Turkey's Burak Çakmak to lead Saudi Arabia's Fashion Commission

Fashion heavyweight Burak Çakmak has been appointed as the CEO of Saudi Arabia's Fashion Commission to develop the growing fashion sector in the country and support local talent under the umbrella of the Kingdom’s Ministry of Culture.

The commission, which is one of the 11 cultural bodies established by the ministry to preserve rich Saudi heritage, made the announcement via its official social media account on Monday.

Çakmak, a distinguished and experienced member of the fashion world from Turkey, will oversee the commission which aims to improve and develop the fashion industry in Saudi Arabia, and he will be organizing and managing relevant events in the historic peninsula country. He will be developing plans and programs to encourage financial support and investment in the fashion industry in Saudi Arabia while dealing with improvements to education, professional programs and industry regulations and supporting local professionals and entrepreneurs.

Çakmak, who is a 1997 graduate of the Middle East Technical University (ODTU), received further education in San Francisco State University and France's Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche Appliques au Management (School of Knowledge Economy and Management), or CERAM, Sophia Antipolis, one of the top French business schools.

Çakmak has more than 20 years of experience in the business world and has served as an expert and business strategist at leading fashion firms while being one of the founding partners of the Digital Fashion Group and THEAN/co, a strategic brand consultancy. He has also served as a consultant on sustainability in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Before accepting the post on the Fashion Commission, Çakmak was the dean of the Fashion department of New York's Parsons School of Design.