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so. There were no other candidates from
Turkey besides us for the recently commis-
sioned FCC (Fluid Catalytic Cracking) project
at Tüpraş. It’s a tough project. Can we do it?
I’m confident we can. Before Sinan the Archi-
tect built the famous Selimiye Mosque, his
masterpiece, he built smaller mosques. En-
gineering is very similar to that. With each
new project, you realize your mistakes and
shortcomings, and make progress by correct-
ing those. So even though we may encounter
difficulties while building the FCC, the next
one will be better, and the third even better
than that.
HOW IS TEKFEN ENGINEERING
PLACED IN THE SECTOR?
The perception of Tekfen Engineering has
undergone a radical change in the last years.
Companies we have never worked with be-
fore request our consultancy. One important
advantage we have is that there aren’t many
firms in Turkey doing what we do. There are
none with the same scale. Even in Eastern
Europe, there are very few firms of the same
size. Tekfen has been present as a contractor
in Azerbaijan since the early 1990s. But in
the last three or four years, Tekfen is being
noted in Azerbaijan for its engineering ser-
vices as well. That shows we are on the right
track. All we need is patience and determina-
tion. We need to do as many projects as possi-
ble. And we need to increase our staff, which
is currently around 200.
WHERE DO YOUNG ENGINEERS
STAND IN THE COMPANY’S FUTURE
PLANS?
We have some valuable colleagues in our
team who go to teach and give seminars at
universities. Playing in the upper league in
engineering depends not only on the firm but
also on the engineers themselves. Engineering
schools all over the world offer more or less
the same education. You have to put your per-
sonal capabilities and talents on top of that.
Of course, the environment in which the en-
gineer works is also important. What satisfies
an engineer the most is the variety of the proj-
ects they work on, the challenge they face, and
the degree to which these projects bring out
the engineer’s creativity. Tekfen Engineering
offers many such opportunities. Our corpo-
rate culture has luckily been shaped by people
with a broad engineering vision. We love our
job, we have ambitions, and we always strive
to be creative and make a difference. All three
founding partners of Tekfen -Feyyaz Berker,
Nihat Gökyiğit, and the late Necati Akçağlılar-
are engineers. Tekfen is a company that knows
how important and valuable engineering is.
This is the place for individuals who are after
perfection. Nothing short of that would do.
“The sine qua non of an engineer is first of all hon-
esty, a capacity to define and analyze things, to collect
meaningful data, focus on results and make use of
them, thus as a result, exercise informational literacy.
In addition, a successful engineer is expected to formu-
late hypotheses in light of various opinions and make
the right decisions.”
MERİÇ ALKAR
Meriç Alkar has joined Tekfen Engineering in 2014,
working as Instrumentation and Control Systems
Engineer at the Instruments Department.
Orçun Özelkök currently works as Rotating
Equipment Engineer at the Mechanics Department.
“There is real team work at Tekfen Engineering.
Different disciplines are intertwined and work togeth-
er. The data produced by one department determines
the input of 4-5 others. When one department makes
a change, all are affected. Tekfen Engineering is a com-
pany where different engineering disciplines come and
work together in synchronicity.”
ORÇUN ÖZELKÖK
“Austrians have a word for peo-
ple who know nothing apart from
their area of expertise: “fachidiot.”
These are fellows with MA, PhD,
and worked all their life doing the
one thing they know. That’s not
good at all. We need to teach our
colleagues, the new and young en-
gineers different points of view. To-
day, a medical doctor learns robotic
surgery; musicians learn to play the
10-string guitar and try out differ-
ent methods. That’s what we engi-
neers also need to do. We have to
stop being “fachidiots.” Otherwise,
engineers will always be seen as cal-
culators, and will never be able to
tear down taboos.
With a PhD in engineering,
Orkun Görgülü has an academic
experience of 14 years. He joined
Tekfen Engineering in 2008,
working at the Construction
Department.
ORKUN GÖRGÜLÜ
A graduate from ITU and Politecnico di
Milano, Özge Yılmaz has been working
as chemical engineer in the process
department since 2012.
ÖZGE YILMAZ
“We approach everything we do with the
aim of learning something new on the way. We
are enthusiastic people, and we run towards our
goals. If one department runs faster, the others
try to catch up. We are ever trying to improve
ourselves. The management gives a lot of sup-
port to young engineers and newcomers like us.”
Can Aktürk joined Tekfen in 2013 with an
MBA from Great Britain. He works as an
Electrical Engineer.
CAN AKTÜRK
“The sector is undergoing rapid technological
progress especially in energy efficiency. As the
Department of Electricity we closely follow these
developments. For example, LED technology is
becoming more and more prevalent in lighting
systems. We also need to closely follow such in-
novations and apply them to our projects. That
means we have to keep researching and learning
new things. Learning is a never-ending process.”