Profile Yonja Media Group is a global social media company with a focus on emerging markets. As a leading publisher, the company operates Yonja, Turkey's leading local social network since 2004; Firsat Bu Firsat, Turkey's largest social commerce aggregator (a joint venture partnership); and online properties in education, location and mobile maps. Yonja and Firsat Bu Firsat consistently boast highest user engagement metrics in the country.

As an international publisher network, Yonja Media Group runs a payment network enabling global publishers and developers to more effectively exploit monetization and payment options in the region. Its advertising network, ADVenue, connects global publishers with local advertisers in the country.

The company is backed by one of the world's leading emerging markets investor Tiger Global Management, and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California with local operations in Istanbul, Turkey.

Founded	2003
Offices	Menlo Park, California. Istanbul, Turkey
Services	Social Networking, Social Commerce, Advertising Network, Payment Network, Mobile Apps, Online Education

Management

Dilawar Syed President & Chief Executive Officer

Dilawar is President & Chief Executive Officer of Yonja Media Group, a leading investor-backed, emerging market internet media company, where he is responsible for the company's strategic vision and execution of its global business. Under Dilawar's leadership, Yonja Media is rapidly expanding and diversifying its portfolio of online products and services by extending to social commerce, social gaming, mobile, payments management and online education. Prior to joining Yonja Media, Dilawar was with Yahoo! where he was head of strategy and business operations for the Platform & Infrastructure Division. In this role, Dilawar led strategic planning for Yahoo!'s investments in next-generation platforms and infrastructure; managed business operations to support platform adoption across Yahoo!'s network; and drove business development with the developer and partner community. Earlier, Dilawar spent several years in the software industry in a variety of leadership roles. At SAP, Dilawar was responsible for positioning and launching SAP's Customer Relationship Management solution suite. At Siebel Systems, Dilawar took various products to market for Siebel's Communications, Media and Energy business. Most notably, Dilawar launched Siebel's enterprise integration platform, and grew the product line to a multi-million dollar business globally. Dilawar started his career as a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting and Ernst & Young in the firms' financial services, communications and energy industry practices Dilawar is active in entrepreneurship development and civic efforts. President Barack Obama has appointed Dilawar to the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders. In this role, Dilawar is driving engagement with 16M strong Asian American community across the country. Dilawar serves on the board of OPEN Silicon Valley, an entrepreneurship non-profit organization. Dilawar holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Economics and Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.

Andreas Oesterer Chief Technology Officer

Andreas is the Chief Technology Officer of Yonja Media Group since 2005. Under his watch Yonja.com grew from a few thousand members to a site with over 6.3 million members and 1.5 billion monthly page-views. Prior to joining Yonja Media Group, Andreas worked from 1995 through 2005 at American Management System (acquired in 2004 by CGI) as a Technical Architect. Andreas worked on consulting projects as well as product development for the telecom industry and new media business units. He worked on the design and development of a rating and billing system capable of processing the data volumes of the largest telecom operators in the US and Europe. Andreas holds a Computer Science degree from HTL Brugg-Windisch, Switzerland and was awarded a patent in the area of customer data change tracking. When he is not working Andreas likes to spend his time under water.

Burak Şarizi New Products Lead

Burak is responsible for product marketing and launch of new products at Yonja Media Group. In particular, Burak has played a key role in the design, project management and launch of IsteSoysal, Yonja Media Group’s new social jobs product. Burak began his career at Yenibiris.com as product manager. At Yenibiris, Burak helped the website scale and grow to become one of the leading online recruitment websites in Turkey. Most recently, Burak was at Tart New Media as Project Manager and drove several social media development engagements in Turkey. Burak holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from E.M.U.

Volkan Vardareli Director of Business Development

Volkan Vardareli drives local partnership and business development in Yonja Media Group’s Istanbul office. Prior to joining Yonja Media, Volkan spent several years planning advertising campaigns in digital media at several media companies including Bezoone, Digital Solutions, Megavizyon, Cine5 and Digiturk. Volkan started his career in advertising sales at Super Online, Turkey’s first and biggest ISP. Volkan holds a B.A. from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul and B.A. in Business Administration from Anatolian University.

Feza Bilgic Director of Finance & Business Operations

Feza is head of finance and business operations and oversees finance, controlling and partner accounting functions for Yonja Media Group’s local operations in Turkey. Feza also manages partnership development for Yonja Payment Network. Before joining Yonja Media Group, Feza worked for Talon Electronic Solutions as Financial Controller. Earlier, Feza was at HP-Pelzer Pimsa Auotomotive as Financial Analyst. Feza started her career as Controlling Specialist with REHAU Polimery. Feza holds a B.A. in German from the Marmara University and Bachelors in Foreign Trade from Anadolu University in Turkey.