In the photo (from left to right): Yaşar University President of the Board of Trustees Ahmet Yiğitbaşı, Selçuk Yaşar Sports and Education Foundation Board Member and Yaşar University Board of Trustees Member, Board Chair of Yaşar Holding Feyhan Yaşar, Udemy and Carbon Health Founder Eren Bali, Vice Board Chair of Yaşar Holding and Vice President of Selçuk Yaşar Sports and Education Foundation İdil Yiğitbaşı, Yaşar University Rector Prof. Cemali Dinçer
3rd SY Award
Selçuk Yaşar Award was granted to Eren Bali, an entrepreneur and the founder of Udemy and Carbon Health
Implemented to sustain the vision introduced by Selçuk Yaşar as an exceptional figure in the fields of business, culture, education and sports in Turkey thanks to the firsts he developed and the principles he practiced, the Selçuk Yaşar Award of this year was granted to Eren Bali, whose success story goes beyond the limits of a rural school and extends to Silicon Valley and who is also the founder of Udemy and Carbon Health, the two enterprises that sustainably manage their initiatives and contribute to the recognition of Turkey.
Granted jointly by Yaşar University and the Selçuk Yaşar Sports and Education Foundation to show appreciation for the efforts of courageous people working for innovation, social benefit and the future’s Turkey, as well as to make their success known across Turkey, the 3rd Selçuk Yaşar Award was presented to its winner during the ceremony held at Çırağan Palace on March 17, 2022.
During the ceremony hosted by Defne Sarısoy, this year’s award was granted to Entrepreneur Eren Bali, who reached a wide audience with the online education company Udemy and the Carbon Health Enterprise that digitizes traditional health services.
The theme of the Selçuk Yaşar Award for 2021 has been decided to be “digital transformation”. Chaired by Yaşar University President of the Board of Trustees Ahmet Yiğitbaşı and consisting of individuals all of whom are considered leading figures of their own fields and selected in accordance with this year’s theme, the selection committee members were Ayşegül İldeniz, Cengiz Ultav, Prof. Dr. Öznur Özkasap, and Prof. Dr. Selim Balcısoy.
“We will continue on our way guided by the principles of ‘science, unity, success’”
Addressing the opening speech of the night and pointing out to this year’s theme as “digital transformation”, Yaşar University Rector Prof. Cemali Dinçer said, “We saw digital transformation in education as a necessity, and therefore, we took pioneering and keen steps in this direction years ago. During the pandemic, we continued with the distance education system and the process has been a success for us. The advantage that Yaşar University had was that it was already set to go for digital transformation, which enabled us to switch to online classes very easily. We have proven our success both with the strong infrastructure of distance education and the academic staff that we had, by being listed among the top foundation universities that best managed the distance education process in Turkey. As we have done for 21 years, we will continue on our way with the same excitement we had at the very beginning, with our increasing self-confidence and under the guidance of the principles of ‘science, unity, success’. We will resolutely continue to grow and develop in line with our values.”
Yaşar University Rector Prof. Cemali Dinçer
“We attach great importance to the concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation”
Yaşar University President of the Board of Trustees Ahmet Yiğitbaşı stated that they attach great importance to the concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as to the efforts that students put to combine their creativity with courage. “We aim to raise innovative individuals who are conscious about the existing social problems and have advanced problem-solving skills and high analytical skills. As a result of the efforts that we have put to achieve this goal, we have always been listed among the top universities in the Entrepreneurial and Innovative University Index of TUBITAK in recent years. We are happy and proud to be among the top 5 among a total of 78 foundation universities across Turkey in 2021.”
Ahmet Yiğitbaşı, Yaşar University President of the Board of Trustees
Emphasizing that we are in a century of rapid changes, Ahmet Yiğitbaşı said, “Technology takes place in every moment of our lives, our habits are changing, and consequently, education is also affected by this change. We believe in the importance of adapting to new technologies, and we strive to bring the speed and convenience of the digitalized world to every aspect of our lives. As a university that genetically possesses a spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation, we have set the theme of the Selçuk Yaşar Award for 2021 as ‘digital transformation’.”
