Sertaç Doğanay, Tech Communicator

Sertaç Doğanay was born in 1975 in Zonguldak. His father, Behzat Rıfat, was very curious about technology and innovations. For this reason, Doğanay grew up knowing and experiencing high-tech products since his childhood. Again, thanks to his father's interest, Doğanay learned to read and write by reading the newspapers at home before he started school. Thus, he skipped the first grade and started his education life in the second grade. His handwriting was very bad as he did not receive his literacy training at school. Since he was a child, his family joked that he would become a doctor for this reason. As a matter of fact, he graduated from medical school in the future.

Primary school teacher Emine Teacher taught her the habit of reading the daily newspaper and watching the daily news. Thanks to his teacher, he developed his personality, which always follows the agenda, in the first ten years.

Sertaç Doğanay, who graduated from high school in 1992, applied to 6 engineering and 1 medical faculty for university. He only signed up for medical school so he wouldn't be left out if he didn't get the engineering major. In the results of the announced preference, he learned that he had won the Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, just like his older brother and sister.

Sertaç Doğanay Discovered Radio Programming During University Years

Although the Faculty of Medicine was not his first choice, Sertaç Doğanay had a pleasant student life. Being a radio programmer during his school years, being the organizer of school parties and taking part as a DJ at the parties were big factors in this. He did not take any other courses at the university, apart from the compulsory courses and the professors who taught the course creatively.

For the first time, he negotiated a sponsorship for the radio show. In each program, he gave tea, coffee and cake to 2 couples in a cafe called Green House Cafe in Kadıköy. Later, he made an agreement with a ready-made clothing store and this time started to give his listeners 5 printed T-shirts as gifts after each program. He was the host of 4 different programs for 5 years. You can find past radio programs here.

Having graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine in 1998, Doğanay enlisted in the military in 2000. He did his military service in Bolu Commando. He met his wife Ikbal the day before he went to the army. They got married 4 years later.

Worked in Many Pharmaceutical Companies

At the end of 2001, Sertaç Doğanay sent his CV to nearly 15 pharmaceutical companies, when he was about to finish his military service. There was no advertisement published by the companies to which he sent his CV, but Doğanay had attached a persuasive article next to his CV stating how he could contribute to his companies.

While he was on the mountain drill, his phone rang and he was called for a job interview two days later. Having agreed with the company that his military service would end in two months, Doğanay started working at Bilim Pharmaceuticals five days after his military service ended. He worked here as a product manager. Moreover, 80% of the job interview had talked to the general manager about music. The general manager had a special interest in music.

He was responsible for the marketing of A-ferin at Bilim Pharmaceuticals. Doğanay played a major role in re-entering the market and increasing sales of A-ferin, which was out of the sale for a year. Sertaç Doğanay, who is very sensitive about the motivation of company employees, took note of each employee's birthday and congratulated everyone on their birthday by calling him.

After Bilim Pharmaceuticals, Doğanay started working at Sanofi. He also worked as a product manager in this company. After his tenure there, he worked at Novo Nordisk, which he described as the "company of his dreams". He also took place as a product manager at Novo Nordisk, but also gained experience in corporate communication projects. He was the Turkey manager of Novo Nordisk's worldwide project called Changing Diabetes. He collaborated with many non-governmental organizations and associations.His next business experience was Biofarma İlaç. There he became the director of marketing and sales. He was in charge of two separate teams of 220 people. His 10 years of experience in corporate life ended with his duty here.

Described Himself as a Technology Communicator

Sertaç Doğanay has a career that includes marketing, communication, technology, innovation, academics and entrepreneurship since 2012. Doğanay, who defines himself as a Technology Communicator, is professionally interested in technical communication, future trends, new technologies, cyber security, marketing technologies and digital health applications. He shares his views on these issues with the public through conferences.

Between 2013 and 2018, he taught digital marketing within the MBA program at Yeditepe University. In the spring semester of 2019, he taught a course called Technology Communication at Kadir Has University, which was given by him for the first time in the world.

In February 2019, he became the teacher of the compulsory course called Future Medicine and New Health Technologies and another course called History of Technology and Technology Culture at Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, where he received his university education. His articles on these topics were published in Digital Age and Marketing Turkey.

Sertaç Doğanay established his agency called Social Touch

Between 2012 and 2019, he founded and managed an agency called Social Touch, which produces projects in the fields of digital marketing and digital communication.In December 2017, he gave a speech called Crimes, Powers and Loves of the Future at TEDxMETUAnkara, organized by METU. You can find the talk here.

Sertaç Doğanay, who took part in many projects voluntarily during his university years, continues this habit today. Dance with Cancer Association and Laughing Heals Association are among the non-governmental organizations of which he is a member of the board of directors.

He Didn't Read Almost Any Books Until Age 41

It is hard to believe that Sertaç Doğanay has hardly read a book for the majority of his life, as he is a medical school graduate and a name with numerous successes in his career. However, Doğanay himself says that he had hardly read a book until he was 41 years old. The author of the book that got him into the habit of reading books is Nejat İşler. Thus, he realizes that the reason why he has not read a book for all these years is that he has never met a book that interests him.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic that started in 2020, Sertaç Doğanay has moved his work home like everyone else. Doğanay, as he calls it New Generation Broadcasting, broadcasts live simultaneously from LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Periscope and Twitch. You can reach Doğanay's YouTube channel here.

Sertaç Doğanay was a person who did not like suits and formal wear in general. For this reason, he never wore a shirt except for two weddings he attended throughout his school life. During the 10 years, he worked in corporate life, shaving every day, wearing a tie and going to work in a suit, in his words, made him tired of life. Just to stay motivated, he had 20 shirts made for himself, 60 pairs of cufflinks and 50 pocket handkerchiefs. Today, he is living a happy life in sweatpants, t-shirts and sneakers.

He wants to be a person like Ayhan Sicimoğlu and Vedat Milor in the future.

Doğanay explains the definition of success as follows;

To live the way you want.