US Think Tank Honors Turkish Business Professional

A U.S. think tank has honored Muhtar Kent, the Turkish American chairman and chief executive of Coca Cola, with a distinguished business leadership award.

The Atlantic Council presented on Tuesday its Distinguished Business Leadership Award to Chairman of the Board and CEO of Coca-Cola Muhtar Kent for the role he has played at one of the world's most respected global and philanthropic companies and throughout a career that included crucial jobs during the transition to free markets in the former Soviet bloc.

Adm. James G. Stravridis, the NATO supreme allied commander for Europe, received the Distinguished Military Leadership Award for the role he has played in service and commitment to the security and promotion of the transatlantic alliance.

The Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award was given to leading tenor, Placido Domingo, whose music and humanitarian accomplishments have resonated around the globe.

On Tuesday, the Atlantic Council hosted its Annual Awards Dinner, which launched the council's 50th anniversary celebrations.

The Atlantic Council promotes constructive U.S. leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the central role of the Atlantic community in meeting the international challenges of the 21st century. The council embodies a non-partisan network of leaders who aim to bring ideas to power and to give power to ideas by: stimulating dialogue and discussion about critical international issues with a view to enriching public debate and promoting consensus on appropriate responses in the administration, the congress, the corporate and nonprofit sectors, and the media in the United States and among leaders in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas; conducting educational and exchange programs for successor generations of U.S. leaders so that they will come to value U.S. international engagement and have the knowledge and understanding necessary to develop effective policies.

Turkey Went through Unbelievable and Great Changes in the Last 20 Years, Cenk Uygur Says

Image WASHINGTON (A.A) - An anchorman of the U.S. TV station MSNBC and founder of the world's biggest online news program "The Young Turks", Cenk Uygur, said Wednesday that Turkey went through unbelievable and great changes in the last 20 years.
    
Uygur participated in the Turkish-American National Leadership Conference that took place in U.S. capital of Washington last week.
    
In an exclusive interview with the AA on Wednesday, Cenk Uygur said that giant shopping malls stood in Istanbul currently where he used to ride his bike as a child.
    
The developments in Turkey are simply unbelievable. Turkey's economy is growing enermously. Turkey is one of the biggest 20 economies of the world and it continues to grow. Turkey seems to be the center of foreign investments in the world. I can not tell you how fascinating it is to see such a development in Turkey, Uygur said.
   

New York Life Agent Turkic Rahmonov Named Lives Protected Champion

Image NEW YORK, NY – Dilshodjon Rahmonov from the Manhattan General Office of New York Life Insurance Company was recently named a Lives Protected Champion.  This recognition is attained by agents who in the 4th quarter of 2010 helped protect the most families in their communities with life insurance. Four hundred agents out of more than 11,800 licensed New York Life agents across the country were recognized for assisting the greatest number of policyholders with exceptional life insurance sales productivity.  Mr. Rahmonov, was named the top Lives Protected Champion among “new to the organization” or “new org” agents, who are agents in the business for less than five years.
 
With more than 40 percent of American households reporting they need more life insurance* – the highest level ever reported – the demand for professional agents in local communities across the country has never been greater.
 

OpenSecrets.org Announces Winners of 2011 Money-in-Politics Oscars

Image The turbulent world of political influence may lack the glitz, glamour and cameras of Sunday's 83rd annual Academy Awards. But the paparazzi may yet be intrigued by a collection of eye-popping, eyebrow-raising political contributions from Hollywood royalty that'd make John Boehner turn a new shade of red and Barack Obama see green.  The 2nd annual OpenSecrets.org Money-in-Politics Oscars return today to bestow awards on Academy Awards nominees who best emblematize the cozy relationship between the cinematic and political elite.

The big six Academy Awards are best picture, best director, best lead actor, best lead actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress. Of the various individuals up for those awards, 19 of them have contributed to politicians, political parties, political action committees and 527 organizations since the 1990 election cycle, the Center for Responsive Politics finds.

And they aren't very friendly to Republicans.

Of the more than $1.3 million of hard money donated by this particular cast -- contributions to candidates, parties or PACs -- more than $1.24 million benefitted Democrats. Among contributions that had identifiable partisan identification, 99 percent supported the Democratic Party, candidates and PACs.

Frank Ahmed, Foreign Service Officer Dies

ImageFrank Ahmed, 86, a retired Foreign Service officer with the State Department, died Jan. 21 of cardiac arrest at his home in Fairfax City. Mr. Ahmed joined the Foreign Service in 1953 and had early overseas assignments in Iran and Iraq. In 1967, he and his family were evacuated from Jordan during the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. After returning from his final overseas posting to Turkey in 1971, Mr. Ahmed served as a consultant to the State Department until 2009.

A Stirring Moment in Jazz History to Echo in Turkish Embassy

ImageThe ghosts are jamming again. They're playing that hot jazz in the Turkish Embassy's old Sheridan Circle mansion, just as they did in the 1930s and '40s, when the ambassador's boys, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, were always inviting their favorite musicians over to hang and blow and thump. The informal, integrated gatherings achieved near-mythic status - "Washington's most famous private jam sessions," jazz journalist Bill Gottlieb called them in The Washington Post in 1943 - and then they evaporated into history.

"So many people don't know about it," said Namik Tan, Turkey's current ambassador. He's in the mansion's second-floor music parlor, envisioning Lester Young sitting in the wood-paneled room, coaxing those light, airy notes out of his tenor saxophone. Or maybe it's Benny Carter, making his alto sax sing. And aren't those the cats from Duke Ellington's band - Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Barney Bigard - on deck to play?

Coke's Muhtar Kent Predicts Global Recovery by Year-End

ImageCompanies that adopt 'smart growth' policies that are innovative and safeguard natural resources will benefit from competitive advantages in a growing world economy, Muhtar Kent, president and CEO of the Coca-Cola Co., says in a video broadcast from Davos, Switzerland. Mr. Kent is attending the annual meeting that brings together top business, political and thought leaders from around the world to the Swiss ski resort. This year's forum opened Wednesday, Jan. 26, with a keynote address by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Mr. Kent provides an optimistic economic overview saying that he expects the world economy to attain pre-September 2008 growth levels by the end of the year.

Protecting Coke's secret formula from WikiLeaks

Image Never mind the Wiki Leaks fallout for U.S. foreign policy. Today’s kicker question at a National Press Club luncheon: how do you protect Coca-Cola’s famously secret formula from WikiLeaks, the online site now uncloaking a trove of  previously hush-hush U.S. diplomatic documents.  “I guess that we have to have better systems than the U.S. State Department,” quipped Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola Co’s chief executive.

The Iron Lady of The Marmara in New York

ImageThe Trip Advisor, one of the most well known websites in the world, is used by travelers to get information about restaurants, hotels, flights, and housing; and it also ranks the firms through voting. There are 420 hotels that are in New York and ranked by TripAdvisor.  The Marmara Manhattan, which had initially been opened in 1989 as a condo and been providing extended stay services since 1998, is on the 64th place of these 420 hotels. (October 27th, 2010) Even if this ranking were to change, The Marmara always maintains it place within the first seventy.

Coca-Cola's Kent Named Winner of "Responsible CEO of the Year" Award

Corporate Responsibility (CR) Magazine named Muhtar Kent the "Responsible CEO of the Year" in the Large Market category ($2 billion-plus revenues public company). This award recognizes how individual CEOs have aligned their company's interests with that of thousands of stakeholders to do well by doing good. Nominations were made by the editorial team at CR Magazine, which looked at the following three criteria:

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