Meet AYA Nuray Gokalp, a multi-talented advisor, speaker, and connector with over 16 years of experience in the private and public sectors. She has a Master of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor’s in Business Information Systems. Besides her education, she has certifications in Scrum Master, Prince2 Foundation Project Management, and ITIL Foundation Certification.

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AYA is the Founder and Advisor of AYA Advisory, a company that creates valuable connections between entities that are solving global challenges using innovation and technology. She is also the Founder and CEO of Global Tech City, a platform that supports smart cities and communities worldwide. AYA has worked with 100+ projects, startups, scale-ups, companies, organisations, funds, investors, family offices, angels, and (U)HNWI.

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As a global speaker, AYA has spoken at several events worldwide, including 12 cities in 9 countries on three continents. Her speaking engagements include Amsterdam (Netherlands), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Santa Clara (United States), San Diego (United States), Montreal (Canada), The Hague (NL), Rotterdam (NL), Belgrade (Serbia), Sarajevo (Bosnia), Istanbul (Turkey), Tel Aviv (Israel). She speaks eight languages fluently, including English, Dutch, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. AYA has been involved with DLT/blockchain since 2014 when she joined the ABN AMRO Bank team and started to learn about the Uniform Economic Transaction Protocol (UETP) and the FOCAFET Foundation.

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She got involved in blockchain pilot projects at the government level while working for the City of Amsterdam in 2016 and 2017. AYA is an expert evaluator for blockchain projects at the European Innovation Council and a former advisor for blockchain projects at TDeFi Crypto Accelerator and AYA Advisory.

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With her passion for innovation and technology, AYA is an advocate for smart cities and communities, female founders, female funders, women in tech, and women in finance. She aims to leave a legacy by facilitating the flow of financial capital to entities solving global challenges using innovation and technology.

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AYA has accomplished a lot in her career, including winning the Top Global GovTech Influencer Award. She is making an impact in alignment with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), supporting ESG, and supporting STEM.

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