Our CEO Leyla Arsan attended the “Leader Women’s Summit” on Monday, March 7th, 2022 at İstanbul Technical University, Macka Campus. The event took place under the leadership of Ünsped Customs Consultancy Women’s Leadership Development Committee where she participated in the “Being a Leader in Science, Business and the Blockchain Ecosystem” session as Istanbul Blockchain Women Association Board Member. Leyla Arsan shared the stage with Bezmialem Vakif University Faculty of Pharmacy Dean Prof. Dr. Gülaçtı Topçu, İstanbul Technical University Department of Chemistry Assoc. Dr. Füsun Şeyma Kışkan, General Manager of Kampotu Medicine Beril Koparal Ergün, Zorlu Textile Strategic Purchasing Manager Nergis Satıcı and Istanbul Blockchain Women Board Chairman Ebru Güven under the moderation of Unsped Sales Director Selmin Yazici Serim and Chief Chemist.
Leyla Arsan shared her story of how her passion with data started since her childhood and then while studying statistics how this passion grew and turned into broadly thinking with the contribution of probabilistic approach and how this impacted her life as a businesswoman in digital business. She mentioned that digitalization is being perceived only as automatization or connecting but inherently she emphasized again the importance of data and especially open data. Open data can be accessed and shared by everyone, not only in business but also in everyday life to create, collect, access, use, and analyze. So that people can be smarter in making decisions, foreseeing, and acting by transforming to scientific minds.
While talking about science, she told a story about herself when she first met philosopher, cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett 13 years ago at Sabancı Museum SEED saloon in Istanbul for the occasion of Darwin’s 200th birthday. She continued with her story by telling that she noticed Daniel Dennett was continuously presenting women scientists impacting on the evolution theory during his speech and then she had asked him the reason for showing all these women scientists and if it was by purpose. She said that the answer had stopped her and made her think about herself and her gender once more which had been: “Women scientists are more successful than men, they never give up whereas men usually do. This is because women think that they have nothing to lose by trying and trying and they continue so they succeed.”
Leyla Arsan continued by telling that women are sustainable and sustainability is the most important aspect in today’s world where capitalism impacted the world negatively and destroyed the planet and humanity so that women are critically needed in every part of life not as a woman or so get used to mother role, but in every field.
She then linked the topic by explaining that blockchain by giving examples on the European blockchain R&D and innovation projects she is working on reevaluating plastic and self-sovereign digital identity, was developed for breaking today’s capitalist, central and authoritarian regimes with its nature to be open, secure and democratic. The necessity of being democratic with the participation and collaboration of communities in which sustainability can only be possible with the big role of women.
Moreover, she brought the subject to war which is the shame of humanity, instead of uniting the world to save the planet and be more sustainable, she said men have always been the initiators of war which destroys people, nations, and the world. In final words, she once more drew attention to the pressure created by capitalism on social justice and equal rights, and the critical role of women for a peaceful, sustainable, decentral, democratic world and a liveable planet.
