Mrs. Kalav’s professional life started at Citibank in Athens in 1976 as Middle-East North Africa Division’s financial controller, covering over twenty countries. She lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, Manila, Athens, and İstanbul. From 1985- 1988, as the chief financial officer and division chief administrative officer for Japan and Korea, based in Tokyo, she managed complex organizational restructuring of Citibank in Japan, including business refocus, productivity process improvements, work force reduction through early retirement programs and complex labor and regulatory issues arising from these changes. As a woman senior executive in Japan, a unique phenomenon in the 1980′s, she was frequently interviewed by local newspapers and magazines.
During her highly colorful career, she served as Chief Financial Officer for North Asia Division of the bank (which included Japan, Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Korea), as Strategic Planning Officer for Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East Group, and also as Director of Recruiting for Citibank’s Investment Bank and Institutional Banks. She was a member of Citibank Japan’s Policy Committee and Asset/Liability Committee and chaired Citi-Japan’s Country Human Resources Committee. In mid1990′s, Mrs. Kalav set up her own business advising foreign investors and institutions in the highly active privatization and M&A markets in Turkey.
Born and raised in İstanbul and she graduated from Robert College of İstanbul and holds an MS in Biochemistry from Smith College and an MBA in Finance and Management from Columbia Business School. Her academic honors include being the class valedictorian at Robert College and the recipient of a Fulbright grant in 1967 to study in the United States. Mrs. Kalav is a long time resident of New York City and has been actively involved in volunteer work in her community, including the Central Park Conservancy.