About

“Istanbul Economics Research” was established in 2016 to conduct research on economic, political and social issues. Changing research trends and our expanding staff have made IEA a more comprehensive research company. Over time, IEA has adopted a holistic approach to social sciences. As of today, IEA uses quantitative and qualitative methods together in a wide range of research topics, while developing unique solutions in the digital field.

Our Team

As Istanbul Economics Research, we are a team that carries our mission forward by bringing together experiences from various disciplines. We adopt an innovative approach with the methods we use and aim to create a unique perspective for each project by focusing on the needs of our business partners. We are here to add value to our clients and take them one step further in collaboration.
Can Selçuki
Managing Partner

After graduating from Izmir American High School, he graduated from Bilkent University, Department of Industrial Engineering. He received his master's degree in economics from Bocconi University. For 4 years, he worked as an economist at the World Bank Ankara Office. Before joining the World Bank, he worked as an economist at the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) for 3 years. He has published articles and reports on trade competitiveness, regional competition and innovation policies in Türkiye. He is currently a board member of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Research (EDAM). Can also gives talks on global and Turkish trends and consumer habits.
Vezire Alp
Managing Partner

Vezire, graduated from Beloit College in the USA and completed her MBA in Marketing Management at PACE University Lubin School of Business in New York, USA. After working for 6 years in the New York office of Custom Research Inc. in the USA, Alp returned to Türkiye in 2000 and established the consumer research department of Ülker Group and served as its manager for 10 years. Afterwards, she worked as a manager at Synovate and as a market research consultant at Eczacıbaşı. From the end of 2012 until May 2014, she continued his career as General Manager at DORinsight, a Hitay Investment Holding company, and introduced new models and approaches to the company portfolio that will enable the participation of major local and global research buyers.” In 2014, she founded and managed PONERA Research and Consultancy Services with the vision of a research company that offers action plans that can be implemented, brings insights and makes good use of the ever-evolving technology for this purpose.
Berçem Demirel
Research Manager

Berçem graduated from Boğaziçi University with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a research assistant in a developmental psychology and visual perception lab and as a market research and insights intern at Mey Diageo. She completed her master's degree in Applied Social Research program at Trinity College Dublin as a Jean Monnet scholar. After working as a Research and Policy Assistant at Barnardos Ireland, she returned back to Türkiye. She worked as a Client Solutions Specialist in the Specialized Research department of GfK Türkiye. Berçem is currently working as the Quantitative Research Department Manager at Research İstanbul.
Meltem Uçak
Account Manager

She studied at Kocaeli University, Department of Western Languages and Literatures, English Language Literature program. With the knowledge and passion she gained during her university education, she started her career as a translator in 2020 and took care of editorial work. She joined us as Türkiye Raporu editor. She took an active role in the content editor and business development processes of the Türkiye Raporu. At the same time, he took part in the renewal process of the Katıl application and worked on improving the customer experience. She continues her career at Research İstanbul as a account manager. In this position, he works on customer relationship management and strategic planning.
Nur Bengisu Arıkan
Research Specialist

Bengisu, Marmara University Sociology graduate, carried out various duties on public and non-governmental organisations during her education. Afterwards, she established a civil society association with her team and continued her activities here. As a result of the experiences she gained from her internships, she decided to progress in the research field. She worked as a Political, Social and Market Research Specialist in different research companies. Since 2019, Bengisu, who has been continuing her career in these research fields, has been working as a research specialist at Research İstanbul.
Çiğdem Erol
Research Specialist

Çiğdem graduated from Galatasaray University, Department of Sociology and worked as a volunteer at Amnesty International during her undergraduate studies. She took part in the Hrant Dink Foundation's "Hate Speech in Media" project as an intern. In the third year of her undergraduate education, she studied at Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès for one semester with the Erasmus+ exchange program. As part of the field research for her undergraduate thesis, she researched the common conspiracy theories in Türkiye. Çiğdem joined the team as a researcher and makes a difference in our projects with her experience.
Ömer Ülgen
Data Analyst

After completing his bachelor's degree in Artificial Intelligence at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, he completed his master's degree in Data Science at the University of Amsterdam. Omer, who specialises in data analysis and artificial intelligence systems, has completed internships at Research İStanbul and many consulting firms. His research interests include data mining, data visualisation, natural language processing and machine learning model development. Ömer, who contributes to strategic decision-making processes by providing data analyses and artificial intelligence solutions in the projects he contributes to within Research İstanbul, works as a Data Analyst in our team.
Umut Yahya Toplandı
Research Assistant

After graduating from Galatasaray High School, Yahya continued his education as a senior student at Galatasaray University, Faculty of Communication. After completing a Sales and Marketing internship at a corporate company, Yahya stepped into the world of research with an internship at Konda Research's Field Coordination unit. Yahya is currently working as a research assistant at Research İstanbul.
Simge Çavuşlar
Research Assistant

After graduating from İzmir Atatürk High School, Simge continued her education as a senior student in the Mathematics Department at Yeditepe University, specializing in data science and statistical analysis. She has been one of the coordinators of many events and festivals in the field of mathematics and has played an active role in volunteer projects for disadvantaged groups. Simge is currently working as a research intern at Research Istanbul.
Ahmet Altunsu
Research Assistant

After graduating from Bergama Yusuf Kemalettin Perin Science High School, Ahmet, a senior student in Computer Engineering at Izmir Bakırçay University, He has participated in many projects in his field through the 100sClub student career club. Ahmet is currently working as a research intern at Research Istanbul, where he focuses on data science, machine learning, and data visualization.