How did you meet Turkish people and Turkish tea first? Did you know anything about them before then? 
Before coming to Turkey I had little knowledge about the country, its people or customs. I of course knew the basics: that it was a Muslim country located in the Middle East; that the Ottomans ruled there; that it was famous for baths and strong coffee, but that was about it. I had learned, however, much about its art in my university classes. I remember being fascinated as a child by the image of the camel on the pack of Camel cigarettes my father smoked and always asked to play with the pack. I think the first words I ever learned to read were “Turkish Tobacco” which was written in bold on the pack! But I knew nothing about the tea culture: I assumed that all Turks drank Turkish coffee!

American Borate Company (ABC) is a privately held corporation headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia and the Company has marketed borates from Turkey since 1981. ABC has become the largest North American representative of Turkish borates. Jim Sparks, President of American Borate Company has been traveling to Turkey since 1983 for the borate business initially working with Eti Bank, which is now Eti Maden. Jim purchased an air dunnage bag manufacturing operation in city of Amasya. This operation currently employees over 200 people. Since becoming involved in Turkey, his companies have purchased Turkish produced product worth more than 2 billion dollars.

Jeff Engell, lead consultant of the Bilkent Cyberpark Accelerator Program (CAP), Turkey's first fully international accelerator, which was recognized globally by the International Association of Science Parks (IASP) and a recipient of the Inspiring Solutions Award. Engell became involved with Bilkent’s CAP, which has as one of its goals to connect its companies to strategic partners and customers in the U.S.Bilkent Cyberpark is Turkey’s first private Science and Technology Park (STP) established in 2002 by Bilkent University. The cyberpark is large, with about 240 high-tech companies, eight research centers and more than 3,300 R&D personnel. Innosphere, Colorado based company which supports highly motivated entrepreneurs working on innovations, reached out to Bilkent Cyberpark in Ankara, Turkey in a partnership that could potentially bring Turkish startups – and economic activity -- into Colorado. The idea was developed by Jeff Engell, a former Fort Collins resident who moved to Turkey and saw an opportunity to create a Colorado-Turkey connection. Engell answered TURKOFAMERICA’s questions.

Sena Eken Schieber was a pioneering international civil servant and a role model for many women. After graduating from Robert College in Istanbul and receiving her PhD from Pittsburgh University, she worked at the IMF rising to the rank of Assistant Director, the highest for a Turkish employee in the history of the institution. She died on June 3^rd, 2014 in Washington, DC. Her husband, George Schieber established Sena Eken Schieber Economics Award in 2015 with Turkish Philanthropy Funds. His late wife, Sena Eken Schieber’s legacy will now live with the empowerment of talented women from Turkey.