Fuat Sami CV

Born in 1981, Fuat Sami spent his early years in Turkey until high school. He attented high school at Eton College, and later on he graduated from Imperial College Biology BSc and Imperial Business School’s Health Management MSc programs, respectively. After earning his Master’s degree, he had experiences in the pharmaceutical sector with Merck & Co. and after his final return to Turkey he worked in an international management consultancy company - Booz Allen Hamilton. Mr. Sami worked as a consultant, senior consultant and project manager for Booz Allen Hamilton and its local arm Helix Management Consultants for four years. He carried out projects in different geographical areas such as Europe, Middle East and Turkey and led business strategy, restructuring, organizational design and sales optimization projects for governments, local and international companies. Mr. Sami also led several due-diligence projects for M&A activities and privatization of high-profile Turkish companies.

 

In 2007, after many years of management consulting experience, Fuat Sami founded LabX Business Angels and currently holds the position of general manager. LabX is Turkey’s first business angel network and forms a basis for entrepreneurs and business angels to meet and launch innovative business initiatives. Mr. Sami is an active business angel and serves on the boards of seven different companies ranging from mobile technologies, internet, retail, food to Health R&D sectors. During the LabX journey, the ‘Do You Have an Idea?’ national entrepreneurship competition created by Fuat Sami, over the years became the region’s largest entrepreneurship TV Show with over 300 episodes aired in 4 countries – plus an active youtube channel with monthly +500K viewers. To coordinate all the international media projects, Xanadu Media was founded in 2010 and many successful TV projects have been lauched since then. 

Fuat Sami is also involved in different non profit organizations and initiatives. He actively participates in EU, UN projects and foundations to increase the entrepreneurial spirit around Turkey and the region. 

His achievement’s are as follows:

· Turkey’s 3rd Largest College Chain Mektebim College’s Entrepreneurship Director (20.000 students, 44 campuses) – devising regional entrepreneurship projects for 5-17 year olds

· Regional Expert Consultant and MoC for EU’s Promoting Youth Employement in South Eastern Turkey’ 2022-23: Region’s First Two Regional Entrepreneurship Competitions and Career Fairs

· Regional Expert Consultant and MoC for UN Women 2021: Region’s First Regional Women Entrepreneurship Expo (Asia and Eastern Europe – 8 countries with over 1000 participants)

· Regional Expert Consultant and MoC for ICMPD 2021-22: ENHANCER Project B2B Events and Workshop Organization for Syrian and Turkish Entrepreneurs in the Textile and Food Industries

· Advisory Board Member and Lecturer of the 10.000 Women Program led by Goldman Sachs and Özyeğin University – locally trained over 1000 women entrepreneurs (2008-2014)

· Consultant, Producer and MoC for the ‘Science for Everyone’ program – Roadshowed 5 cities across Turkey and brought reowned international academics to the public. British Council (2014-2016) 

· Author of the ‘Do you Have an Idea? The Book of Entrepreneurship’ 2017, Co-Author of ‘Girişimciliğin Altın Kuralları’ 2015, Co-Author of ‘Actions of a Better Business Environment’ British Council 2013

· Academic at the Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty of Turkey’s Yeditepe & Kültür University

· Involved in many NGO’s at Board Level and contributed to many nationwide projects as a consultant and lecturer (Present - Girişim Benim, KIBISAD, Formerly – GYIAD, FID, Türkiye Melek Yatırımcılar)

· Creator of Turkey’s Biggest  Entrepreneurship TV show ‘DoYouHaveAnIdea’. With the creation of this TV program, he inspires and influences millions of people with entrepreneurial spirit (2007-2022)

· Contributions to the entrepreneurship ecosystem earned him a prize in the category of ‘Turkey’s Most Succesful Young Person’ given by the JCI Institution in 2011.

· Also the former senior executive of the Young Entrepreneurs Council and Venture Capital Council of the Turkey’s Chamber of Commerce(TOBB)

· Accredited Licensed Angel Investor by the Turkish Treasury