Alphan Manas

Opening Speaker

President Of Turkish Futurist Association

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Alphan Manas graduated from the Ege University Department of Textile Engineering in 1983, then went on to State University of New York (SUNY), where he received his master's degree in 1987 in Production Management. He worked for a time as the Production Manager of the Tenba company's New York factory. In 1987, he returned to Turkey to serve as Country Director for Colonial Corp, a subsidiary of the Fortune 500 Vicks Corporation producing ready-made clothing worldwide for such major chains as Sears, K-Mart and JC Penny. In 1988, Manas became a founding party of Exim, then of Planet and Teknoser. In 1998, he merged all three companies under the umbrella of Technology Holding. In February of 2006, after merging seven companies in Technology Holding, he left and founded the Netherlands-based Brightwell Holdings BV, with offices in the U.S. And England.

As both a founding member of Technology Holding as well Co-President of its Board of Directors, Manas personally ran the group's “Business and Market Development” activities for 18 years. Manas supported the production of many innovative products and projects at Technology Holding. However his most important project was the game İDDAA, his own inspiration for which he served as project leader. With this game, Technology Holding stocks at the Inteltek company in only 19 months.

Manas has lead and contributed to several government-level infrastructure projects in Turkey, and assisted with with the preparation of legislation, communiqués and government decisions. Some of these projects include the Application of Barcodes during Drug Production, Remote Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), “Spor Toto ve At Yarışları” (All-Sport and Horse Racing) betting system, which operates through Permanent Outlets, GSM, ITV, the Internet and IVR platforms.

A futurist, technology expert, productive inventor and industrial designer, Manas has in recent years focused on large and small innovative technological inventions as well as a variety of efforts aimed at raising society's standard of living. In order to be able to conduct projects oriented toward developing countries, he collaborates with University Technology Transfer Centers and Associations in Turkey and America. As part of this goal, he was elected in 2005 to the BoD of the U.S. Based “Institute of Economics,” which works to arrive at agricultural, production and residential solutions in order to reduce flight to the cities.

The President of the Turkish Branch of the World Futurists Association, Manas founded the extension of this organization, the Turkish Futurists Association. At the same time he founded the Millennium Project in Turkey. The United Nations University Millennium Project is a think tank made up of scholars, planners, strategists and futurists working in international organizations, institutions, NGOs and universities worldwide. A member of TÜSİAD and the American-Turkish Council (ATC), Alphan Manas is also a founding member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Alphan Manas writes columns for several publications, including two years for Forbes magazine; since 2007 he has written for BusinessWeek. He also serves as editor for FUTUREtakes, the press organ of the World Futurists Association. Manas also maintains a blog,  www.alphanmanas.com in which he publishes his collected published articles, and shares world developments.

www.alphanmanas.com