Prof. Michael Calikusu, JD, CPA
Michael Calikusu, born December in 1967, in Istanbul, Turkey, has received a Juris Doctor degree in Law from Southern
Methodist University, Texas, USA, Class of '92 and a Bachelors of Business Administration from Texas Wesleyan University, USA,
Class of '89.
He holds legal, finance and accounting related professional accreditations, being a member of the American and Texas Bar
Association and the American and Virginia Commonwealth Certified Public Accountancy Board (CPA).
Michael has taught M&A at KOC MBA, Strategy and Finance in the MBA and Executive MBA programs of Webster University in
Austria and at Kiyv Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. He has also given several lectures as a visiting professional and speaker to
leading American and European academic and business institutions, associations and summits.
Michael has been a corporate trainer during his executive employment with Kraft Foods and a founding member of its global
Finance Academy as well as a trainer for Philip Morris, Reckitt-Benckiser and Pepsico.
Michael's professional experience is with leading FMCG companies is in the food, beverage and household cleaning sectors,
and he has demonstrated general management, sales and business development, finance and strategic skills, executed
mergers, acquisitions and divestitures in multiple countries; undertaking challenging assignments in headquarter and line
positions respectively.
Currently he lives in Istanbul and works in M&A consulting, media and academia. Michael spent nearly 15 years with Kraft
(Mondelez) with his last assignment based in Turkey as the Business Unit Director of Salted Snacks, Beverages and Exports (20102013). Prior to this assignment, he was for the Finance Director for Kraft Foods Russia (2007-2010) and the Finance Director for
Kraft's Kraft Foods Ukraine & CIS (2003-2007).
Prior to these “line” country based assignment, he was Kraft's Director for Strategy & Business Development (2000-2002) for the
CEEMA region based in Austria, leading and managing a number of region wide acquisitions (Balkans, Russia, Poland,
Morocco, Turkey, Egypt).
Before joining Kraft, he held a number of senior executive positions in operating units and in Headquarters alike with ReckittBenckiser (VP of Corporate Development), Pepsi-Cola Int'l (Director of Business Development) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers