IN SAFE HANDS
ABC: Hello, Mehmet. Nice meeting you. Firstly, congratulations on your new role at Mercedes-Benz Buses. How does it feel to be in such a key position?
MK: Hello Fabian, thank you for the opportunity. It has of course been almost 10 months since I have taken over this role. I definitely feel more confident and clear about what I want to achieve in Australia and the Pacific for Mercedes-Benz Buses now. I won’t be shy about it: Mercedes-Benz keeps setting the standards for the bus industry, so it is thrilling to represent the three-pointed-star and taking the leadership of the best talent in the industry here in Australia.
ABC: Can you give us a bit of the background behind your career to date? How did it all get started? How did you get to this stage? You are reporting directly to Mercedes-Benz Truck and Bus Australia-Pacific director Michael May, no doubt?
MK: Sure. I am originally from Turkey and I have been working for Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, since 2002. I joined Mercedes-Benz Turk in 2002 through a management trainee programme. As part of the programme, I had the unique chance to work at multidisciplinary projects including all business units and brands we represented. Just to give you an idea, I was part of the three different project groups launching our Travego intercity coach, smart fortwo and Maybach brands in Turkey, and then accompanied a group of German engineers to the mountain ranges at the Turkish-Iranian boundary for metal fatigue testing on our Unimog military trucks. It was challenging, fun and gave me a lot exposure.
Following my first leadership role as the Passenger Car Workshop manager in our own retail outlet in Istanbul, I decided to take on an international assignment. In 2007, I moved to our regional office in Dubai as the
