Murat Sönmez started his professional career in 1989 as a Silicon Valley-based software engineer focusing on automating the leading semiconductor chip manufacturing factories globally. In 1994 he joined Teknekron Software Systems in Palo Alto, a company that digitized Wall Street by creating an integrated real-time trader workstation based on the early internet protocols (IP). In 1997, Murat was among the founding team of TIBCO Software, a real-time predictive data analytics software company based in Palo Alto, where he was responsible for TIBCO’s customer and partner facing global field operations. He was also a director and board member of TIBCO Software Federal Inc., servicing the U.S. Federal Government. In October 2014, he joined the World Economic Forum as a Member of the Managing Board in Geneva, Switzerland. He is currently the Head of the Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the Presidio in San Francisco.
Murat has personally been involved in many industry firsts, including helping companies such as eBay, Amazon and Yahoo! build their portal and e-commerce platforms; helping leading semiconductor companies to create the world’s first fully automated fab; laying the foundation for real-time track and trace operations for logistics companies; working with national intelligence agencies to help identify and respond to cyber-attacks; working with manufacturing companies to identify supply chain issues before they happen in order to take proactive action; working with leading retailers to match customers’ references to available inventory in real-time; working with leading banks for predictive customer management; creating the smart grid and cyber security infrastructure for utilities in the U.S. and Australia; and in one case doubling the electricity capacity of a grid without adding a single watt of extra generation, leading to $2 billion in savings annually.
In his executive sponsor role in several of these engagements, Murat worked directly with the CEOs and boards to help transform their organizations and gave keynote speeches globally at customers’ and partners’ gatherings. Murat has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Bosphorus University, Istanbul, Turkey, and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Tech.
