Ela joined MullenLowe Istanbul as CEO in 2012, leading the agency’s transformation into one of Turkey’s top award-winning agencies. Under her leadership, MullenLowe won its first Cannes Lions within three years and earned global recognition for its Turkish Airlines commercial winning many local and international awards.

In 2011, Ela founded her boutique agency Panna, which merged with MullenLowe in its first year. Whilst working at DDB&Co, she helped the agency become the third most awarded at the 2009 Cannes Lions Festival, after starting her career at Y&R in 1997

Ela was named as a ‘Women to Watch’ in 2016 by Advertising Age/Mediacat. She is an alumna of IPG’s Leadership Lab and currently serves as General Secretary of the Turkish Advertisers’ Association. Ela also is a member of UN Women’s Unstereotype Alliance Turkey.

Previously, she has served as a jury and president in various national and international awards. In 2025, she was honored to take on the role of Jury President at the Effie Awards Turkiye.

With her mother working at McCann in the ’90s as a creative, Ela grew up surrounded by creativity and advertising, with storytelling and arts shaping her life and career from a very early age.