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Aysegul Ekmekci
Development Officer at The Global Impact Investing Network
Professional Background
Ayşegül Ekmekci stands out as a distinguished professional in the field of international relations and development policy, demonstrating a robust commitment to social impact through her work in various reputable organizations. Currently serving as a Development Officer at The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), Ayşegül plays a vital role in advancing investment practices that prioritize social and environmental benefits alongside financial returns. Her expertise in economics and political science equips her to navigate complex issues and contribute significantly to the field of impact investing, helping to shape policies that drive sustainable development globally.
Prior to her tenure at GIIN, Ayşegül honed her skills and accumulated invaluable experience in various positions. As a Policy Officer at Oxfam Novib, she was deeply involved in advocating for sustainable solutions on pressing global issues, enhancing her understanding of policy analysis and implementation in the realm of international development. This role allowed her to engage with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, from grassroots organizations to governmental entities, fostering collaborative efforts towards equitable solutions.
In addition to her role at Oxfam, Ayşegül excelled as a Project Specialist at the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey (TUSEV), where she contributed to the enhancement of civil society initiatives across Turkey. Her ability to manage projects and develop strategic plans that align with nonprofit goals showcased her strong leadership and organizational skills.
Furthermore, her role as a Research and Program Fellow at The Agenda Project gave her a platform to delve into research surrounding progressive policies, engaging with critically important issues that affect communities worldwide. This position enabled her to utilize her analytical capabilities fully, ensuring that her contributions were grounded in solid evidence and best practices.
Ayşegül's career journey began with an impactful internship at the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations, where she had the opportunity to observe and assist with multilateral diplomacy initiatives. This foundational experience ignited her passion for international cooperation and set the stage for her subsequent achievements in global governance and humanitarian efforts.
Education and Achievements
Ayşegül's academic background strongly supports her impressive career trajectory. She pursued her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Economics and Political Science from Baruch College, where she gained a strong foundation in understanding economic systems, political dynamics, and their interplay in global contexts. This interdisciplinary approach to her studies has proven invaluable in her ongoing work in international relations.
Furthering her expertise, Ayşegül earned a Master of Arts (M.A.) in International Relations from the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), graduating with merit. At LSE, she further cultivated her understanding of global issues, developing a nuanced perspective that informs her current work as a Development Officer. Ayşegül's education not only reflects her dedication to her field but has also expanded her professional network, connecting her with fellow scholars and professionals in international relations and development.
Notable Achievements
Throughout her professional journey, Ayşegül Ekmekci has achieved various milestones that highlight her expertise and dedication to social impact. Her work at The Global Impact Investing Network is a testament to her ability to draw connections between financial systems and social responsibility, paving the way for innovative investments that help meet global challenges such as poverty eradication, climate change, and social justice.
While at Oxfam Novib, she contributed to the organization's advocacy initiatives that seek to address core issues affecting vulnerable populations. Her efforts helped enhance Oxfam's presence and influence in key policy discussions, showcasing her aptitude for strategic thinking and collaboration.
Ayşegül's role at TUSEV involved the successful management of projects aimed at strengthening civil society in Turkey. Her contributions facilitated increased funding and resources for nonprofits, thus fortifying their capacity to implement impactful social programs.
Moreover, her involvement as a Research and Program Fellow at The Agenda Project has empowered her to contribute evidence-based recommendations to policymakers, paving the way for transformative change. These experiences collectively showcase Ayşegül's profound commitment to improving lives through systemic change and innovation in policy solutions.
As she continues to push boundaries in development and international relations, Ayşegül Ekmekci remains a respected figure in her field, admired for her expertise, tenacity, and unwavering commitment to fostering positive change in the world.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.