Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Faculty of Engineering, Industrial Engineering Department 2000 graduate Özhan Can is promoted to General Manager position in Huhtamaki Group based in Finland.
Established in 1920 by Heikki Huhtamaki in Finland, Huhtamaki is listed among the biggest companies manufacturing food packaging and, disposable tableware for fast-food and hot-cold drink services in the world. Özhan Can initially started to work in Huhtamaki’s Turkey office in 2006 as an industrial engineer. With the help of his technical knowledge and innovative projects that he produced, Can achieved to get the attention of the company executives and in a short time period, he was promoted to Production Manager position. Following his first promotion, he continued to get promotions in average of every three years and, he respectively worked as Sales Manager, Factory Manager, Operations Manager and, lastly Can worked his way up to the General Manager of Huhtamaki Turkey. Can stated that he not only received a good quality training in English in EMU Industrial Engineering Department but also he got a chance to be closely acquainted with different cultures. He thanked EMU and his department for the opportunity they offer to the students.
EMU Industrial Engineering Department Head Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökhan İzbırak mentioned that Industrial Engineers and Management Engineers, on contrary to popular belief, do not only work in factories where productions of the produce are carried out but also successfully work in service sector (consultancy, transportation, energy, logistics, finance, banking, hospitals, brand management, software, tourism, education, telecommunication, promoting, human resources etc.) and, construction and extraction companies’ administrative bodies. Therefore they contribute the companies by providing them less expenses with more amount of quality products and services.
By mentioning that EMU Industrial Engineering Department holds an ABET accreditation (www.abet.org) which only 4 universities in Turkey managed to get, Assoc. Prof. Dr. İzbırak stated that Industrial Engineering Department offers its students double major programs in Mechanical Engineering or Business Administration. Since the department’s first graduates in 1998, the graduates of Industrial Engineering and Management Engineering has been working in both national and international companies’ administrative bodies which became trademarks in sectors such as production, service, construction and extraction. Moreover, graduates of the department receive acceptance from some of the renowned universities in the world such as MIT and Cambridge, graduate from the aforementioned universities with overachievement and continue their professional lives as academic staff members.