Demir Karaca: Wikis

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Demir Karaca (born April 7, 1978) is an Turkish / German business executive, entrepreneur, athlete and celebrity. He is the CEO and heir of the Karaca Organization and the Karaca Family fortune, a European property management & development firm in the real estate market. He is also the founder of an national ISP start-up that was among the first who introduced the internet in Turkey. His company sparked an legal front in 2003 along with other Turkish internet service providers, when his venture was halted and sued by the Turkish Telecom a state owned enterprise for $18 million over allegations of its international VOIP operations. Despite his young age Demir Karaca is a great motivational speaker and an extremely influential businessman. In the media he best known because of his relationship with Turkish Model/Actress Esin Moralioglu, who was previously involved with famous singer Ricky Martin.

Family Background

Demir Karaca is the oldest of the two children of industrialist, real estate tycoon father Özdemir Karaca who especially made a fortune in the 60's and the 70's manufacturing heavy industrial machinery for Turkish government owned steel manufacturing giant "Ereğli Demirçelik A.S.". Her mother Isolde Marina Baumeister Karaca decendent of a Nobel Austrian family, his younger brother is Kaya Karaca.

His paternal grandparents are Haci Hakki Karaca Bey died in 1966 and his wife died in 1989 both aristocrats from the Ottoman Empire era in the Yozgat region of Anatolia. On the mother's side paternal great grandparent Elizabeth Janin Von Althütten she was a blue blood nobility in Czech modrá krev during the Kingdom of Bohemia (Königreich Böhmen) part of the Habsburg Monarchy

Education

Demir Karaca attended Elementary and Middle high schools at Ayazaga Isik Schools along with the Istanbul elite at age 15 he was sent to Bradenton Academy to complete his high school education and was also boarding full time at the Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton the breeding ground for top proffesional tennis players in the world like Andre Agassi, Maria Shrapova. He was an accomplished tennis player in his teenage years. At the academy, He was classmates with Tommy Haas and an occasional sparring partner with tennis star/model Anna Kournikova.

After graduating from the Bradenton Academy in 1996 he went on to study Business Administration at the Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. At the university he became an expert on scalable computer networks and servers. On his third year after two brief interships at Pioneer Mutual Funds, Boston and Mercedes Benz, Istanbul he saw an opportunity and decided to drop out of college to start an internet venture during the hayday of the internet bubble. He later on transfered and graduated from Hawaii Pacific University, in Honolulu Hawaii and recieved a 4 year degree Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Business Mangement major.

Lifestyle

Demir Karaca is a very outgoing person, he is a Jet-Setter, he maintains close friendshipss with a variety of groups of friend networks. You can see him in having dinner at Cipriani in London one week and Cipriani New York the other while having a business engagement or on a hot date with a super model in the newest night club. With his virtually limitless wallet he is someone who truly lives in style.

Career

After persuading his family while he was still in Boston, he borrowed $3 million from his father and rent free access to a posh office in Karaca Plaza in the finacial district of Maslak, downtown Istanbul. During 2000 the fiber optic networks were laid out and network equipments were installed all the systems were state of the art at its time. Many of the ISDN and fiber optic backbone network services were being provided by then state owned Turkish Telekom. In 2001 the firm was operational and started to grow about each month. Live TV appereances by Demir Karaca himself from conventions demonstrated the uniquness of the service and the company distributed hundreds of thousands of free CD-ROMs through media channels. The 700 hour dial-up internet access first month free campaign fueled the growth and soon turned profitable. Behind close doors, the Turkish Telekom was planning the privitization process, the quick growth of Demir Karaca's internet company among others had raised eye brows, the company was forced to cease its operations in 2003 and forced to sell its customer base to other ISPs. The trial is still on going in 2007 and assigned by the courts, the independent panels judments are in favor of Demir Karaca's company.

Karaca organization stream of property lease/rent income has gone up even higher in recent years by the explosion of the real estate markets across the globe. Based on tax return data Karaca was 11th biggest property management firm in Turkey in 2005 based on filings in march 2006.

The 5000 m2 lot on Maslak, Buyukdere caddesi is currently estimated to be worth over $50 million which is wholly owned by the Karaca Family, it was purchased in 1965 for much less and used by Harteks machinery A.S factory grounds. Currently for this lot the company is considering a 30-40 floor luxury tower for residential use which will include 80 apartments, a shopping area with restaurants, indoor parking, gym and a spa. The project is estimated to have 25,000 m2 indoor space and eventually it is estimated to be valued at $300 million.

Other Activities

In addition to his formal education because of his passion for aviation Demir Karaca attended Maui Flight School and other European aviator schools and successfully became an IFR certified airplane pilot, He is also an IKO certified Kiteboarding instructor and a former proffesional kiteboarder and is in the National kitesurf team. He became 4th in Istanbul Leg of the 2006 KPWT Kiteboarding World cup, in 2005 he finished PKRA Kiteboarding World tour 30th overall. He also came 2nd in the Cesme Turkey Kiteboard Open in 2005.

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Image:HandlepassDemir.jpg‎|Handle Pass by Demir Karaca
Image:303506561.img.jpg|Kiteboard 2006 World Cup 4th place Award Ceremony
Image:Cocheinterview.jpg‎|PKRA 2005 Venezuela TV interview
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