Ayşe Sabuncu

Impact Hub İstanbul

Ayşe Sabuncu is the co-founder of Impact Hub Istanbul. After completing her undergraduate studies with a major in computer sience at Johns Hopkins University. Sabuncu started her career in the banking industry at Citi in New York where she served at different levels for 5 years.

While working at Citi, through Adım Adım Initiative she came across fundraising project for the welfare of the youth “Gençlere Değer Projesi” by Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı (TOG). In support of this cause, Sabuncu climbed Kilimanjaro Mountain with her friends and after this experience she decided to give another direction to her life.

She did an MBA program at Stern School of New York University to advance her knowledge on social impact, innovation and entrepreneurship. She specifically focused on social entrepreneurship, microfinance and social investment subjects. In the summer of 2014, she started working in the field of microfinance with Kiva – a global non-profit organization – in Zimbabwe and South Africa where she was introduced to Impact Hub.

With deep understanding of the startup and social impact ecosystems, and experience in sustainability projects, startup capacity building, and corporate volunteer programs, Impact Hub Istanbul is spearheading the growth of the social innovation space in Turkey.