News

Turkish Tunes in Phoenix

04/25/2012

Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum has an expanded Turkish music collection. Read about this extensive single-country exhibit that showcases mehter (Ottoman ceremonial) music, various traditions of the Turkish countryside, the music and movement of the Mevlevi Sufis, and the vibrant music of Turkey's urban centers that TPF is proud to support. Read more.

Social Entrepreneurship in Turkey: Mustafa Sari Saves Van

04/17/2012

Booming is the adjective most often used to describe Turkey these days. Ranked the 16^th largest economy (and growing) in the world, the country saddled between Europe and the Middle East is looked as a sound investment and economic model for others, especially in the region. Yet, it is important to note that this Turkish economic miracle is regional, contained to Turkey’s west. What happens in Istanbul stays in Istanbul. Read more.

Ziya Boyacigiller

Ziya Boyacigiller makes early-stage investments in innovative technology-driven start-up companies and works with the founding teams to help grow their companies (Formative Ventures, Aeroprise, FusionOps, AirTies, Artesis, Vistek, etc.).  He is a consulting member of Endeavor Turkey, Golden Horn Ventures, and Inovent. He also teaches MBA students entrepreneurship, at Sabanci University, Istanbul.  He is the co-president of the National Innovation Initiative/Financing of Innovation workgroup in Turkey. He and his wife, Prof. Nakiye Boyacigiller are Founding Partners of TPF.

Until October 2000, he was a Business Unit Vice President/General Manager at Maxim Integrated Products - a NASDAQ 100 semiconductor company (MXIM).  Mr. Boyacigiller joined Maxim in 1983 when the company was started, as a founding partner, and served in various technical and executive management capacities for 17 years, helping build the company to over billion dollars in revenues.  Prior to Maxim, he worked at Intersil Inc. and designed state-of-art mixed-signal CMOS integrated circuits, including the world's first digitally calibrated 14-bit data converters. In the late 1970s, he started E/Z CAD Inc., a pioneer in the PC-based electronics design tools industry.  

Mr. Boyacigiller holds an MSc in Engineering from UCLA, and a BSEE from Bosphorus University, Istanbul.  His current mission is to help to create and develop a world-class, technology-based entrepreneurship environment in Turkey.