Melsa Ararat is activistscholar and professor of corporate governance. She is the founder and former director of Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey (CGFT) at Sabancı University and the founding director of CDP Turkey. She is the founder and Chair of 30% Club Turkey campaign and the founding director of Business Against Domestic Violence Project (BADV).[1]
Ararat was elected to the board of International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) in 2015 for a 6-year term, and to the board of United Nations Global Compact Turkey Network in 2019 for a 3-year term.[2] She has been a visiting professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics in University of Groningen since 2015.[3]
She coordinated Emerging Markets Corporate Governance Research Network of IFC from 2009 to 2017. She founded CDP’s Turkey operation in 2009, Business Against Domestic Violence Project in 2014 together with UNFPA, Independent Women Directors Platform in 2013 and 30% Club Turkey Chapter in 2017.[7][8][9]
She was elected as a governor of International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) in 2015 and served as a board liaison for Business Ethics and Systemic Risk Committee.[2] She coordinated the public and private sector organizations in developing a roadmap to promote gender diversity in corporate boards between 2019 and 2021.[10]
She also contributed to the launch of Borsa Istanbul's Sustainability Index in 2013 and Climate Index in 2021.[11][2]
Selected publications
Ararat, M., Claessens. S. and B. Yurtoglu, “Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets: A Selective Review and an Agenda for Future Research,” in press in Emerging Markets Review.(SSCI), Online 5 Nov.2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ememar.2020.100768
Ararat, Melsa (ed). (2019) Business Against Intimate Partner Violence, A case of Participative Action Research and Social Action’, Springer, Cham. doi: 10.1007/978-981-32-9652-7
Ararat, M., Colpan, A. and D. Matten. (2018) “Business Groups and Corporate Social Responsibility for the Public Good”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol: 153, Issue:4, pp: 911-929 doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3920-4
Ararat, Melsa; Black, Bernard S; Yurtoğlu, Burçin B. (2017). "The effect of corporate governance on firm value and profitability: time-series evidence from Turkey". Emerging Markets Review. 30 (March 2017). Elsevier: 113–132. doi:10.1016/j.ememar.2016.10.001.