Berko İlaç Continues to Strengthen with New Appointments

Berko İlaç Strengthens Operations with New Appointments Berko İlaç, which operates with an innovative approach, approximately 800 employees and world-standard production facilities spanning 21,000 square metres across three phases to work towards and produce for "healthy tomorrows," continues to strengthen itself with new appointments. Growing day by day in product count, production volume, turnover and human resources, Berko İlaç has reinforced its position with a new management team and achieved breakthroughs in organizational processes. Oben Baykal was appointed Plant Director at Berko İlaç, Recep Avcı as Research and Development and Registration Director, İbrahim Sarıyar as Human Resources and Organizational Development Director, Cem Günbay as Finance Director, and Erhan Tosun as Supply Chain Director, while Ömer Sürmen joined as Production Manager, Ahmet Kabakçı as Technical Services Manager, Tuğba Temizer as Product Manager, and Gökhan Ezber as Sales Operations Manager at Berko İlaç.

Oben BAYKAL

After graduating from Ankara Gazi University's Chemical Engineering department, Oben Baykal began his career in 2002 as a production engineer at Roche Pharma. Subsequently, he worked in various positions in production at Sandoz Pharma and later at Novartis Pharma Kurtköy Facilities. Between 2011-2015, he managed the design, construction, installation and commissioning project of Onko Koçsel Pharmaceuticals' Gebze Oncology and non-Oncology Facilities. There, he shared the experience he gained on toxic sterile product manufacturing, isolator technologies and containment systems at various international conferences, contributing to the sector. Between 2015-2018, he served as project manager at Roche Pharma in the biotechnology field for a project involving manufacturing products from cell to finished product, and subsequently provided consulting on pharmaceutical facility establishment to various companies for a period. In 2019, Oben Baykal began his role as project manager at Sandoz Gebze-1 Factory with the aim of closing the facility and transferring products to overseas Sandoz facilities. Following the transfer of the factory to Genveon Pharma, he assumed the role of plant director for one year. He joined the Berko İlaç family in 2021 as factory manager and was appointed to the position of Plant Director in 2022. Oben Baykal is married with one child.  

Recep AVCI

Recep Avcı graduated as a chemist from Erzurum Atatürk University Faculty of Science in 1982 and began working in the pharmaceutical sector in 1986 at Fako Pharmaceuticals. After 12 years of research and development experience at Fako Pharmaceuticals, he served as R&D formulation head at Toprak Pharma between 1998-2000. Between 2000-2004, Avcı served as formulation development head at Bilim Pharma, and subsequently served as formulation development manager at Abdi İbrahim between 2004-2013, R&D group manager at the R&D centre at Deva Pharma between 2013-2017, and R&D and quality group manager at Onko Koçsel between 2017-2020. Starting from 2020 as R&D coordinator at Berko İlaç, Recep Avcı was appointed as Research and Development and Registration Director. Avcı is married with two children.

İbrahim SARIYAR

İbrahim Sarıyar completed his studies at Marmara University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences and the MBA programme at Maltepe University. He received English language training at Florida State University, completed the 2003 Human Resources Management certificate programme at Middle East Technical University and the 2017 Executive Development programme at Koç University. Starting his career in 2001 within Süzer Holding as a human resources and quality manager, Sarıyar later directed institutionalization processes as human resources manager at Tosçelik A.Ş. Subsequently serving as human resources manager at Turkish Economy Bank, Sarıyar most recently led all institutionalization processes as group human resources manager at Tiryaki Agro, a company of which the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Investcrop investment fund were partners. Between 2011-2016, Sarıyar also served as trainer in the Human Resources Certificate programmes within Yıldız Technical University SEM, providing training on interview techniques, performance management, labour law, compensation and payroll matters. Serving as Human Resources Manager at Berko İlaç since December 2015, İbrahim Sarıyar was appointed as Human Resources and Organizational Development Director.  

Cem GÜNBAY

Cem Günbay is a graduate of Istanbul University Faculty of Political Sciences Business Administration department. He began his career by winning the MT (manager candidate) training programme at Akbank general management commercial banking marketing unit as assistant specialist. He subsequently worked as a finance specialist in TATKO holding group, which included companies operating in Goodyear tyres, Billur salt, Chrysler truck manufacturing, construction and tourism sectors. In 2000, he transitioned to the pharmaceutical sector and for 10 years held various managerial and director positions in finance, budget-planning and reporting departments at German pharmaceutical company Hexal and subsequently at Sandoz group. Following a brief period as budget and reporting manager at My Technic, an aircraft maintenance company, he returned to the pharmaceutical sector in December 2010, working at Berko İlaç successively in budget and control, accounting and finance management and finance management roles. Cem Günbay was appointed as Finance Director.  

