History of the Rectorate

Dr. Esra Gençtürk was appointed as the Rector of Ozyegin University in 2014. After graduating from Robert College (1977) in Turkey, she received her B.S. degree (1981) from University of Southern California, and earned her M.B.A. (1983) and Ph.D. in Marketing (1990) from University of Minnesota. Before joining Özyeğin University in 2009, Dr. Gençtürk was on the Marketing and International Business faculty of the University of Texas at Austin (1989-1996), and a faculty member of the College of Administrative Sciences and Economics at Koç University (1996-2009). She joined Ozyegin University in 2009 as Executive Director of Sector Solutions Program, and served as the Vice Rector between 2011 and 2014.

Dr. Gençtürk was the recipient of the University of Minnesota annual doctoral dissertation fellowship for 1986-1987, and was a fellow at the 1986 American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium. She was also the co-recipient of the 1987 Robert Lieberman Memorial Award for teaching excellence at the University of Minnesota. At the University of Texas, Dr. Gençtürk was a finalist in the 1990 Business Council Texas Excellence Teaching Award, and was nominated for several teaching awards including the Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship (Spring 1991, Spring 1990), College of Business Administration Foundation Teaching Award (Spring 1992, Spring 1991) as well as the Hank and Mary Harkins Foundation Award for Effective Teaching in Large Classes (Spring 1990, Spring 1993). Dr. Gençtürk has taught International Marketing, Marketing Research, and Marketing Strategy at both the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as at Executive MBA and Executive Training programs.

Dr. Gençtürk’s research interests include strategic marketing and competition strategies, management of distribution channels, foreign market entry and penetration strategies, research design, and measurement considerations. In addition to her award-winning research and articles published in refereed international journals, Prof. Gençtürk also served on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of International Marketing, the Journal of International Management, and Advances in International Marketing. Prof. Gençtürk served as Vice President of Communications for the American Marketing Association Global Special Interest group for two consecutive terms between 2005 and 2010, and was elected as its Chair in 2011.

Prof. Erkut obtained an undergraduate degree from the Faculty of Engineering of Bogazici University in 1980 and a Ph.D from the University of Florida in 1986, both in Industrial Engineering. Between 1985 and 2005, he taught at the University of Alberta’s School of Business, and was a visiting faculty member at the Univ. of Geneva, Ohio State Univ., NIDA (Bangkok), as well as Bogazici and Sabanci Universities. He received nine teaching awards, including the prestigious "INFORMS Teaching of Management Science Practice Award" and Canada’s "3M Teaching Fellowship," as well as five awards of merit, and four practice awards from the Canadian Operational Research Society.

Prof. Erkut, served as project leader for a number of externally-funded projects, founded an applied research center (Center for Excellence in Operations) at the University of Alberta, was the Founding Editor of INFORMS Transactions on Education, and published over 50 refereed journal articles in journals such as Operations Research, Transportation Science, European Journal of Operational Research, Interfaces, Computers & OR, Risk Analysis, and Geographical Analysis. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration of Bilkent University between 2005 and 2007, before starting to serve as the Founding Rector of Ozyegin University in 2008.

Prof. Dr. Erhan Erkut, who served as the founding rector of Özyeğin University from January 1, 2008 to July 1, 2013, successfully led the establishment process of our university.