Marketing Türkiye Magazine Interview
An interview with NATİV Founding Board Member Hülya Tiryakioğlu Yüksel, published in the October 2025 issue of Marketing Türkiye magazine under the title “A Lasting Legacy from Tiryaki Agro to Society: The NATİV Foundation”…
A Lasting Legacy from Tiryaki Agro to Society: The NATİV Foundation
What role did you play in the establishment of NATİV, which carries your family legacy and culture of social contribution into an institutional framework?
NATİV was founded to preserve and carry forward the values we inherited from our mother Nigar and our father Ali Tiryakioğlu. As a family, we were born into a home shaped by these values and raised in an environment where they were lived every day — and I believe this has been one of the greatest blessings of our lives. The core values we were taught were to continuously improve ourselves, to be good people, to contribute to society and our environment, and to place solidarity and mutual support at the center of life. Integrity and earning honestly were always our red lines. Our mother was an Anatolian woman who learned to read and write after the age of 55 through a course opened by a civil society organization. She did everything she could to ensure we received a good education. She deeply loved children and young people. Sadly, we lost her in 2020. Our father, on the other hand, was an Anatolian farmer who very much wanted to pursue an education but was directed to work in the fields during his primary school years. Although his formal education remained limited, he possesses remarkable life wisdom; he has always been very clear about how life should be lived and what truly matters. Inspired by these values, we strive to do our very best in everything we undertake. The purpose behind establishing NATİV is to ensure that these values are passed down from generation to generation. Tiryaki Agro also moves forward with the same values. The company’s motto, “Good People, Fertile Lands,” reflects this culture. For many years, the company has worked to create social value in the fields of education, science, and health. With the establishment of NATİV, these efforts have been brought together under a more institutional framework.
How does your support for education and youth projects align with your company’s business vision?
For us, the priority has always been transforming the values we inherited from our family into social benefit. Naturally, these values are also reflected in Tiryaki Agro’s culture; the principles embraced by the company today and NATİV’s work with young people are rooted in the same foundation. For me personally, this connection makes every step we take for young people even more meaningful. True success is measured not only by business results, but by the ability to touch the lives of young people. The foundation of a strong society lies in educated, self-confident, and productive individuals. Research conducted by KONDA also confirms this reality: a significant portion of young people feel lonely, anxious, and overwhelmed. This shows us that scholarships alone are not enough, and that holistic programs addressing young people’s lives in a broader sense fulfill a critical need.
The scholarship program we launched in collaboration with TOG was shaped with this understanding. Through interviews conducted with our scholars, TOG identified the areas where they needed support most. We then designed the program based on this feedback. Our scholarship model goes beyond financial assistance; it also includes training programs that support young people’s social, psychological, and professional development. For example, we offer programs in communication skills, self-confidence development, financial literacy, time management, and psychological resilience. We selected these topics to help young people feel stronger both academically and personally, while also strengthening their emotional resilience. As a result, our scholars not only achieve academic success, but also gain self-confidence and grow into individuals who contribute meaningfully to society.
What is NATİV’s contribution to strengthening women’s representation in STEM fields?
Ensuring equal opportunities for women in education and professional life is one of the strongest foundations of social progress. At NATİV, a significant portion of our scholarship recipients are young women studying in STEM fields such as engineering and technology. We believe deeply in their potential and want to help open new paths for them. Although this is only our first year, we are not limiting ourselves to providing financial support. We have already begun organizing training programs, seminars, and gatherings designed to strengthen young women’s self-confidence and inspire their career journeys. In addition, through our mentorship program, we bring NATİV students together with women who have built strong careers in the business world. In this way, we create an environment where young people can find inspiration, share their questions, and shape their own career paths. Our goal is to further expand these first steps and support young women in entering professional life with confidence and strength. Through these efforts, we are transforming our vision of gender equality into tangible and inspiring initiatives.
How do NATİV’s projects aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals intersect with Tiryaki Agro’s sustainability strategies?
At NATİV, we approach sustainability through its social and human dimensions. The projects we develop in areas such as quality education, gender equality, and equal opportunity reflect our commitment to building a fairer and more inclusive future. Through these initiatives — aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals — we aim to create an environment where young people can realize their full potential, access equal opportunities, and contribute to the development of society.
How does the involvement of your company executives as mentors under the NATİV umbrella create value both for young people and for corporate culture?
Coming together with young people and listening to their dreams and aspirations has always been a tremendous source of inspiration for us. Within NATİV, when executives from the business world meet with young people, the experience goes far beyond the transfer of knowledge; it becomes a relationship built on trust, inspiration, and companionship. Through these interactions, young people gain not only guidance for their career plans, but also new perspectives on life itself. At the same time, these experiences strengthen the sense of social contribution within the organization. This environment of mutual learning broadens the horizons of both young people and business leaders alike.
What kinds of educational and social support does NATİV provide to young people in Anatolia?
We were born in a village in Gaziantep, and we spent our childhood and early youth there. We came to where we are today as children raised in Southeastern Türkiye. Our roots, our connection, and our essence remain there. Inspired by these roots, we see it as our responsibility to give hope to children across every corner of the country — to encourage them to dream and to show them that, with determination and hard work, those dreams can become reality. For this reason, we place great importance on visiting the two schools in Karkamış and Gaziantep that carry the names of our mother and father whenever possible, and on meeting with the children and young people there. On special occasions such as May 19, October 29, and Teachers’ Day, we make sure to be there — encouraging young people to believe in what they can achieve and inspiring them through positive examples. We also support successful young people studying at Koç University. For example, one of our engineering students recently graduated with a double major, and this year another student will begin her educational journey. Our goal is to ensure that young people have access to equal opportunities regardless of where they were born. NATİV’s projects across Anatolia are transforming this belief into reality.