Ahmet Orhon

Keynote Speaker

Ahmet Orhon was born in Ankara in 1987. He graduated with honors from Bilkent University, Faculty of Business Administration. He started his career at McKinsey & Company, a management and strategy consulting firm, in 2009.

After spending three years at McKinsey, mainly in Turkey, China and Australia, Orhon was accepted to the Harvard Business School (HBS) - Master of Business Administration (MBA) program in 2012 and graduated from the program with high honors in 2014. During his time here, he took roles as the President of HBS Public Speaking and Negotiation Club and HBS International Student Representative.

After two years at Harvard, Orhon returned to McKinsey and transferred to the Dubai office. During his six years there, Orhon focused his practice on the private sector and family-owned businesses, leading McKinsey's work in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region in Retail and Consumer, Mobility and Automotive. During this period, Orhon provided training on leadership, communication and project management both within McKinsey and for its clients, focusing on restructuring of family businesses and senior executive orientations and training.

In early 2020, Orhon left McKinsey as an Associate Partner, returned to Turkey after 10 years abroad and founded Avane Cloud Kitchens, his first cloud kitchen investment. Avane Cloud Kitchens received $1 million from Global Founders Capital in the first round and was accompanied by TwoZero Ventures, Logo Ventures, Q Angels and distinguished angel investors in the 2nd investment round led by Finberg, in which Avane Cloud Kitchens received $3.1 million investment.

Orhon aims to expand the brands within Avane Cloud Kitchens with restaurants in Turkey and the UK, while expanding the concept of cloud kitchen in the food and beverage industry. Besides that, he provides consultancy and training services to Fortune 500 companies. Under the consultancy firm Speaker Agency, he gives speeches about his areas of expertise to the employees of corporate companies. Ahmet Orhon regularly shares about sports and sports economics in podcasts and videocasts called "Para Konuşur'' on Socrates Magazine Podcasts.

Ahmet Orhon is the creator of the interactive comedy concept "SAF Komedi" and plays a leading role in the staging of the concept.

Orhon taught Strategy and Leadership at Bilkent University, Faculty of Business Administration. He served as an Advisory Board Member at the same university. Orhon has traveled to 112 countries and participated as a speaker in more than 30 organizations, including one TEDx. He produced the independent feature film Dona Dona, which was released in 2022.