Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s Fashion Commission announced on Monday the appointment of Burak Cakmak as CEO of the commission. He will assume the tasks of managing, organizing and developing the Kingdom’s fashion sector, as well as supporting and empowering young Saudi talents in accordance with the National Strategy for Culture developed by the Ministry of Culture to promote the cultural sector in the Kingdom.

Cakmak has an illustrious professional and academic career in the fashion industry. He has served as the dean of fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York, and has held key positions in major fashion industry companies. Cakmak’s career in the fashion industry began in 2000, serving as Gap Inc.’s senior manager of social responsibility. After eight years, he relocated to London and was hired by Kering to lead sustainability strategies for the luxury group’s brands as its first director of corporate sustainability.

In 2012, he was tapped by the Swarovski Group as the company’s first vice president of corporate responsibility, charged with implementing best practice industry standards across the business.

His appointment to Parsons in August 2016 was his first full-time foray into academia; prior to joining, he served as visiting professor at SKEMA Business School in France and China. He also served as a sustainability consultant at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and member of the Advisory Board of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Lexus Fashion.

Cakmak holds MBA degrees from CERAM Business School as well as San Francisco State University. Throughout his career, he has spearheaded numerous sustainability initiatives, and prepared scholarships at Parsons School of Design and Central Saint Martins at the University of the Arts London.

The Fashion Commission is one of 11 cultural bodies established by the Ministry of Culture to manage the Saudi cultural sector. The commission undertakes multiple responsibilities in the fashion sector, including setting a strategy for developing the sector and following up its implementation under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. It will handle licensing activities related to the field of fashion, defining regulations and legislation for the sector and encouraging funding and investing in the sector.

The commission will also conduct training courses and professional programs, in addition to supporting and empowering talents, professionals and entrepreneurs in the fields of the fashion industry.