About
Dr. Ege Yıldırım, was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1975. Due to her father’s diplomatic career, she lived and grew up in several countries. She trained professionally as an urban planner and became a respected cultural heritage expert, working both in Turkey and internationally. Most recently, she has concentrated these efforts on Terra Mudurnu, a social enterprise she founded focused on sustainable development. She is involved in community organizing and to a degree in politics, on heritage and topics beyond. She has also had a lifelong interest and engagement in the visual arts, performing arts, and creative writing. This website compiles some texts with her personal stories and reflections.
Featured profile in Salzburg Global Seminars, Faces of Leadership program:
“I am inspired especially by women leaders, who defy social odds and act as trailblazers, staying true to themselves in the process. One of the biggest challenges in my professional life has been to be a ‘hybrid’, not fitting neatly into any conventional categories, being caught between academia-consultancy, art-science, theory-practice, thought-action, local-national-global. But this has also been my strength and helped add a unique value to what I do as a professional and as a member of the community. Being a leader means empowering and being a facilitator for others, by example. I try to help shape a better world by synthesizing and communicating knowledge about culture, heritage, sustainability, to various stakeholders in my sphere of influence, in an intuitive, holistic style that connects dots and synergizes different perspectives.”