public commons.
In 2006, she received the Young Architect Award and has twice won the National Architecture Award (Building Category) for the METU Northern Cyprus Campus buildings (2006) and the VKV Ford Otosan Culture Center (2012).
Since 2019, she has been serving as the chair of the Istanbul City Council, a governance platform and advisory board dedicated to participation.
