Employee Profile

“The direct impact to results and strategy are the most rewarding things about my work.”

In a very difficult environment like Middle East, Turkey, North Africa (METNA), our ethics and values make us successful in building trust and long term relationships with our customers. Throughout my career journey, I have found many opportunities in Cargill to develop myself via different job enrichment opportunities like projects, on-the-job trainings, the opportunity to work with high caliber people including management teams, taking initiatives and having full accountability for my areas. Cargill is a very big school for personal development where you may find different classes that illustrate real-life situations.

Describe your work responsibilities and the importance of your role.

As category sales manager, I am accountable for the cross-selling activities of a broad portfolio (sweeteners, cocoa products, texturizers, fats & oils), over $60 million revenue, and profits and loss (P&L) targets of the confectionery and bakery category in Turkey and Iran. On top of that, I’m also responsible for identifying customer needs and building the strategy and executing it for confectionery and bakery category. My role has a direct impact on the short term business unit performance and long term geographical strategy.

Describe your day-to-day activities and the skills needed to perform well.

Account management, daily price quotations, contract management, sales execution, customer visits, team management and engagement are my daily based activities. Sales and marketing skills, relationship and time management, adaptability and agility are critical skills for high performance in this role.

Describe your career path. Where did you start and how did you get to where you are today?

My career started in Cargill 11 years ago in production as technical management trainee/shift supervisor just after my graduation. Working in production was a great learning experience for me to manage teams and processes especially on weekends and night shifts where I was the only decision maker. After this, I had the chance to work in quality as a project engineer, mainly responsible from continuous improvement projects. After two years, Cargill gave me the opportunity to change my career path and move to the commercial department as a technical service manager. I was managing the customer-facing pre-sales activities and product approval process. During four years in technical service, I had also a chance to finish my MBA to develop myself for new challenges. My new challenge was business development where I was involved in all acquisitions, new product development and investment projects. One of the great experiences was being a member of theMETNA strategy development group and also managing the projects of joint venture (JV) establishment in Saudi Arabia and acquisition of fat refinery in Turkey. After all the acquisitions and strategic planning, execution became the first priority for our business unit, and I accepted another challenge to be in active sales as a category manager.

What do you find most rewarding about your work?

The direct impact to results and strategy are the most rewarding things about my work. Our target has been to grow in the Middle East Turkey and North Africa (METNA) region and now it’s becoming real and I’m part of this reality. That’s great.

Why did you choose to join Cargill and what keeps you here? In other words, how has a career at Cargill helped you to thrive?

I chose Cargill because of its high-caliber people, "best plant" award winner among Cargill plants, its expertise of food and agriculture sector and its product portfolio that touches every food product on the shelf. Cargill was one of the best multinational company in Turkey that I would like work when I was graduated from food engineering. Throughout my career journey, I’ve realized that I made the right decision, because I found great opportunities to thrive via developing myself with great learnings in different areas such as production, quality, technical service, business development, sales and commercial.

What advice would you give someone interested in a career at Cargill like yours?

As our families are the most important things in our lives, I would describe Cargill as a big family, where you would be welcomed like a family member, have chance to learn from your mistakes, be proud of your success as a family and thrive together with the company.

Share an interesting tidbit about yourself such as hobbies, volunteerism, favorite foods or activities, accomplishments inside or outside of work.

I have a little girl who is 16 months old. Spending all my time outside of work with her is my main hobby. After she falls asleep, I like reading books about children. My favorite foods are local foods. I like Turkish cuisine and also trying local cuisines when I travel. Traveling is another hobby. We try on public holidays to experience different places, local or abroad.