Deniz Caliskan

I'm a mechanical engineer who has spent twenty years leading engineering teams on vehicle programmes, most of it in the UK. I'm Chartered through the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (CEng, 2015) and a Fellow of the Institution.

I read Materials Science at Middle East Technical University in Ankara and built my career here. That route — new country, new language, a field where women are still outnumbered — is why I now mentor engineers towards Chartership across the IMechE, the IET and IOM3, and why I write about it.

In 2026 I completed the University of Oxford Executive Leadership programme, and I taught myself finance with a curriculum sharpened at Stanford. The essays on this site are what I took from both, written for engineers who lead people and were never really told how.

I also paint. Mostly in red, mostly in layers, which turns out to be the best metaphor I have for careers.