Filiz Bikmen

Filiz Bikmen is currently the Executive Director of TUSEV (Third Sector Foundation of Turkey), which aims to strengthen the legal, fiscal and operational infrastructure of the non profit sector in Turkey. In addition to managing foundation programmes and operations, her areas of interest and expertise include policy and law reform, research on civil society and giving, and promoting philanthrophy. Filiz has designed and delivered fundraising training in NGO certificate programs, and has served an expert for various EU projects relating to civil society development and NGO-Public Sector cooperation. She has edited and authored several articles, reports and publications on these topics, and has contributed to Alliance Magazine and SEAL (Social Economy and Law) Journal of the European Foundation Centre. In 2006 she was awarded the Emerging Leaders International Fellowship from the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at The Graduate Center (City University of New York) where she conducted a study on the global practice of community foundations and implications for Turkey. Filiz is a board member of the Turkish Philanthropic Fund (based in New York), the WINGS global network which seeks to strengthen the institutional infrastructure of philanthropy worldwide (currently based in Manila) and the Junior Achievement Foundation in Turkey.

Prior to TUSEV, Filiz worked with a non-profit management consultancy firm in Istanbul, and prior to that, as a management consultant for the Union Bank of Switzerland (NY), Accenture Consulting (NY) and Citibank (Istanbul) specializing in organizational development and change management. Of Turkish decent and raised in New York, USA, Filiz re-located to Istanbul in 1999. She has a Masters Degree in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University and a double Bachelor of Science degree in Business Communications and Psychology from State University of New York, College at Brockport.