# R. Erdem Erkul

R. Erdem Erkul is a Turkish tech entrepreneur who is the founder and chairman of Cerebrum Tech and vice president at the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies. He was a public sector and investment director at Microsoft Türkiye between 2018 and 2020. He was also vice president and executive board member at Informatics Association of Türkiye between 2011 and 2015. He has worked at Samsung Electronics Türkiye as Director of Public Sector and External Affairs between 2014 and 2018. He was also the spokesperson of Samsung Electronics Türkiye during these years. He is known for his work on e- government, New Public Administration, informatics, entrepreneurship and social media. He is chairperson of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) Digital Technologies Business Council and DEIK Sectoral Business Council Coordinator Chairperson. Erkul is a member of the DEIK Board of Directors. Erkul was appointed as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Korea in Sivas by May 2024.

## Education

Erkul received his PhD from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration. He completed his education in political science at Hacettepe University and Massachusetts University. In 2008, he conducted research at National Center for Digital Government which was established at Harvard University with Jane Fountain as a doctoral research fellow.

## Career

In 2005, he established first web portal on e-government and informatics of the world. He is editor of this portal. He has worked as the coordinator in the Total Quality and Strategic Planning activities of the Hacettepe University in 2005–2006. In 2008, he established a new international e-government portal digital-government.net. He was Chair of Organizing Committee of GovCamp Türkiye in 2011.
Erkul has worked with several NGOs. He was elected as the Vice President of Council of European Professional Informatics Societies in Brussels in November 2014. Since January 2010, he has been representing Informatics Association of Türkiye in Council of European Professional Informatics Societies in Brussels.
He worked as public affairs lead of Microsoft Türkiye between 2010 and 2013. Erkul has worked as Regional National Plan Director at Microsoft Middle East & Africa Headquarters in 2013–2014.
In addition, Erkul had worked as a director and company spokesperson at Samsung between 2014 and 2018. Moreover, in these years, he had taken part in different R&D and innovation projects and tasks between South Korea and Turkey. Erkul had an important role in establishing innovation and R&D centers in Turkey and MEA. Under his leadership Samsung Supports UN World Humanitarian Summit with Virtual Reality Hub
Erkul is executive committee member of Turkish Informatics Foundation.
Erkul has been elected as a member and contributor of the Forbes Technology Council in August 2023. Also Mr.Erkul has written several articles about technology for Forbes Technology Council.

## Selected works

* Book Chapter. Use of Social Media in Government, 2012. Editor: Mete Yildiz
* Usability of Social Media in Public Services and Politics
* Aydin, M. D., Yildiz, M. and Erkul, E. (2012), "CCTV Surveillance and Ethics: Theory and Practice in the West and The MOBESE Case of Turkey", in Robinson, S. and Arslan, M. (eds.), Business Ethics: Contemporary Global and Regional Issues, Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, pp. 55–76.
* Web 2.0 in the Process of e-participation: the Case of Organizing for America and the Obama Administration. NCDG Working paper #09-001. 2009, with Aysu Kes ERKUL.