About me
I grew up in Ankara, a city of ministries and wide boulevards, and studied civil engineering at Istanbul Technical University. I graduated in 2000, and that October I landed in the United States with a student visa and an English class to attend. The years that followed were built one floor at a time: a desk at an architect’s office, then a company of my own building green homes, then an MBA at the University of Maryland’s Smith School, then the corporate life. By 2012 I had a good American life, and I left it to come home.
Home turned out to be harder to find than I expected. I spent three years in Istanbul working in renewable energy, close to old friends, but the city never let me catch my breath. My cousin ran a beach club in Alaçatı, so I came down to see whether a quieter life might suit me. I meant it as an experiment, and I never left. I started out managing Kapha, a fine-dining restaurant, learning hospitality from the inside. In 2018 my partners and I opened the first GAIA, followed by GAIA Bazaar in 2020 and GAIA By the Sea in 2022.
What held me in Alaçatı first was the sky. I would wake to a clear blue with no clouds, a light breeze off the water and air that never turns heavy. The next morning would be the same, and the morning after that, until I stopped expecting anything else. Alaçatı has no industry and no haze, only light. People arrive on holiday, so its streets carry their good mood. Life here is simple to live well: produce that tastes of where it was grown, and the sea, roads and hills for swimming, cycling, running or walking. İzmir and its international airport are both 45 minutes away, so the city and the wider world are within easy reach. I like having them that close without having to live in a city.