Enabler Senior Executive, Tech Investor & Mentor

Author: The Contemporary Leader: The Value of Inclusion in Successful Leadership

Alumni of STANFORD University, HEC Paris, METU, and INSEAD, Dr. Riza Kadilar is a PhD in media economics. His professional career includes senior level bank management for almost thirty years in France, The U.K., The Netherlands and Turkey.

Dr Kadilar is the author of eight published books, and columnist at Harvard Business Review (HBR) Turkey. He served as the president of EMCC Global (2017-2024 – formerly known as “European Mentoring and Coaching Council”, Brussels), and still contributes to the democratization of learning & development with his online platform (RK Academy). He is a regular keynote speaker at in-company events, and international conferences. He offers business development and financial advisory services, executive coaching, mentoring, and human capital development support. He is a pre- investor in tech startups (with a special focus on agri-food technology) with a potential to scale up into Europe. He also serves as scientific committee member at Institut du Bosphore (Paris), founding president at TUSIAD The Netherlands Network (Amsterdam), vice president of DEIK Dutch-Turkish business council (Istanbul), trustee at Hisar Education Foundation (Istanbul), and an active member of Istanbul Rotary Club.

His professional career includes senior level bank management experience in the UK, the Netherlands, France, and Turkey. He has been the senior country manager and representative for Turkey at NATIXIS between 2006 and 2020. Previously he served as the deputy CEO at a merchant bank in London (2002-2006), as a management board member of a trade finance bank in Amsterdam (1998-2002), and as the head of corporate banking and financial institutions at a Turkish bank in Istanbul (1994-1998). During his banking career he has set up five entities, led the restructuring of three subsidiaries in various European jurisdictions, and closed down two subsidiaries and three rep offices. His excellent and diligent track record shows a remarkable business and profitability growth all thru his career without any credit, compliance, reputation, and operational incident.

As a visiting professor in various universities he has delivered numerous motivational speeches during the last twenty-five years in more than thirty-five countries, and recently on online platforms reaching more than ten thousand individuals. He has contributed a vast number of human capital development projects for more than two decades, especially in executive coaching, mentoring and inclusive leadership areas. He regularly invests in technology startups, and provide business development and financial advisory services thru his Amsterdam based company K Ventures.

He is married and a proud father.