“Our greatest strength is innovation and technology”
Selçuk Yaşar Sports and Education Foundation Board Member and Yaşar University Board of Trustees Member, Board Chair of Yaşar Holding Feyhan Yaşar also stated the following in her speech: “We intended to initiate and continue awarding this prize while my father was alive. I would like to thank everyone, especially to the jury, who ensured continued success in the endeavors put to realize this project. Our aim is to crown our activities with science and knowledge. Our goal is to contribute to social welfare through sustainable work. Our excitement and the greatest strength we possess is innovation and technology. We are people-oriented. We have many industrial investments in Turkey and in the world. We have a significant volume of human resources in those regions. Once again, I would like to thank all of them for their contributions. We attach great importance to digital transformation. Since the pandemic, it has gained speedier access to our lives. I believe Eren Bali will remain a great role model for all our youth and entrepreneurs.”
Selçuk Yaşar Sports and Education Foundation Board Member and Yaşar University Board of Trustees Member, Board Chair of Yaşar Holding Feyhan Yaşar
“Turkey made a big move”
Eren Bali, Founder of Udemy and Carbon Health and Winner of this year’s Selçuk Yaşar Award
The winner of this year’s award and Founder of Udemy and Carbon Health, Eren Bali said in his speech, “Although the world has not achieved completely equal levels of digital transformation, there has been a moment when more ambitious and keen countries could take the lead. I think Turkey will take advantage of this fact very well. 10 years ago, when there was no tech company originating in Turkey, Udemy became the first company that was founded by someone from Turkey and went public. In the next 10-15 years, Turkey made a big move. I believe there is still to come in this big move. Our young people are strong-willed and hardworking. I want to do my best to help young people in Turkey and open up their horizons. I wanted to accept this award to show what people can do in the field of technology and to set an example for young people.”
Who is Eren Bali?
Eren Bali was born in Malatya in 1984. Completing his primary school education in a school where there was only one teacher in a village in Malatya, Turkey, Bali won a silver medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad thanks to the digital training he had. Instead of going to universities like MIT and Harvard, he decided to study in Turkey and settled in the Department of Computer Engineering at Middle East Technical University where he also had double major in mathematics. As an undergraduate student at the university, Bali wrote an application that allows listening to music on a server.
After graduating from the university, the foundations of Udemy-to-be were established when the training and courses administered by the instructors at METU Technopolis were transferred to the digital environment through an application developed by Eren Bali and his secondary school friend Oktay Çağlar. A year after the development of this application, the entrepreneurs achieved to receive the support they wanted from Jeremy Stoppelman, the CEO of Yelp, an internet giant, and gained access to a significantly high capital of 1 million dollars. Thus, the online education company Udemy was founded.
Udemy became a huge success in a short period of time, attracting the attention of the US press. The most important newspapers of San Francisco wrote the success story of Eren Bali starting at a rural school and making it to the Silicon Valley. The strongest aspect of Udemy’s success was that industry giants such as PayPal, Booking.com and Goldman Sachs decided to administer their in-house training programs through Udemy.
Udemy has already proven itself all over the world, with thousands of training courses on many topics from computer programming to foreign language education, from photography to blockchain technology.
Eren Bali, after handing over the CEO position of his globally achieved enterprise Udemy, started to chase his initiative called Carbon Health, which digitizes traditional healthcare services. Carbon Health, which managed to increase its value to more than 3 billion dollars with the investments it received in a short time, also reached the top as the second fastest growing private company in the United States in 2021. This enterprise facilitated that more than 90 clinics in 14 states were opened to meet the healthcare needs arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerated the widespread testing practices and vaccinations during the pandemic.
Eren Bali proves that success can be achieved if one acts guided by his or her ideas, confidence and perseverance, and thus continues to inspire all young people.