Ethidex – An onboarding-experience

Why did you decide to come to Mannheim?

"The key actually is Paul. There is an annual exchange program for „once upon a time students“ who are now businessmen an business-owners, looking for international connections and new markets to go to. The universities of Ontario and Mannheim had this program and for a reason they just invited that group. They’ve been introduced to the city, platforms, people, buildings and networks of NEXT MANNHEIM. Eventually Paul gave me a call and said „I’ve found a place!“ For obvious reasons we were looking at Frankfurt or Berlin or Düsseldorf. He said „We are going to Mannheim!“ I said: „Mann-where??“ We realized that there is a real infrastructure here in the city with all those facilities available. He said: „Forget about all the other areas and locations, we will be in Mannheim! There’s a place called MAFINEX, that is where we will settle.“

What makes Germany and especially Mannheim the right place for you?

"The great thing about Germany is, you don’t have to be centralized. There are so many larger companies with head-offices in some small towns. You can go to a small city you never heard of, and all of a sudden, you see a giant cooperation or headquarter – like SAP in Walldorf or John Deere right across the street from MAFINEX. It is decentralized which is an advantage. When you go the U.K. for example, you’re either based in London, or you’re not in the U.K. If you go to France, you are either based in Paris, or you are not in France.
As a former banker, I’ve been in Germany a hundred times but never been to Mannheim. We used to travel to those cities where the international banks are. Mannheim is great – just half an hour to Frankfurt, people know it, people are talking about how lively the city is, especially in the summer-time. There are so many things happening here."

Was it clear from the beginning that you would take the whole family with you?

„Yes! We have a daughter and a son. But our son is twenty-one and stayed in Canada at university. It’s really hard for him, especially because he loves Schnitzel. It’s quite funny – international students are everywhere all over the world and Canada is one of those destinations that international students are trying to go. Now he is living at home while studying and we are living abroad. Generally it’s the other way round."

Did you have to convince your teenage-daughter to leave everything behind?

„Yes, we had to. If you force someone to do something, it does not work out. So we tried to really make her like the idea of moving to Europe actually. North America is different, it’s like a real bubble there, many people don’t really know what the real world looks like. So coming to Europe is an eye-opening experience for her, which is great. I think she learned more French in Germany within a few months than she has ever learned in Canada. She already speaks English and Turkish, now she learns French and German. When she grows up, she will be like speaking four languages and will be able to swap from one to the other immediately within the same sentence. That is a huge advantage for her."