Ali Kuru Email & Phone Number

Istanbul, Turkey

Expero is a marketplace with mass appeal where creative freelancers find jobs, and employers connect with talented professionals.The project started in April 2021 under my leadership, with an exploration of user stories and user flow research. Launched as a cloud-native startup after an intensive year-long cycle of research, design, and development, which required harmonizing the collaborative efforts of three distinct groups of professionals. I orchestrated every facet of the project, from its ideation to its launch, and I consider it a significant accomplishment as a digital leader.Our in-house development team, an outside software house and a UI/UX design agency were involved in production. Back-end written in .NET Core, front-end written in React for the web and currently in work-in-progress with React Native for mobile. Project runs on AWS and uses Fargate, RDS, OpenSearch, Elastic Load Balancing, S3, SES, SNS and CloudFront.Microservices enable us to implement, extend, and scale any feature, whether it's an identity service handling KYC verification or a secure messaging service. This flexibility also helps us to create A/B tests easily.

Istanbul, Turkey

I am leading a team of seven; comprising four software developers, a community manager, a social media associate, and an IT specialist. I am responsible for developing website and mobile projects, IT budgeting, earned and paid social media interactions, orchestrating digital agency relations and digital policymaking.My promotion came with a hard task; creating a team from individuals who are self-organized and used to work independently in a mid-sized company. Creating harmony among people with different backgrounds and responsibilities required changes of old habits that were already elevated almost to a ritualistic level. Combining mentoring with modern tools available for development and project management, I managed to create the collaboration needed in my first quarter. At the end of the first year, the whole team not only finished more projects than the previous year, but also released our first in-house mobile app. With my efforts, Kapital saved and earned more in the following years.

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

I handled the MediaCat Magazine’s online content. I also contributed to the social media/digital news section on the monthly issues. Also worked hand-in-hand with the in-house development and IT staff to enhance the features and SEO of the Magazine’s website, which further improved my project management skills. MediaCat’s website traffic doubled in my first year.

Istanbul, Turkey

I managed the Farmaskop Magazine’s online content and social media interaction. I also wrote the technology section and edit medical content on bi-monthly issues.Before I joined the team, Farmaskop’s web page traffic was in poor shape. I tripled the Farmaskop’s website traffic in my first three months by broadening the content with podcasts on topics like trends in clinical research and innovations in healthcare IT.While working for Farmaskop, I oversaw the renewal of the magazine’s site design and structure, which won the 3rd place in health at the “Golden Spider” awards.

Mersin, Turkey

I worked as a researcher and lecturer during my tenure in the Biology department of Mersin University.As a researcher, I was involved in two major scientific projects. One of these projects was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). In this project, I carried out the screening processes of newly isolated Streptomyces species for their ability to degrade the main plant cell wall constituent lignocellulose through their extracellular peroxidase and xylanase activities. I used spectrophotometric, chromatographic and electrophoretic techniques to purify and biochemically characterize these enzymes. I found out that the production levels of the enzymes subjected to the project can be optimized by controlling the C:N ratio of the medium and showed that some of the strains subjected to study secrete novel enzymes in terms of their biochemical durability in industrial environments.In another scientific project funded by the State Planning Organization, Turkish Prime Ministry (DPT), I carried out comparative studies of extracellular Streptomyces peroxidases against plant peroxidases used in commercial cholesterol determination kits, and proved that microbial peroxidases can be used as alternative sources for these kits.As a lecturer, I carried out several laboratory courses, such as microbiology, biochemistry and biotechnology laboratories, for BSc students.

Phd, Industrial Enzymology

Msc, Industrial Enzymology

Bsc, Biology