Erhan TOSUN

After graduating from Istanbul University's German Language Teaching department, Erhan Tosun began in the pharmaceutical sector in 2002 at Santa Farma Pharma as production-planning and control assistant, working in various positions in supply chain management at this company for nearly 11 years. During his time at Santa Farma Pharma, Erhan Tosun completed a thesis-based master's degree in Supply Chain and Logistics Management at Bahçeşehir University Institute for Graduate Studies in Science between 2005-2007, and worked as warehouse coordinator at Sandoz Pharma between 2012-2013. He subsequently served as supply chain manager responsible for all processes at HiPP Organic Baby Food until 2019. In 2019, as group supply chain manager, he assumed responsibility for managing the supply chains of Arven Pharma, Verano Veterinary Pharma and Montero Food companies under Toksöz Group. As of February 2022, Erhan Tosun commenced his role as Supply Chain Director at Berko İlaç and has participated in numerous local and global projects of varying scales in supply chain management and IT.

Ömer SÜRMEN

Ömer Sürmen graduated as a chemist from Atatürk University Chemistry department in 1992 and began his career as quality control supervisor at the Eczacıbaşı Group. He subsequently entered pharmaceutical career at Abdi İbrahim, where he served between 1998-2018 successively as quality control manager, R&D formulation manager, production manager and director, gaining the opportunity to understand and work across different disciplines. In 2017, he spent 6 months in Algeria as an expat for the commissioning of Abdi İbrahim's Algeria facility and initial production operations. Subsequently, he commenced his role as production manager in 2018 at an Azerbaijan-origin pharmaceutical company where facility establishment was just beginning. He directed the establishment and commissioning of this facility with annual production capacity of 75 million boxes; solid, liquid and semi-solid production and packaging potential; successful passage of T.C. Ministry of Health inspections; and the factory's GMP certification process. Joining Berko İlaç as Production Manager in 2022, Ömer Sürmen actively pursues social activities alongside his professional career and has a successful theatre background in various roles. He also actively serves as deputy chairman at the Association of Chemists, of which he has been a member since 2012.  

Ahmet KABAKÇI

After completing his studies at Hürriyet Anadolu Technical High School in Automatic Control (Mechatronics) with top marks in 1998, Ahmet Kabakçi completed his degree in Mechanical Engineering at Yıldız Technical University and subsequently a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at Istanbul Technical University. Ahmet Kabakçi began his professional career in 2007 as maintenance and repair engineer at Honda Türkiye A.Ş. automobile factory, implementing energy saving projects and energy SCADA system installations. He subsequently entered the pharmaceutical sector with Biofarma Pharma, serving in the installation of Hüttlin FBD, granule and Manesty coating machines. At Electricfil Unifil Automotive company, he worked alongside a French project team on the commissioning of a new production building and new product projects. Between 2012-2014, he worked at Sandoz Pharma as maintenance engineer on auxiliary facilities and production machinery, handling maintenance, repairs, calibrations, qualifications as well as GEA FBD installation, Glatt Smart 700 coating installation and commissioning operations, and undertook energy efficiency projects with the global energy team. Between 2015-2021, Ahmet Kabakçi worked at Biofarma Pharma first as technical manager and subsequently as engineering and investments manager, implementing the transfer and installation of production lines from Münir Şahin Pharma factory to Biofarma. He implemented various machine upgrade projects, cost-saving initiatives, installation and commissioning of new production machinery, and managed Capex-Opex budgets for the entire operations department. Serving as technical manager at Onko Koçsel Pharma in 2021-2022, Ahmet Kabakçi commenced his role as Technical Services Manager at Berko İlaç from March 2022.  

Tuğba TEMİZER

After completing her studies in Business at Bahçeşehir University, Tuğba Temizer completed the Istanbul Technical University Human Resources Management certificate programme in 2014 and the ICF-International Coach Federation approved Professional Expert Coaching programme in 2020. Temizer entered the pharmaceutical sector in 2015 at Neutec Pharma as a product introduction representative. From 2017 onwards, serving as product manager responsible for acute and chronic products in different therapeutic areas at Neutec Pharma, Generica Pharma and Koçak Farma, Temizer has served as Berko İlaç White Group Product Manager since December 2021.

Gökhan EZBER

Gökhan Ezber completed his studies in Statistics at Anadolu University Faculty of Science and the Marmara University Foundation Pre-MBA programme. He completed the MIS (Management Information Systems) certificate programme at Boğaziçi University School of Applied Sciences in 2002. Beginning his career in 1999 in the advertising and market research sector, working as market research and systems manager, Ezber transitioned to the pharmaceutical sector in 2004, managing sales operations and marketing support processes at Nobel Pharma. Subsequently, in 2013, Gökhan Ezber served as business processes specialist and project coordinator at Santa Farma Pharma, and in 2015 took on the role of customer services manager at IQVIA (IMS Health), a pharmaceutical statistics and data company, in the unit meeting the data requirements of pharmaceutical companies, working with leading firms in the sector. Most recently in 2021, developing sales operations processes at Koçak Farma Pharma, Ezber joined Berko İlaç as Sales Operations Manager in March 2022.