Alumni Profile - Erhan Mutlu

Nusret Erhan Mutlu arrived in the United States in 1993 from Turkey as an international student at Texas A&M University at College Station. After he completed his English studies at the university through the English Language Institute, he had every intention of pursuing a master’s degree there at TAMU, but his MBA journey led him to the University of Houston-Victoria, which would be the beginning of his successful business career.

Erhan is a 1995 alumnus of UHV. He graduated from the UHV School of Business with a Master of Business Administration. In addition to holding a degree in English, Erhan received a Bachelor of Business Administration at Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey.

After receiving his English degree from TAMU, pursuing a graduate degree proved to be difficult for Erhan, as it was a challenge to meet the many application formalities and the complex admission procedures for an international student at a large university. So, he began his search for a good graduate business school where he could receive his MBA with a concentration in strategic management.

“Since the world wide web was not widely in use and not accessible to the public in those years, it was not possible to collect information about many schools at no cost as it is today,” he said. “In those days, it was really a struggle, especially for international students, to search and find a good school that is suitable for your needs.”

For days, Erhan spent long hours reading through the university catalogs available in the TAMU library. UHV’s then-business school – now the UHV College of Business – was a place where Erhan could receive an affordable and comprehensive MBA education, according to one of his TAMU professors. Erhan became even more interested in UHV after learning that the business school was accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which accredits less than 5 percent of business schools worldwide. The school also was affordable and had a low faculty-to-student ratio.

Erhan drove from College Station to Victoria to meet with Ron Sardessai, the dean of the business school at that time. He received a warm welcome from the dean, who was able to answer his questions about the MBA in Strategic Management program. After a long interview, Sardessai checked Erhan’s application documents and approved his admission into the UHV MBA program. When Erhan asked Sardessai about living in Victoria, Sardessai told him that the university would help him find a living solution. That meeting with Sardessai convinced Erhan that he was at the right place.

“Now, 27 years after my graduation from UHV, I understand that meeting with Dr. Sardessai was the turning point of my life because I received a very good quality education in a safe and friendly environment at UHV,” Erhan said. “Being at UHV broadened my vision to advance in my career.”

Erhan took face-to-face classes in both Victoria and Sugar Land. He appreciated that all the UHV faculty and staff were always courteous and supportive of students. On top of the quality education and friendly environment, there was easy access to professors, which was a great advantage to all the students at UHV, he said. The learning atmosphere in the classroom was always of encouragement and support, and the research projects and case study analysis he did in class helped him to gain a strong understanding of the business world.

“After my graduation from UHV, I was equipped with the competence to strongly connect business theory and practice effectively,” Erhan said. “In our business courses, working in teams on different topics improved my teamwork and leadership abilities. All these means of education leveraged my self-esteem, which serves as the base of my success as an executive manager, entrepreneur and assistant professor of management.”

After graduating in 1995 with his MBA, Erhan returned to his home country of Turkey and served in the Turkish military. After serving in the military, his business career began.

He soon started working for Birlik Mensucat Sanayi A.S., a well-known leading corporation in the textile industry in Turkey. While working for the corporation, Erhan held the position of international marketing manager for three years. In that role, he was responsible for international marketing of textile goods to more than 40 countries. In 1999, he moved to Istanbul and transferred to another company, D.O.S. Inc., where he worked for four years as a managing partner. As a managing partner, he was responsible for production planning, control and the export sales of 12 textile mills in the Denizli area, which is the heart of the textile industry in Turkey, he said. Then, in 2003, he started a new executive position as vice president for export operations at Zorlu Holding, one of the largest conglomerates in Turkey with a leading role in the Turkish economy. He held his position at the company for three years before deciding to start his own company, called YUNUS Textiles & Foreign Trade.

His company operates a fully integrated textile mill, which includes the production activities such as processing raw cotton, spinning yarn, the weaving process and dying cotton fabrics. For many years, his company served as the main fabric supplier for several Italian brand name textile producers, he said. In 2009, the company received the “Exporter of the Year” award by the Textile Exporters Association in Turkey.

In 2014, Erhan decided to return to school to earn a doctoral degree. He received a Ph.D. in strategic management at Beykent University Graduate School of Business in Istanbul in 2020. During his doctoral studies, he studied the “resource-based view” theory of strategic management and based his dissertation on the topic. His dissertation was titled, “The Effects of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competencies of Firms Over Firm Performance and The Mediator Role of Market Orientation. A Research Over the Members of Aegean Exporters Association in Turkey.” The following year, with his colleagues, he presented a conference paper at the Global Research Symposium hosted by Beykent University in Istanbul. This event was hosted in cooperation with St. John’s University and Southern New Hampshire University. His presentation, called “How the Structure of Co-opetition Affects the Survival of Newly Founded Organizations” received the best paper award from the Global Business Research Symposium that year. Erhan also has published two articles in peer-reviewed international magazines on the topic of strategic management.

Since 2018, he has served as a congress member of the Fenerbahce Sports Club in Istanbul, a major Turkish multi-sport club based in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul. In 2020, he became an assistant professor of management at the Istanbul Aydin University School of Management and Administrative Sciences, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in the areas of management and strategy.

“Now, I have the joy of sharing my managerial knowledge and entrepreneurial experiences with university students,” Erhan said.

Erhan thanks all the UHV faculty and staff who made it possible for him to get a top-quality education and made him feel at home in Victoria. Sardessai, who passed away in 2011, will always be a cherished person to Erhan for changing his life.

Erhan’s advice to current UHV students and new alumni is to always remember that success is a state of mind and a never-ending journey. There is always new information to learn in all fields of study.

“If you want success, you have to think of yourself as a success,” he said. “A good, quality education will surely give you a strong base for success. After that, it is all about your eagerness for hard work and your appetite for success. Do not leave your career management decisions in the hands of others – no one knows your dreams better than you.”