After one of the most turbulent years in recent history, Real Estate Weekly has introduced its 2021 Leading Ladies of Real Estate. Cind Çiğdem Gökay, Head of Sales of Reuveni Real Estate, was recognized as one of the 2021 Leading Ladies of Real Estate by Real Estate Weekly. Gökay's recent work at 30E31 NoMad, Dahlia UWS, Era UWS and years of unmatched experience. After generating over $30 million in new deals at 30E31 (NoMad) and Dahlia (UWS), Cindy was instrumental in the newly unveiled project, Era at 251 W 91st Street featuring 57 residences. Licensed in both New York and New Jersey, she has over a decade of real estate experience. Cindy was introduced to real estate by an industry pioneer and has been thriving ever since. She started off as an assistant, graduated to doing her own deals, and followed through with delivering a 200-plus unit luxury condominium new development project to her firm where she was intimately involved from the rendering phase to building completion. Cindy now oversees sales at Reuveni’s array of new construction projects and is intimately involved with sales planning and management of on-site sales teams.

Prior to starting her career in real estate, she was at the United Nations representing World Information Transfer (WIT) in compliance with the Ukrainian Mission focusing on health and sustainable development related to the Chernobyl disaster. She later joined Kushner Companies working for their family office and that was her foray into commercial real estate. Damla spent 8 years at JLL, and joined Colliers International as a Director of Leasing.  Damla graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science and Philosophy. “It seemed natural after moving to New York City to work in commercial real estate- there’s so much energy in the business and it’s the backbone of the city,” she says. She is the first generation Turkish; her mother is from Izmir and her father is from Kars, and they raised her family in New Jersey.  At a young age Damla’s parents instilled entrepreneurial values; hard work, creativity and staying positive in the face of failure. “These attributes have helped me succeed in my industry,” she adds.

 When he saw the commercial of the holiday village in Bodrum Torbalı on TV, he decided to continue his career there after his education in tourism and hotel management. He went to Bodrum from Izmir and showed at the hotel door. He told the director he wanted to work there. He did not know anyone. Luckily, he was accepted and started working in the most popular holiday destination in Bodrum in 1985. He continued working there until 1988. One day an American visitor at the hotel asked him if he would like to work on a Norwegian cruise ship. That question opened the door of Iskender Yeşilyurt’s journey to the US. He got on the ship from Rhodes Island in 1990.

Forbes has named Kurt Uzbay as financial advisors to its 2021 Best-In-State Wealth Advisors list. This year’s Best-In-State list spotlights more than 5,000 top-performing advisors selected from a pool of 32,725. Advisors were nominated by their firms then researched, interviewed, and assigned rankings within their respective states. Kurt Uzbay of Stifel Financial Corp was selected by Forbes to be included in their coveted 2020 Best-In-State Wealth Advisors List. Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF) is a financial service holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that conducts its banking, securities, and financial services business through several wholly owned subsidiaries. Kurt Uzbay answered TURKOFAMERICA’s questions.