Figen Ayan Chief Port Officer Galataport Istanbul has been named the new President of MedCruise at the 59th MedCruise General Assembly that was recently held in Barcelona.

“I love the cruise industry, for its resilience, its creativity, its openness and many more reasons capsuled in my over 27-years career. Hence it is a true honor and privilege to represent 140 boutique and marquee cruise ports from 21 countries in the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas as the President of MedCruise Association for the 2021-2024 mandate, said Ayan.

Born in Paris, Ayan is a French and Turkish citizen. She studied at and obtained her diploma in, “Lettres Modernes” from La Sorbonne – Paris IV in 1994.

She has been serving as the Chief Port Officer at Galataport Istanbul since 2014. She has been a Ministry of Culture and Tourism professional tourist guide, licensed in the French and English languages, since 1997. From 2011, she has been acting as the Board Member of MedCruise, representing 140 cruise ports from 21 countries in the Mediterranean and adjoining seas. She started her professional life in the cruise industry in 1994 at ITS (International Travel Services) company and continued her tourism career in 1999 with Tura Tourism as its Aegean Region Manager. Subsequently, she acted as the Marketing and Communications Manager of Global Investment Holdings until 2005.

For a period of six months, Ayan worked at Arkas-MSC as Port Management Manager for Turkey. She started back at Global Investment Holdings’ subsidiary company Global Ports Holding in 2006 as the Marketing Director of Kusadasi, Bodrum and Antalya cruise ports. She actively contributed to the Business Development department of the company to acquire and insert the cruise ports of Barcelona-Spain and Lisbon-Portugal to their portfolio.

For the past 15 years, Ayan has been attaching importance to personal development and alternative therapies; she participated in international breath trainings, family constellation and various meditative therapies. She is currently an advanced trainee for Somatic Experiencing, which is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders.

She succeeds in Aris Batsoulis, Head of Technical Services & Development Director – PFSO of Corfu Port Authority, who will continue serving the Association as Honorary President.