The last stop on our round the world tour was Istanbul, one of the coolest cities and best countries in the world. I really love Turkey and its beauty, its people, its food.

We were here to open up our newest office, our 2nd in Turkey (Mersin is the first) and to meet our newest employee and Operations Manager, Basar Kandil. We also came to meet an old friend, Timur Fidan, Chairman of MTS a large Turkish forwarder. Joining us on this part of our journey was Chris Dennis, the Managing Director of LP Canada and Emad El Amed, the MD of LP Libya. Also, Aziz Oztoprak, the MD of LP Turkey and Alev Semiz who heads up our Mersin office, and Bahadir Erdil, the head of our Sales and Marketing. Also rejoining us was Zoeb Raniwala (Zobi) who oversees N. Africa as well as Europe for us. A very fun group.

The new office is right on the Bosporus–a beautiful view, and our opening was joined by many friends from different forwarders and shipping lines and customers. I can tell already that the LP Turkey team is going to take the company to new heights there. They are a young, energetic, experienced team that are going to grow and have fun doing it.

Alev, Aziz and Bahadir have all been to Erie already and Basar will be next. Of course, we have our own Turkish girl,Bedriye Yortanli, working in Erie already as an unofficial part of the LP Turkey team. We have also made Illya part of LP China (our LP China US office in Chicago) and LP China is going to hire a Chinese-Turk who speaks both languages to help develop that trade lane as well. Always helps to have someone focused exclusively on certain parts of the business.

Bahadir, Chris, Yuriy and Aziz. No signs of any shrunken heads in Turkish bars

Alev visiting Erie last year

Bedriye

Opening our newest office in Istanbul

Bahadir and Basar paying homage to Sultan Aziz