Arzu Tekir – Keynote Speaker

Arzu Tekir is a Business Strategist specializing in smart and sustainable city solutions. She helps entrepreneurs, technology companies define market opportunities, develop growth strategies, and fundraising.

She is the Founder & CEO of URBANITE VENTURE, LLC, helping urban-tech and ed-tech companies transform cities. Urbanite Venture is the independent advisor and business partner to companies solving urban problems that bring new market opportunities, better relations with the city administrations, effective communication plan, and capital.

Arzu has recently founded Career Transformation Academy to help professionals and entrepreneurs transform their careers, move on with confidence, and grow their businesses. As a social entrepreneur, her purpose is to raise funding to support MSc and Ph.D. students studying STEM subjects in her home country, Turkey. Her book Time is Now, Lessons Learned to Transform Career, published by Elma Publishing House in March 2021.

She founded the country office of the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities in Turkey. Arzu and her team partnered with the national government and sixteen cities in Turkey and two cities in Africa to improve the quality of lives and positively impact urban mobility and urban sprawl, and urban efficiency.

She was named one of the Women of Courage Turkey by Dunya Finance & Business Daily. She was selected to the Global Ambassadors Program, organized by Vital Voices and Bank of America. Recently she was chosen by The American Turkish Society as one of its “Young Society Leaders.”

Arzu’s articles were published in Forbes and other magazines, and she has been featured in various media outlets including, The Guardian, National Geographic Energy Challenge Blog, Jazeera Magazine, Bloomberg HT TV and NTV-MSNBC. As a sought-after speaker, she gives talks and moderates discussions on entrepreneurship, innovation in urban transportation, and cities. She wrote an eBook, Blockchain for Smart Cities, Simplified in 2020.

She serves as the Corporate Communications Director at Arya Women Investment Platform, Advisory Board Member at Farklabs Innovation Center, and as a Board Member Social Impact Movement, NGO located in Miami, FL. She is the business and strategy partner of VRAcademi.