Yagiz Aydemir

Director - IT & Digital at AstraZeneca | Transforming Healthcare for the Digital Future

Istanbul, Türkiye

About

Award-winning Digital, Technology, and AI Executive with 15+ years of experience leading large-scale business and technology transformations across multinational pharmaceutical organizations. Proven track record of driving measurable revenue growth, digital transformation, and enterprise-wide AI adoption. Recognized as CIO of the Year 2024 in Türkiye for pioneering AI-powered healthcare solutions and organizational transformation. Expert in building high-performing cross-border teams, shaping digital strategy at board level, and translating emerging technologies into sustainable business value. Core Skills: Digital & AI Strategy, C-level Stakeholder Management, Advanced Analytics & Data Platforms, Public-Private Partnerships, Innovation Ecosystems, Cross-Border Leadership, Business & Cultural Transformation, Omnichannel & Marketing Technologies, Program & Portfolio Management,. Advisory Board Member for 4 startups, supporting founders on technology strategy, scaling, enterprise readiness, and investment positioning.Actively enable corporate–startup collaboration, bridging innovation programs, enterprise teams, and startup ecosystems. Regular speaker at external conferences and industry events on AI, digital transformation, omnichannel, and innovation leadership.

Experience

  • Director, Digital & IT and Executive Board Member at AstraZeneca Türkiye at AstraZeneca
    Sep 2023 - Present · 2 yrs 10 mos

    - Own and execute enterprise‑wide digital, data, and AI strategy, as an Executive Board member. - Built an AI‑powered operating model achieving 80%+ internal adoption and 1.5x productivity increase across commercial and support functions. - Led the national deployment of an AI‑based early lung cancer detection solution in partnership with the Turkish Ministry of Health that scans over 20M people annually. - Established the AZ Lab Innovation Hub and external partnership ecosystem with startups, incubation centers, vendors, and academic institutions. - Operationalized a robust omnichannel framework leading the deployment of AI-powered marketing technologies and CRM modernization. - Recognized as CIO of the Year 2024 in Türkiye for innovation and transformational leadership.

  • Sanofi (Istanbul, Türkiye · Hybrid)
    • Head of Digital Marketing & Omnichannel Excellence, Turkey & Levant
      Jun 2022 - Sep 2023 · 1 yr 4 mos

      Geographical Scope: Türkiye, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine - Led business transformation across Turkey and Levant deploying omnichannel way of working, impacting multiple therapeutic areas and customer segments. - Designed and operationalized customer journey orchestration, content governance, and engagement analytics frameworks. - Increased customer engagement by 24% in 12 months with an NPS: 61 and CXQ: 83. - Introduced agile ways of working and digital capability building across marketing and medical teams.

    • Head of Data Analytics & Business Insights, Turkey & Levant
      Aug 2020 - May 2022 · 1 yr 10 mos

      Geographical Scope: Türkiye, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. - Founded and scaled the Business Insights & Data Analytics function. - Led go-to-market transformation by deploying an advanced analytics platform enabling data-driven decision-making across commercial, medical, and field teams. - Introduced innovative market research methodologies, delivering 10x faster execution and 3x cost efficiency.

  • Pfizer (8 yrs 4 mos)
    • Senior Manager, Digital & Technology - Europe
      Jun 2017 - Aug 2020 · 3 yrs 3 mos

      - Deployed an AI‑based customer insights platform across 10 countries, generating automated, actionable insights and driving a 6x increase in digital customer engagement. - Launched the first physician mobile app, delivering a personalized, always‑connected experience; piloted in Turkey, Russia, and the UAE with a 44% engagement uplift versus web and defined the global scale‑up roadmap. - Delivered a new Physician Portal across Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and the Netherlands, enabling cross‑market content reuse and reducing content deployment time by 25%.

    • Manager, Business Technology, Regional Business Analyst
      May 2016 - May 2017 · 1 yr 1 mo

      Geographical Scope: 53 Countries - Conducted Business Analysis activities to streamline distribution, sales, and stock management processes. Identified and deployed a technology solution with $130K investment by managing a project team of 5. Reduced financial loss $350 K annually in Turkey. - Performed Business Analysis activities in 5 projects applying advanced business analysis approaches. Developed high-quality project documentation including requirements, process diagrams, use cases, and test scripts that were recognized as best practice. Identified potential solutions and determined the best fit by collaborating with business and solution teams. - Managed Physician Portal version upgrade project for the European countries.

    • Manager, Business Technology, Business Partner
      Apr 2015 - Apr 2016 · 1 yr 1 mo

      Geographical Scope: Turkey • Delivered/re-engineered 9 digital marketing solutions driving customer-centric transformation. • Developed 10+ business cases and got them approved by the governance bodies. • Designed a new absence and vacation process in accordance with new regulations and needs. Delivered an IT system which eliminates manual HR operations 80%. Managed the project team of 4. • Participated in a global audit. Received good rating for the three applications that I am accountable for.

  • Billing Operations Management at Vodafone
    Jul 2011 - May 2012 · 11 mos

    Developed desktop applications, PLSQL procedures, and shell scripts for the core Billing applications and databases.

  • Data Warehouse Analyst/Developer, contracted to Turkcell at i2i Systems
    Dec 2010 - Jul 2011 · 8 mos

    Participated in the analysis, design, and implementation of Turkcell Datawarehouse projects by using Oracle and Ab Initio technologies.