İşbank Board Chair and Bilkent Trustee Ersin Özince Addresses Bilkent Students

BY EMİRHAN KAYA (IR/III)

Ersin Özince, chairman of the İşbank Board of Directors and member of the Board of Trustees at Bilkent University, was invited by the Operational Research Club to give a talk on March 23 as part of the "Executive Chats" series.

Mr. Özince began his talk by stating that he received his education in management at METU, after which he worked in various sectors in industry. He said he considers banking as the administration of a business. After a brief introduction, he asked the audience to determine the main themes of his talk, and then proceeded to speak about about modernization in terms of competitiveness, the age of information, the financial sector and the social media.

The world, said Mr. Özince, has been experiencing a rapid transformation process. He recommended to the students that they keep up with international affairs and improve their linguistic skills to the utmost degree possible in order to gain a competitive advantage in the globalizing world. He also pointed out the negative effects of uncontrolled globalization and the sometimes distorting impact of easily accessible information on social, economic and industrial life.

Upon a question from Rector Prof. Abdullah Atalar, Mr. Özince expressed his views on the possibility of İstanbul becoming an international center of finance. Comparing a financial center with a marketplace, he suggested that Turkey could attract more investors if the country's fiscal and judicial systems were to be improved. He concluded his remarks by giving some useful hints on how to maintain a healthy and well-disciplined life.