Berna Gözbaşı is a Turkish businesswoman and sports executive. She was the first female president of Kayserispor football club, which plays in Turkey's senior men's league.

Biography

1974 – Berna Gözbaşı was born to a petty officer father and a schoolteacher mother in

Gelibolu Gelibolu, also known as Gallipoli (from el, Καλλίπολις, ''Kallipolis'', "Beautiful City"), is the name of a town and a district in Çanakkale Province of the Marmara Region, located in Eastern Thrace in the European part of Turkey on th ...

Çanakkale Province Çanakkale Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey, located in the northwestern part of the country. It takes its name from the city of Çanakkale. Like Istanbul, Çanakkale province has a European (Thrace) and an Asian (Anatolia) part. The Eu ...

, Turkey. She was educated in

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

in English at the

Dokuz Eylül University Dokuz Eylül University ( tr, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi) (DEÜ) is a university in İzmir, Turkey. It was founded in 1982 and is organized in 15 faculties. DEU is the first university which applied the problem-based learning method in Turkey, ...

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

, and graduated in 1996. She has two daughters.

Business career

Gözbaşı started her professional career as the export manager at the zinc-lead metal industry "Çinkır" in

Kayseri Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large Industrialisation, industrialised List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is comp ...

. In 2001, she founded her first business, BRN Consulting and Foreign Trade Ltd., after she studied

international finance International finance (also referred to as international monetary economics or international macroeconomics) is the branch of financial economics broadly concerned with monetary and macroeconomic interrelations between two or more countries. Inter ...

, Meta Trade,

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded * ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures'' (album), a ...

, and

option Option or Options may refer to: Computing *Option key, a key on Apple computer keyboards *Option type, a polymorphic data type in programming languages *Command-line option, an optional parameter to a command *OPTIONS, an HTTP request method ...

at the London Metal Exchange. Between 2001 and 2006, she helped many small and medium-sized enterprises entering the export business in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

. In 2006, she established the BRN Bed company to produce

mattress A mattress is a large, usually rectangular pad for supporting a lying person. It is designed to be used as a bed, or on a bed frame as part of a bed. Mattresses may consist of a quilted or similarly fastened case, usually of heavy cloth, conta ...

es and

bed base A bed base, sometimes called a foundation, is the part of a bed that supports the mattress. The bed base can itself be held in place and framed by the bedstead ( bed frame). In the United States, box-spring bed bases are very common (to the po ...

s. She exported her products into more than 60 countries on five continents, and was cited as a role model for young entrepreneurs. In 2011, Gözbaşı was named one of the ten "Most Successful Entrepreneurs" by the European Business Awards, and received the ''Ruban d'Honneur''. Her company was listed in 2012 as one of the 25 "Fastest-Growing Companies" by the

Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Odalar ve Borsalar Birliği, TOBB for short) is a confederation of all local chambers of commerce, industry and maritime as well as commodity exchanges in Turkey. The union wa ...

(TOBB) and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's "All World Network – Turkey". She is the first female member of the Kayseri Chamber of Industry.

Sports career

During her youth, Gözbaşı was an active basketball player. She was admitted to the board of directors at Kayserispor, and later became vice chairperson. Erol Bedir, the club president of Kayserispor, which play in the

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

top-level men's league of

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

, resigned on 6 October 2019, following the request of the honorary club president Mehmet Özhaseki. After serving three years on the club board, Gözbaşı was elected president of the football club with the support of the local political leaders, former government ministers, leaders of

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s, and the president of the TOBB M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu. Gözbaşı commented on her presidency that "the chair would not have been offered to her if the team had not been at the bottom of the league table". She expressed her determination to improve the club's situation in the 2019–20 Süper Lig season by making decisions earlier. Upon the resignation of President Erol Bedir in 2019, she was elected president at the Extraordinary General Assembly and became the first women's football club president in the history of the Süper Lig. She was re-elected to this post in 2021. Gözbaşı is the first female president of a Turkish men's football club playing in the country's top-level league.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gozbasi, Berna Living people People from Gelibolu Dokuz Eylül University alumni Turkish women in business Turkish businesspeople Turkish football chairmen and investors Kayserispor 1974 births Women association football executives