DR. BEHICE ECE ILHAN

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Behice Ece Ilhan's Biography

Dr. Behice Ece Ilhan is the Director of Cultural Strategy at Deloitte Digital. She is a cultural brand strategist and storyteller with deep expertise and a rare matrix of experience sets in consumer culture, strategic brand management, and [trans]media engagement. Blends a multidisciplinary academic background with diverse consulting experiences across continents. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University teaching MBA/MSc level classes.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Behice was the senior trend strategist at Mintel. She founded and ran Dygetic, a consulting and a cultural brand strategy company for 3 years. She consulted as the Brand Engagement Team Lead at MetrixLab, a consumer insight and analytic company, and held a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Marketing position at College of Business at Purdue University.

Behice has been acknowledged and approached as a strategist & scholar across the globe and consulted brands, ad agencies, media practitioners, scholars, entrepreneurs, and politicians. She has published at top marketing academic journals and received several Best Paper & thought leadership awards and MSI (Marketing Science Institute) grants. She was a part of the President Obama’s 2012 election campaign at Obama For America Headquarters, Chicago with the Tech and Digital Team.

Behice holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering; MBA in Finance & Marketing; MSc in Consumer Culture Theory & Qualitative Methods; and, a PhD in Marketing with minors in Communication & Sociology from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Behice is a professional Divemaster (assistant scuba diving instructor) and a dive partner for handicapped divers. She was the Captain of Women’s Ice Hockey team in Turkey. Time permitting, she likes skating, movies, knitting, kickboxing, fashion styling, and being an Aca-Fan. She is made in Istanbul; built in Chicago.