Alumni News A Gift for Giving Back
Ahmet Kocabiyik Combines Global Success With an Amazing Philanthropic Spirit
While growing up in Istanbul, Turkey, Ahmet Kocabiyik (M.S. 1980) always had a strong interest in engineering. His father had founded a steel pipe manufacturing business, which exposed him to engineering principles at an early age. Kocabiyik’s dual interest in steel and cars led him to choose mechanical engineering as his field of specialty. After earning two undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., Kocabiyik traveled to another steel town—Pittsburgh—to earn his masters degree at Carnegie Mellon. His wife Zeynep also enrolled at Carnegie Mellon, completing a bachelors degree in economics in 1982. Kocabiyik found the masters degree program in MechE to be hectic and demanding, but also exhilarating. “I was learning how to apply my theoretical knowledge to real-world challenges,” he says. “I was especially interested in my studies in materials strength.” Kocabiyik remembers his time at Carnegie Mellon with fondness.
“Pittsburgh was truly the City of Champions, with both the Pirates and the Steelers winning world championships in 1979,” he recalls. “Zeynep and I also enjoyed attending the Pittsburgh Symphony, which was under the direction of Andre Previn. This experience inspired me to learn to play the flute while I was in Pittsburgh—and it created an interest in symphonic music which continues today.”
A Steady Rise to Global Prominence After completing his degree at MechE, Kocabiyik remained in the city for two more years, working as a designer for Blaw Knox Foundry and Mill Machinery in Downtown Pittsburgh. While he enjoyed his work designing entry and exit equipment for cold roll- ing mills, he returned to Istanbul in 1982 to join his father’s company, Borusan.
Kocabiyik worked his way steadily through a series of positions at Borusan, learning many aspects of the global steel business as a Sales Representa- tive, Export Manager, and General Manager. “After leaving Pittsburgh, I never worked as a practicing engineer again,” Kocabiyik notes. “But having the analytical mind of an engineer has helped me throughout my career. My training at Carnegie Mellon has enabled me to make better decisions and employ the right methodologies to solve a given challenge. For example, I helped bring lean Six Sigma methods to Borusan, due to my roots at Carnegie Mellon.”
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CARNEGIE MECH
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