Demir Aytaç
Bütün Dünya Magazine
Demir Aytaç was born in 1957 in Wichita, Kansas, USA. He completed his secondary education at TED Ankara College. In 1979, he attained a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Marketing (BS) from the University of Illinois, Chicago and was awarded a Master's Degree (MAS) in Political Science from the same university in 1982.
In 1983 Mr.Aytaç began his professional career in Istanbul, Turkey as the Export and Sales Manager at Anadolu Endüstri Holding and was subsequently appointed Manager at Çukurova Group where he worked between 1991 and 1995. From 1996 to 2004 Mr. Aytaç served as Assistant General Manager and General Manager of Sales at Kav Ambalaj (a corrugated box and packaging manufacturer) and Düzey Corporation, which is one of Turkey’s leading logistic and distribution companies and also an affiliate of Koç Holding, the largest conglomerate in Turkey.
Between 2004 and 2008, he served as Assistant General Manager of Sales at Migros, which is the leading retail supermarket chain in Turkey. Between 2008 and 2019, he served as Assistant General Manager for the same company where he was responsible for Human Resources, Industrial Relations and also the Migros Retail Academy. In February 2019, he was appointed Chairman of the Sustainability Committee of Migros and continues to lead Migros' sustainability projects.
Outside of his professional life, Demir Aytac has maintained a passionate interest in Russian literature in general and has a special affinity for the works of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Having dedicated most of his life to this love of Russian literature, not as a hobby but as an enthusiastic academic, Aytac has had his articles published in various Turkish newspapers and magazines. Since 1990 his articles have been published in the monthly journal Bütün Dünya, which is an art and culture magazine similar to Reader’s Digest.
He was invited to participate in the Russo-American Scholarly Conference, “Towards the 120th Anniversary of Ernest Hemingway” which was organized by the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, on April 25-26, 2019.
He also attended the RSACS XLV International Conference “Immigration and American Culture” in Moscow, which took place between the 4th & 7th of December 2019. These conferences gave Aytac the opportunity to meet Professor Irwin Weil and attend his lectures.
Aytac adheres to the belief that people who can solve two different puzzles (ie the corporate world and Russian Literature) simultaneously, are more capable of adapting to change, and are able to bridge the gap between paradigms. He emphasizes at every opportunity that “a knowledge of classical literature can increase your success in the corporate world”.
In the 2022-2023 academic year, Aytac was accepted as a visiting scholar to Northwestern University. There, he audited Professors Gary Saul Morson’s, Susan McReynolds’, İlya Kutik’s and Clare Cavanagh's courses and furthered his research into Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
Demir Aytaç is married with one child.