Cem Garih is originally from Istanbul, where he spent his childhood years all up to 18 years of age. In 2010, he moved out to NYC to attend Columbia University, majoring in Civil Engineering. During his sophomore year, he had the great fortune of meeting Dr. Odeh and being introduced to the GLCM program.
Upon graduating from Columbia, he had the great opportunity to join Bechtel based in London. He worked with Bechtel for three years on major infrastructure projects such as the $20 Billion Cross-rail metro line construction, which lies under the city of London and the $2 Billion Gatwick airport modernization project.
With Bechtel he spent three years and as he realized he wanted to further focus on project finance, he joined Ernst and Young’s Transactions Division as Business Development Lead responsible for infrastructure project financing across the EMEIA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa and India). Since then, he has worked directly with the Head of Infrastructure of EY for the EMEIA region and has learned a ton. With EY, he worked on major infrastructure projects in Turkey, Poland, and the UK. He is still at this role and enjoying it immensely.
Besides his professional career, in 2012, he co-founded Yenibirlider Association, a Turkish nonprofit that operates with the mission of crafting the next generation of business leaders in Turkey. At Yenibirlider, he designed mentorship programs, coaching programs and leadership focused intensive education programs offered in conjunction with exceptional Turkish Universities to accelerate the advancement of best students and the highest performing young professionals across the country. With their work at Yenibirlider, every year, 120 young professionals graduate from their intensive leadership program and 50 students are able to secure internships and job opportunities. This has been rewarding and for their work with Yenibirlider, Fortune Magazine has recognized Cem Garih in their “40 Under 40” list as one of the 40 leading young businessmen in Turkey for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and lastly in 2018. Yenibirlider and GLCM are very similar in that both are mission driven organizations aiming to contribute to the personal development of its members. In fact, GLCM and Cem Garih’s close collaboration with Dr Odeh has guided his work at Yenibirlider and added tremendous value to this part of his life as well.
The Yenibirlider Association, founded by two young entrepreneurs, Cem Garih and Kerem Kamisli has reached 80 thousand young people since 2012. They received 20 thousand applications. It provided internship opportunities to approximately 400 university students across the country. 465 young leaders participated in the Yenibirlider Leadership Development Program. The privileged business community benefiting from 112 hours of Leadership Training, 4-hour Mentoring and 6-Hour Coaching services with the opportunity to participate in culture and art activities.