"From Baghdad to Boardrooms" (Turkish release) Foreword from Serkan Elden: A “Welcome Back Home” Present to Ezra K. Zilkha and the Zilkha Family This book includes the breath-taking family memoirs of the Zilkha Family, which was headed by late Khedouri A. Zilkha living originally in the Ottoman Middle East in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The Zilkha Family had very meaningful impact and success in the global banking and investment world in the 20th century in almost every partnership they had entered, every investment they had made and every undertaking they have assumed from Cambridge Associates to the Brookings Institute, from Wesleyan to Princeton University. The Zilkha memoirs were originally printed in English in 1999 in the 100th anniversary of the establishment of their first bank in Baghdad by a rare world citizen of all times Mr. Ezra K. Zilkha, who is a globally re-spected living legend for his tolerance, his foresights and for his humanly approach to life and people. Over years, I had the pleasure of sharing many invaluable hours with Mr. Zilkha in New York and, reading his memoirs many times, which he had kindly handed to me some years ago. Today, I am pleased to be sharing with people of this geography, what I have been highly affected and impressed with, that is the life values and teachings of Mr. Zilkha and his family. I am very appreciative to Mr. Zilkha for giving me his friendship as well as this invaluable experience and honor to publish these memoirs in Turkish. Additionally, I would like to also thank Izak Koenka, Kurt Korkut Jolker and Murat Bildirici from Ulusal Faktoring with whom I had the pleasure of creating and experiencing a mutual respect and trust based partnership in a similar business to that of the Zilkha’s approximately 100 years after the Father Zilkha had initiated the first banking system in this geography. Thank you, Izak, Kurt and Murat, for your truly meaningful partnership experience for me, the timing of which happened to coincide to the period when I was preparing the Turkish version of Mr. Zilkha’s memoirs. Many thanks go to Viktor Penso and his colleagues at Goa Publishing in helping me to prepare the book. I would like to also recognize Salim Kadibesegil, Simon Hume-Kendall, Raul Robledo, Cem Saydam, Prof. Hikmet Timur, Candan Dizdar - Terwiel, Murat-Nina Koprulu, Kemal Koprulu, Erdal Durukan, my first banking-career bosses and colleagues- the late Ingaborg Hagenbart, Husnu Ozyegin, Omer Aras and Bulent Yurdalan and finally, the late Turkish legend Vehbi Koc, the Turkish Education Foundation, Gusel Bilal and the Koc Family, who had given me my education scholarship in the United States. They have all been my inspiration towards my implementation of this project. And last, but most importantly, thank you my dear family, Nesko, Efe Hazar, Deniz Ezgi, Sibel, Acelya, Talya, Ilhan, my mother Ozgun and my late father Ahmet Elden with whom I had an incredibly and unbelievably similar relationship with as Mr. Zilkha had with his father Khedouri Zilkha- they have endlessly supported me in developing myself and encouraging me to convert my inspiration from Mr. Zilkha’s friendship and teachings into publishing this book. My final word: I would like to kindly present the Turkish version of these memoirs as a “Welcome Back Home” present to Mr. Ezra Zilkha and his Family as we bring the legend created by Khedouri A. Zilkha back to the geography his family had originally come from and in many ways still belong to. Have a great reading journey into the Zilkha Legend... Best Regards, Serkan Elden serkan.elden@capitalinka Istanbul, 2013 dr.tr/Kitap/Bagdattan-Yonetim-Kurullarina//Edebiyat/Biyografi-Oto-Biyografi/urunno=0000000453746
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 07:00:51 +0000
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