Özlem Er (Ankara, 1966) received her BID and MSc degrees from the Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey, and her PhD from the Institute of Advanced Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, the UK. Having taught at METU from 1996 to 2000 and Istanbul Technical University (ITU), she is currently full professor at the Department of Industrial Design, Istanbul Bilgi University. She initiated design management teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels in Turkey and supervised numerous master’s and PhD studies exploring different aspects of design and business as well as other issues in the field of design. As the head of the Industrial Designers’ Society of Turkey Istanbul Branch, she organized two conferences and jury formations for the Design Turkey Industrial Design Awards in 2012 and 2014. She directed a government funded project (İSTKA) in 2012 with the aim of matching newly graduated industrial designers with SMEs, a project shortly titled as Design for SMEs. Özlem Er is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Academy of Design, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and also an editorial board member of The Design Journal. She has numerous publications both nationally and internationally.