Deniz Toprak

Since I left college, I have done bunch of different things, from doing procurement for different portfolios in a multinational corporate FMSG company to starting a hotel business in Sri Lanka… I like changing things. I think changing your job is important for work fulfillment because it keeps you interested, engaged and I think it is a very valuable way to experience the world.Working in a company like Unilever gave me the opportunity to build strong project management skills: Commitment to highest standard and being able to manage multiple projects with deadlines, handling different stakeholders and vendors from all work levels, creative, analytical and confident thinking under different circumstances and of course an ability to build a vision with drive to influence the environment.

I started working in several projects in procurement for the MS, workplace and HR portfolios. Meanwhile I have also became a member of Unilever Sustainable Living Plan Board after a few months I joined Unilever. I was managing the Diversity and Inclusion side of the board and we have delivered a very successful project about women empowerment. Since working with HR via procurement projects created a good visibility on HR side, I have been assigned to a HRBP role for Marketing, Media and New Business Model teams. I have learnt and improved a lot about recruitment, employee relations, business partnering, talent acquisitions and team building. Since I have a passion about innovation and new business models, I have decided to become a procurement partner of New Business models in Unilever after my short term assignment in HR. All these experiences helped me to build 360 vision of running my own company. Procurement helped me to build skills in legal, finance and stakeholder management areas. During HR experience, I have learnt to manage employee relation, keeping your people motivated and also talent management. Furthermore, my last assignment helped me to track new business models, marketing & sales tools and innovation.

Then I realized that, things have been invented and created all the time, all around the world and not necessarily in the four walls of Unilever so I have started looking for a change, an innovation in my life to make a difference. The experiences I had other than Unilever were; I travelled all around the world and had a good taste of different communities and different places, have been a huge fan of surf and yoga for several years and have done some field and online search about paradise island options to do business. My first visit to Sri Lanka was in 2015 and then I saw the potential of growth in tourism, plus it was matching the lifestyle I was looking for myself in the long run. I started digging and visiting Sri Lanka since then and work on a business model that would survive more than 5 years. After finding a property in a very good location, I quit my job and started Mellow Hostel by the end of July 2018. We created a great community and vibe so the business went way further than my expectations that we received an investment from a Hong Kong based company to build up a new restaurant in-house. I am managing more than 20 people in the hostel and restaurant and give them the training myself. We have successfully performed a season way above the business forecasts in the first year. Now the restaurant and the hostel are running by without my fulltime supervision which gives me time and space to proceed with my new work and business opportunities.