Gunay Akdogan
Biography / Senior Consultant
İlhami Günay Akdoğan is an accomplished professional with unique blend of business and technical experience in research, product development, R&D operation management and business development in international setting. He is currently working as senior consultant at Pronish, specializing in Research & Development (R&D) and Innovation Management with 20 years of experience in research & development in High-Tech fields. He previously had leadership roles in R&D organizations of Global leading Medical Technology companies, e.g., Medtronic. He worked as senior researcher at TUBITAK BİLGEM – Informatics and Information Security Research Center. In addition, he has involved in cutting-edge technology R&D at Bilkent University – Nanotechnology Research Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Rutgers University. Günay holds two M.Sc. degrees in Materials & Ceramics Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering from Rutgers University, NJ, USA. He has a BS degree in Physics from Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
He has solid experience with different design suite software in 3D designing, 3D modeling, analyzing and optimizing of electromagnetic components, systems, Rapid prototyping and 3D printing of the conceptual medical devices and their respective parts. In addition, he worked on 3D anatomical modeling generated from anonymous real patients` imaging data to better understand the anatomical challenges for the designed prototypes of the innovative medical devices, and create realistic medical training kits (organ models & flow models) for existing and new products to train healthcare professionals. During his work, he also initiated a collaboration with IEEE P3333.2 Working Group (IEEE-SA Standards Projects in Medical 3D Printed & Virtual Reality Models) and a funded EU Erasmus Plus project on 3D printed & virtual reality models focusing on urological procedures.
He specializes on new product development leadership utilizing various innovation approaches to identify feasible and profitable solutions based on the identified unmet needs. He has an immense experience in engaging stakeholders, promoting Innovation & R&D Branding as marketing, communication, event organization for PR activities. He was embedded advocate for Medtronic Asian Healthcare Innovation Competition to promote the local innovation in APAC region and was People`s Choice Award Winner in 2017 when working for Medtronic. In addition, he also provided mentorship for entrepreneurs in EMEA Emerging Markets region, for example, he was a mentor and participant at Uganda Cam-Tech Global Surgical Hack-a-ton where he worked closely with local entrepreneurs to help for creating solid business cases to find potential investors at local, regional and global level.
Gunay`s principle is to better understand the unmet need, set the expectation accordingly and providing innovative solutions by using Design Thinking and/or Human-Centered design approaches for the utmost outcome benefiting the clientele.