Alper Almelek

Alper Almelek was born in Istanbul in 1971 and studied Political Science and Music at the University of Southern Maine and Sonoma State University. He interned in the office of Maine Senator William Cohen in the US Senate, and then, after working in the family business for 11 years, served for 8 years as Turkey General Manager and Middle East Business Director of Siegwerk Corporation. Since 2014 he has been Chairman of the Board of Almelek A.Ş. and its joint venture VAmatco A.Ş., and Managing Partner of the internet startup Kitaptan Hayata A.Ş. In addition, as a social responsibility project, he is the content provider of kitapindeksi.com, a search engine he founded himself. Almelek is also a composer, an open-water marathon swimmer and a sprint triathlete. Recently Almelek studied for an Executive MBA at Sabancı University, as part of which he took Entrepreneurship and Leadership courses at MIT in Boston. He has now begun a one-year, part-time Postgraduate Diploma program with a thesis in ‘Organizational Leadership’ at Said Business School, Oxford University.