IFS Faces - Ezgi Dedebas Ugur

We are happy to share that we have a new IFS Face in Türkiye. In this blog post, Ezgi Dedebas Ugur introduces herself.

My name is Ezgi Dedebas Ugur. I am a Turkish citizen living in Istanbul, Türkiye. I have a bachelor's degree in Food Engineering and graduated in 2003 from Hacettepe University. After graduation, I worked in food manufacturing companies for five years, mainly in charge of quality and food safety. I moved to the certification sector 14 years ago, starting as an auditor for IFS Food and other schemes. My primary duties in the certification bodies changed and developed over the years. I have been responsible for the technical management of food standards, technical reviewing, delivering training for auditors. Finally, I held the position of Deputy General Manager in the Turkish affiliate of a multi-national certification body before joining IFS.

Since 2019, I have performed IFS Training courses as a subcontracted trainer and was in close contact with the IFS Technical Team. As I heard that IFS wants to expand their activities in Türkiye and was looking for a colleague on site, I started thinking about it. With my professional experience at food manufacturers and certification bodies, I now want to contribute to IFS's market expansion in Türkiye. So, I have made the switch and joined the IFS Team on 1st March 2022. I will be the IFS Representative in Türkiye and part of the IFS Integrity Program team. IFS has many stakeholders such as retailers, manufacturers, certification bodies, auditors, associations. Being the contact person for Turkish stakeholders, I will provide direct support to them and collect feedback from them to work on the continuous improvement of the whole system. Furthermore, I will be responsible for the integrity program activities, training courses, organising exams, developing, managing local projects and being the contact person for all parties in Türkiye.

To me, IFS means setting high-quality standards and programs. I am honoured to contribute to increasing the quality and safety of products used by consumers and companies in the supply chain. Even more, I am excited to become a member of the IFS Team, learn from my new colleagues and their experiences and the many partners in the IFS Network.