Meet TurkishWINner: Yapıncak Erkan

What do you do for a living? Tell us more about you. 

• I run my own company, YASHA Consulting, since 2013 after a twenty-year long marketing career with blue chip multinationals across fmcg, oil & energy and financial services. I work as a consultant, trainer, executive coach and mentor with a diverse set of clients ranging from start-ups to multinationals in both b2c and b2b sectors in the UK and internationally. I serve clients across strategy, marketing areas as well as leadership coaching, working with Commercial teams, C-suites and Boards. I am also a Trustee on a UK charity in healthcare and a Board Apprentice on a London Stock Exchange FTSE 250 publicly listed company in financial services.  

What's the best piece of advice you've received?

• Be patient!
• Who knows what is good and what is bad – Lao Tzu

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate

• YES, Dark chocolate please! Can we have 100% dark?!:)

One thing you wish you had known earlier in your career

• Failure is a gift!

If you could have any three people (dead or alive) over for dinner – who would they be?

• My parents and my brother ( as we live in different geographies I miss them dearly!)

Name a book you read that positively shaped you.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

You believe in the sisterhood at work because… 

• Women needs sisters (and brothers!) at work as there is so much mileage we have to cover to bring the societal diversity into the workplace. We just cannot do it alone!

Who are your role models? 

• My parents, my first line manager in Unilever, some of the unsung heroes I have met over the years in the third sector going far and beyond human imagination in the way they show passion and resilience to help others.

If you had one superpower, what would it be?

Give everyone a voice and an opportunity in life!