Alphan Manas was born in 1962 in Izmir, Turkey. He graduated with a degree in Textile and Apparel Engineering from Aegean University in 1983. He received his Master's degree in Production Management from State University of New York in 1987.
He worked as a Production Manager at the New York factory of the Camera Bags and specialty handbag manufacturer Tenba. In 1987, he returned to Turkey as Country Manager of the Colonial Corporation, part of a Fortune 500 Apparel giant, a supplier to American department store chains such as Sears, K-Mart, JC Penny, and Wal-Mart. In 1988, he co-founded Exim, followed by Planet and Teknoser, then all gathered under the flagship of a Holdings company Teknoloji Holding in 1998. He parted ways with his partner in February of 2006 and established Brightwell Holdings BV in the Netherlands; under the roof of which are 7 companies extracted from Teknoloji Holding as well as new offices and establishments in the U.S. and the U.K. As a co-founder and Co-Chairman, he had been in charge of “Business and Market Development” activities in Teknoloji Holding for 18 years. His most successful venture is IDDAA, licensed sports betting project in Turkey. He also acted as project leader from year 2000 when this project was conceived, to November 2005, until Teknoloji Holding’s 20% stake sold Intralot at 400 Million USD market cap.
Alphan Manas lead and participated in several important infrastructure projects in Turkey at the government level and assisted the organizations in question for the drafting of bills, communiqués and decrees. Such projects included the source Bar Coding of Pharmaceuticals, the Electronic Highway Toll Collection System, the 1997 Census Project, Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system based on mechanical meters and last but not least: the roll out of “Sports Betting and Horse Racing” wagering via stationary agents, GSM, ITV, Internet and IVR platforms.
Alphan Manas is a self-taught futurist. As a prolific inventor he spends his considerable time lately conceiving of and devising inventions on various scales which entail the use of innovative technologies.
He is a technology expert, works closely with Institutions and University Technology Transfer Centers in Turkey and the U.S., in realization of projects for developing countries. He is a board member at the “Institute of Ecolonomics” in the U.S., which is a non-profit organization that promotes economic sustainability of rural areas by local production of energy, food, housing and other products.
As a member of the World Future Society, he chaired the Turkish chapter and later founded Turkish Futurists Association. He became founder of The Millennium Project in Turkey. Millennium Project of the American Council for the United Nations University is a global participatory futures research think tank of futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, NGOs, and universities. Alphan Manas is also a member of TUSIAD (Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association), Turkish Business and Sustainable Development Association (Founding Member), The American Turkish Council. He served at TÜBÝTAK-MAM (Scientific and Technical Research Council/Laboratory of TURKEY Marmara Research Center) Energy and Chemicals Institues’ Advisory Board in 2006 and 2007.
After he had written several articles in a number of periodicals and newspapers, he had written as a columnist for Forbes Turkey for 2 years, before writing for BusinessWeek in December 2007. He is also an editor for FUTUREtakes magazine of World Future Society in the U.S.
Alphan Manas has also a blog where a variety of his press clip-outs, articles and views on global development can be found at www.alphanmanas.com
He was appointed as Honorary Consul General of Cambodia in Istanbul in 2005 and served as a Board Member of Goztepe Football Club. During his term, the head of womens’ volleyball teamto upgrade to second league.
