Secretary General of the Turkish Olympic Committee (TOC)
Nese Gundogan was born in İstanbul, Turkey. She competed in middle distance running between 1977 and 1982 and was a member of Turkish National Athletics Team.
Gundogan graduated from the Physical Education and Sports Academy at Gazi University, Ankara in 1984. Following her graduation, Gundogan worked as an athletics coach at ENKA Sports Club for seven years. She also made valuable contribution to establish U16, junior, youth, senior men and women teams within the club. During which she helped to develop and carry out the “Talent Identification Project” recruiting hundreds of youngsters into athletics.
In the meantime, Gundogan received her M.A. degree in Exercise Physiology at the Marmara University (MU) with her thesis on endurance capacities of middle-distance runners. Gundogan also delivered lectures on athletics at the MU School of Physical Education and Sports.
She moved to the USA In 1991 and received her doctorate degree in Sports Management from the Temple University in Philadelphia in 1996. Her doctoral thesis was on the management and marketing strategies of basketball teams in the USA. During that time, Gundogan worked as Assistant to the Sports Competitions Planning Manager for 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Organizing Committee (ACOG) and also served as a volunteer in New York Marathon and Penn Relays as well as NGO’s and shelters providing support for women and children.
Following the Atlanta Olympic Games, Nese Gundogan was appointed as the Sports Director at the Turkish Olympic Committee (TOC) in 1996. She became the first woman to be elected to the TOC Executive Board in 2001 and two years later, TOC’s first female Secretary General. Gündoğan spearheaded the identification and implementation of TOC’s numerous development programmes for athletes and coaches, and projects towards children and youth, as well as the institutional policies that promote gender equality and participation. Gündoğan worked proactively to encourage and increase the participation of girls and women at all levels of sport.
Nese Gundogan served in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games and Torino 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games as the TOC official and Deputy Chef de Mission for the Turkish Olympic Teams.
Gundogan was elected to the Executive Committee of the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (ICMG) in 2013 and to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Women in Sports Commission in 2014. She also served IOC’s Gender Equality Review Project as a member of the Working Group. In November 2014, she was elected a member of the Executive Council of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) representing Europe to become the first Turkish sports administrator elected to this office. In October 2015, Gundogan was appointed as a member of the IOC’s Coordination Commission for Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games
Gündoğan serves at the Turkish Athletics Foundation (TAF) for the development and promotion of athletics in Turkey where they provide funding and equipment for young and talented athletes, organize seminars for PE teachers, coaches and media, carry out grassroots athletics projects and, in general, fostering the involvement of youth in athletics. At TAF, she helped create and organize the “Young Athletes Support Project” where many former athletes to take part in supporting young and promising athletes and becoming role models themselves.
Nese Gundogan, who has dedicated her career to the development of athletes, coaches and sports administrators as well as increasing participation of children, youth and women in sports, is the author of published articles “Women and Sports in Turkey” and “Benefits of Olympic Games for a City and the Country” and recipient of numerous national and international awards and honors including the “European Athletics Women’s Leadership Award”.