TURKOFAMERICA 40 Under 40 Award Ceremony Will be Held On March 17th,

The awards night, which is being organized by the TOA Consulting firm, supported by its main sponsors, the Turkey-U.S Business Council (TAIK ) and the New York-based Turkish Philanthropy Funds, will be held in the Times Square Marriott Marquis Hotel.

Hafize Gaye Erkan, who holds senior management positions at the First Republic Bank, which has assets worth $60 million, was ranked in first place on the "40 Under 40" TURKOFAMERICA list, which was first published in 2002. Erkan, who joined the bank in 2014 as Senior Vice President, also holds the titles of Executive Vice President, Chief Deposit Officer and Chief Investment officer.

Also on the list is Neslihan Hidirligil, owner of the largest all year long Christmas gift store chains, a concept that she developed in America. Hidirligil is the owner of the 'It's Always Christmas' store chain, which sells Christmas gifts throughout the year in cities such as San Fransisco, Washington, DC and Miami, as well as New York.

Young Turks employed by San Francisco-based technology companies are also among the list's top rankings.Baris Gultekin, one of the architects of the 'Google Now' project, Serdar Bulut, an engineer who transferred from Twitter to Facebook, a director of the social media giant's infrastructure, Cosku Turhan, who worked as the visual effects supervisor on such well-known films as "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz", and who is currently working as the senior technical director at Sony Pictures Imageworks, Olcun Tan, who has created visual effects that keep millions glued to their screens for such films and TV series as "Game of Thrones", "Shark Tale", "Kung Fu Panda" and "Black Hawk Down", Ahmet Atalay, who creates demo videos for well-known computer games such as "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare", Esra Güler, one of the foremost names in the marketing of Google Express, one of the company's latest initiatives aimed at the consumer market, Hande Aksoy, who directed Coca-Cola's million-dollar marketing budget for strategic markets and recently transferred to Facebook, Egemen Taş, an internet security engineer who has developed products used by over 80 million people around the world; and Ersan Ilyasova and Ömer Aşık, who play in the NBA for the Philadelphia 76ers and New Orleans Pelicans respectively, are also some of the inspiring young people featured on the TURKOFAMERICA list.

Cemil Ozyurt, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of TURKOFAMERICA, said the list was a first for Turks in America. He added that the list was composed by 8 advisory committees living in different US states and TURKOFAMERICA editorial board members. Recalling that, in the past, they had selected America's 50 Most Influential People and 30 Most Influential Turkish-American Women, Özyurt emphasized that the names included on the list lived in various states from California to New York, and were active in a wide range of activities, from banking to sport, software engineering to art.

TOA's Chief Operating Officer Cüneyt Gürkan said the awards ceremonies would fill a big gap in the US, where such events had become a tradition, and that a large gathering would be held with participants from Turkey and America. He added that, besides top managers from Turkey's leading companies, many prestigious names from American media, politics and society would be attending the evening event. Noting that the ceremonies would host close to 400 guests, Gürkan promised the attendees a night they would not forget.

America's 40 Most Influential People Under 40

#1 Hafize Gaye Erkan, Executive Vice President, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Deposit Officer, First Republic Bank (Financial Instution, Banking) California / New York
#2 Ömer Aşık, NBA Player, New Orleans Pelicans (Sport) Louisiana
#3 Ersan İlyasova, NBA Player, Atlanta Hawks (Sport) Atlanta
#4 Neslihan Hıdırlıgil, Founder and CEO of N&F Global Corp. (Retail) New York
#5 Barış Gültekin, Product Management Director, Android (Software ) - California
#6 Egemen Taş, Senior Vice President of Comodo Group (Cyber Security) - New Jersey
#7 Serdar Bulut, Software Engineering Manager at Facebook (Software) - California
#8 Coşku Turhan, Sn Lead Technical Director at Sony Pictures Imageworks (Movie) California
#9 Esra Guler, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Google, Inc - California
#10 Hande Aksoy, Global Client Partner, CPG at Facebook (Marketing) New York
#11 Olçun Tan, Co-Founder / Visual Effects Supervisor Gradient Effects (Visual Effect ) California
#12 Mehmet Gülay, President at City's Property Development Corp. (Real Estate) New York
#13 Çetin Amato, Co-Founder and Board Member at Milas Foods (Food Industry) New Jersey
#14 Pınar Toprak is a Turkish?American composer of film scores. (Music Industry) California
#15 Derya Taşkın, Deputy Mayor of Paterson, NJ (Government Affairs New Jersey
#16 Ceylan Ecer, The Collectors Fund (Art) New York
#17 Gizem Salcigil White, Turkish Coffee Lady (Activist) Washington, DC
#18 Solita Marcelli, Global Head of Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities, J.P. Morgan Global Wealth Management (Hedge Fund Management) New York
#19 Mehmet Kirdar, SVP, Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley (Financial Service ) New York
#20 Melis Kahya, VP, General Atlantic Private Investment Firm (Private Investment) New York
#21 Pinar Kip, State Street Corporation, SVP at State Street (Financial Service) New York
#22 Emre Sahin, CEO of Karga 7 Productions Company, Executive TV producer, Film Director (Entertainment) - California
#23 Onur Keçe, Founder, Found Beverage Company  (Beverage) - New York
#24 Kaan Dagalti, Head of Strategic Initiatives Coordination, CEO Office Pladis Global  (Consumer Goods) New York
#25 Ömer Er, Managing Partner at Middle Bridge Partners - (Venture Capital) Washington, DC
#26 Sinem Saniye, Award-winning singer/songwriter (Music) New York
#27 Efe Orhun, Managing Partner at Derivative Technology LLC, Startupbootcamp Mentor (Information Security) ? California #28 Tolga Kurtoglu, VP Director of System Sciences Lab (Virtual Reality) - California
#29 Umur Çubukcu, CEO and Co-Founder of Citus Data (Database Solutions) - California
#30 Salih Eroglu, The founder of NBA Turkish Heritage Nights (Activist) - California
#31 Burcu Ünsal, Creator of Be-Live in U, an international thought leader as a Licensed NLP Trainer (Life Coaching) ? California
#32 Emre Erkul, SVP Marketing, Seminole Gaming (Gambling Industry) - Florida
#33 Onur Haytaç,Founder and CEO of Benseron (Software) - Florida
#34 Ahmet Atalay, Producer & Editor (Movie ) - California
#35 Refik Anadol, Media artist and director (Media Art) - California
#36 Güvenç Özel, Architect, artist and researcher (Architect ) - California #37 Çetin Otar, Managing Partner of Excel Capital Management (Capital Management) New York
#38 Alper Nakri, Emmy Award Nominee in 2014, Graphic Design, 3D Animation (Design) - California
#39 Eren Bali, Co-Founder & CEO of Carbon, Co-Founder & Chairman of UDEMY ? (Online Education) - California
#40 Berk Algan, Director, IT Governance, Risk & Compliance for Silicon Valley Bank ? (Information Technology) - California