Sema Başol, who is Turkish-American, is a global marketing and non-profit executive with over 35 years of experience both in the U.S. and in Turkey.

Sema is the co-founder of Turkish Women’s Initiative, a US-based non-profit, founded in 2008, that promotes the advancement of women through innovative community-based programs. She is also the founder of Değişim Liderleri Derneği (Change Leaders Association) based in Turkey that provides leadership skills training for university women through its signature Sparks Program. More than 800 young women have graduated from this program. The social change projects they have created and implemented have touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The stories of the graduates are captured in Sema’s first book “Sparks: transformational stories of young women who dream of a better world” published in Turkey by Doğan Kitap.

Sema holds a B.A. degree from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey and an M.B.A. from UCLA Anderson School. She is married to Dr. Bülent Başol and has two sons.