Yonca Tokbas

Keynote Speaker

Speaker Profile 

Mother of two. She speaks English and French.

Worked in a variety of corporate environments, both at home and abroad. She has worked with people from a diverse range of nationalities.

She has suffered from depression and used her love of running as a means to self-heal.

She quit her corporate job and decided to focus on the things she loved and did well: writing, running, speaking, finding solutions for problems, helping others...

While using running as a way to self-heal, she did a great deal of charity work for several foundations like TEGV, TOG, TOFD and TEMA. In the process she has broken donation records and contributed to the education of thousands of children. She raised a massive wheel-chair fund for disabled children. She planted and supported three forests.

She got to know about bees and loved them. Having seen what bees are suffering through, she decided to become pro-activated to save as many as possible. She initiated the Bees of Anatolia Project in partnership with TOG Foundation, first of its kind in Turkey.  She now offers training to people about “Bee Love”.

Yonca knows that once you love something, you’ll do anything for it. This is what she speaks about.

She keeps running.

She has run marathons (which is a distance of 42km 195m) in Venice, Paris (twice), Malta, Istanbul, Medoc and Amsterdam.

She was determined to push herself further and decided to run Ultra Marathons.

She completed İznik Ultra (80km and 46km), Sapanca Mountain Ultra, Runfire Cappadocia (three times), Lycia Road 6G (twice).

She ran the infamous Lycian Road Marathon which is 256 km in October 2016.

She is one of the first women (there are only three) who completed this running trail in Turkey.

She was granted the chance to run in the World Mountain and Trail Running Championship. She ran in UTMB in August 2017.

Also, she keeps writing.

She published her book “Karışık Kuruşuk Şeyler” and is busy with three others soon to be published.

She was writing regularly for the Daily newspaper Hurriyet and the monthly magazine Elele. Now she writes on her own web blog and Instagram account.

She is a professional coach.

She gave keynote speeches for P&G, Zayed University in Dubai, Peryon HR Conference, TurkishWin, and TedxReset. She is regarded by many as a source of motivation, inspiration, and hope.

She moderated programs including Sustainable Brands İstanbul, Olympic Mothers and Women of Power Conference.

She continues to listen to what her heart says and believes in doing something purely because she feels like doing it, because she loves doing it. Yonca is the sort of person who gives hope and courage to anyone who needs it.