# Elmira Bayrasli

Elmira Bayrasli is the author of From The Other Side of The World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places (published by Public Affairs, 2015), which examines the rise of entrepreneurship globally, and the co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted. From The Other Side of The World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places profiles seven entrepreneurs from seven countries who overcame various obstacles. These entrepreneurs and countries include; Turkey: Bulent Celebi, Airties; Nigeria: Tayo Oviosu, Paga; Pakistan: Monis Rahman, Rozee.pk; Mexico: Enrique Junco Gomez, Optima Energia; India: Shaffi Mather, 1298; Russia: Yana Yakovleva; China: Lei Jun, Xiaomi.
Bayrasli is a professor at Bard College in the Globalization and International Affairs Program, where she teaches Foreign Policy in the Time of the Internet. She is also an adjunct professor at New York University, teaching foreign policy and global entrepreneurship.
In 2014, New America awarded her a fellowship focusing on Turkey and the Middle East. Bayrasli is also a fellow at the World Policy Institute. She holds a B.A. in political science from New York University and an M.A. in Middle Eastern languages and literature from Columbia University.
Bayrasli regularly contributes on the subject of global entrepreneurship for TechCrunch and provides analysis of foreign policy. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Reuters, Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fortune, Forbes, CNN, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, and Charlie Rose. She is a regular guest on the BBC's Business Matters. In 2010, she wrote "Fashioning A New Future For Pakistan" about Bareeze in Forbes.
In 1994, she joined Madeleine K. Albright's team at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. When President Clinton was re-elected in 1996 and appointed Albright as Secretary of State, Bayrasli received a White House Presidential Appointment to the U.S. Secretary of State's Office. In 1998, when Richard Holbrooke became the lead negotiator to resolve the Cyprus conflict, Bayrasli joined his special negotiator's office.
In 2002, Bayrasli was assigned to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Mission. As the Mission's Chief Spokesperson and Director of Press and Public Information, she addressed post-war recovery and development. After leading the Mission's 10th-anniversary activities in 2005, which included an award-winning documentary on the Roma, a TV series on Bosnian television, and a ten-year Mission retrospective, she returned to New York in January 2006, where she served as a vice president for Endeavor, a global non-profit supporting entrepreneurs.
Since 2006, Bayrasli has been involved in promoting high-growth entrepreneurship globally. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and a commentator on entrepreneurship, having addressed the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development in Geneva and served as a delegate for the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship and the Clinton Global Initiative.
Bayrasli was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is now a Life Member. She is also a member of the Women's Foreign Policy Group and the New York Women's Social Entrepreneur Club. Bayrasli serves on the advisory board for the Turkish Women's International Network, Turkish Philanthropy Funds, and the Pakistani-based social enterprise Invest2Innovate. She has also mentored for the Unreasonable Institute.