Coming from the corporate world , starting a few entrepreneurial companies on his own in the San Francisco Bay area, in the USA, Alp Malazgirt, Ph. D., Associate Dean and Associate Professor at SolBridge International School of Business, shared his corporate stories with his SolBridge students teaching courses on Entrepreneurship, Technology Transfer and Converging Technologies. He spoke from his life time experiences in his business classes, not just the theory. He is now returning back to the corporate world, as the CEO of a holding company, in his native country in Istanbul, Turkey.No newcomer to the corporate world, Dr. Malazgirt had 17 years of experience in the Silicon Valley starting off as a research engineer in a start up venture company during the heydays of the microchip revolution in the ‘80’s. In the ‘90’s, he was involved in the technology transfer of IC chip making process to companies like Yamaha Semiconductor, Sanyo in Japan, Shanghai Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in China, and ZMD in Germany. He then delved into the entrepreneurial scene in 2000’s starting 3 companies, of which the last one is still doing well in the San Francisco Bay area. He is now prepared to step in as the CEO of one of the leading globally diversified industrial groups in Turkey with pioneer establishments in their respective industries with more than 5,000 employees on 4 continents. (http://www.yildirimgroup.com)
According to Dr. Malazgirt, “It was wonderful 3 years teaching and doing research at SolBridge. Sharing my lifetime experiences with my students was incredibly rewarding as most of my students are now employed in the business world, even a few of them started their own businesses in their native countries. Combining theory with practical experience is the best way to teach and I am grateful to SolBridge for giving me that opportunity. Now, I feel like doing exactly what the S-curve teaches in Innovation Management cases: jumping to the next level of challenge or business opportunity.”
While at SolBridge, Dr. Malazgirt conducted research on the international collaboration many of the Korean government research institutes are doing and his paper on international collaboration at KRIBB, Korean Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology was selected to be the “Best Paper” at GSTF Conference in Penang, Malaysia in 2010.He also worked closely with the Sejong Technology Commercialization Company on the KAIST campus and consulted with dozens of new entrepreneurial companies located in Daejeon, and elsewhere in South Korea. Recently, he represented SolBridge at the Beijing International Fair as well as giving invited lectures in China, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, he earned his Ph. D. in Materials Science and Engineering, and his last post at SolBridge was the Associate Dean, for Student and International Affairs, overlooking the activities of Corporate Advisory Council, Career Development Center, Mentoring Programs, and the SolBridge Library.
