Burak Cakmak

Founder, The Digital Fashion Group & CEO, Fashion Commission of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture

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Burak Cakmak is a strategic catalyst with extensive experience in corporate, academic and non-profit organizations building innovation driven sustainable solutions.

He is the co-founder of Thean.co, a strategic fashion consultancy and The Digital Fashion Group, a European collaboration between fashion and technology and CEO, Fashion Commission of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture.

Most recently he served 5 years as the Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design where he led the implementation of a new innovative curriculum for fashion design and business programs. During his tenure, he leveraged his expertise in sustainable design to emphasise socially conscious and transformational design to formulate the educational approach and training of the next generation of creators. His experience includes directional roles at corporate and non-profit institutions including Swarovski Group, Gap Inc and Kering’s luxury brands. Under his leadership, he oversaw implementation of best-practice industry standards across all business functions, including raw material sourcing, supply chain management, manufacturing, and retail operations.

He sits on the board of ‘Nest’, a non-profit organization building a new hand worker economy, and is on the expert panels for innovation focused initiatives the Global Change Award, Kering’s K-Generation Award and LVMH Prize.

He has been invited to speak at a number of prominent, globally recognized conferences including the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, WebSummit and Fashion Asia Hong Kong. He has served on expert juries including the CFDA + Lexus Fashion* Initiative, and Open Style Lab and has lectured as a visiting professor at SKEMA Business School in France and China.