BPW International

Who is Arzu Özyol ?

Arzu Özyol is the founder of BPW Ankara club and founding President of the recently created Turkish federation - BPW Turkey – inaugurated by President Liz Benham on the 4th of May, 2011. Arzu recently organized and hosted several international events in Istanbul, Turkey, that attracted distinguished speakers, members of the international executive, federation presidents, past international presidents and members from Europe and the Asia Pacific.  

BPW Turkey has much to be proud of under the leadership of Ms Arzu Özyol. Arzu was the organizer of the international conference: “Equality Means Business” held on the 4th of May at Istanbul Bilgi University. The all day event attracted media news agencies as the Minister of National Education Nimet Çubukcu gave the event’s opening address along with International President Liz Benham and Laura Gula, United Nations Global Compact Office, Headquarters, New York. High profile journalists, entrepreneurs, BPW Past International Presidents and UN officials were part of the day’s line up of speakers. Arzu is an advocate for the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and arranged for the Turkish translation of the official WEPs booklet that was made available to delegates at the official WEPs launch. This was a highly successful event and plans are now in place for a follow up event next year.

The other international events that Arzu had an involvement with included: The Global Summit of Women [5-7 May]; Fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) [9-13 May] and the 5th World Water Forum [10-12 May]. Arzu was a pivotal member of the Host Committee and liaison between the Global Summit, government and Turkey’s top business women. She addressed the 12th World Export Development Forum (WEDF) during the Least Developing Countries Conference on the Turkish experience during the WEDF workshop on Engaging women vendors in the tourism value chain: Impacting human and economic development and added a very important aspect to the discussion.

In association with the Turkish Soroptimist Federation, Arzu negotiated for the BPW clubs in Turkey to co-organize a side event at the 5th World Water Forum at the TÜYAP Fair Convention and Congress Center, Istanbul. She has enjoyed a long history with the International Water Congress in İstanbul and as an Environmental Engineer, Arzu believes that women’s role in water management should be strengthened both in households and at the political level, especially in a patriarchal society such as Turkey where the majority of women have been given secondary social roles.

Arzu is also President of the Federation of Turkish Women Associations – a position she has held since 2008; she is also CEO of Hydra International Project and Consulting Co. Always willing to contribute her expertise to BPW International, she served on various BPW International Standing Committees and since 2006 is a member of BPW’s Sustainable Development and Environment Committee.

Arzu has participated in many high level preparatory meetings. The relationship between women and water management has been the subject of discussion for many water meetings that Arzu has attended including the Commission on Sustainable Development (UN-CSD) review sessions and the World Water Forum that is organized every three years by the World Water Council - the largest international event in the field of water held in every three years.

Arzu is married to Levent and has two boys that are living in Boston and New York. She is currently completing her PhD at Ankara University and lectures in Project Preparation and Management Techniques (PCM); Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR); and Institutionalization of the NGOs and Fund Raising at Yeditepe University and Lefke European University.

Please join us as we salute the leadership of one of our outstanding members.