About

Esra Odabasi was born as a disabled individual due to a complication that occurred at birth. Although this situation created differences and sometimes caused challenges in her life, it generally shaped her perspective on life in a positive way. The difficulties did not discourage her; on the contrary, they made her even stronger.

According to her point of view, when differences were accepted as part of life, they facilitated coexistence and were indeed very ordinary.

Her family, who supported her from the very beginning, has played an important role in her adoption of this point of view. She grew up with people who encouraged and supported her, reminding her that she could do anything if she wanted to. She completed her education in this respect and preferred participation in her social life in the very same way.

After her university education, she worked in the Human Resources Departments of corporations such as Abbott, EnerjiSA and Boehringer Ingelheim for over ten years. She worked in all these companies with the status of 'disabled'. When she shared this situation with people around her, she was surprised because people had a limited view of disability and prejudice that people with disabilities could not participate in business life.

As regards, Esra Odabasi founded ES Kariyer, Turkey's first and only employment consultancy for disabled people, in 2016 in order to change such prejudices about disability and to show how diversity can turn into richness. With her well-equipped team, she offers job opportunities, training, mentoring and coaching services to people with disabilities. She provides consultancy and training services to corporations and universities on the topics of disability employment, 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion'.

At the same time, through her inspiring speeches for large audiences, she works to inform society and raise awareness on how to turn differences into advantages.

Esra was selected as Turkey's Women Social Entrepreneur in 2019 at the competition organized by Garanti BBVA, KAGİDER and Ekonomist in recognition of her effective efforts to enable each individual to exist as herself/himself in society. Later, she was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by BBVA Spain.

 

In the same year, ES Career, which she founded, received the Social Initiative of the Year award from BBVA Spain.

However, she believes that her most remarkable achievement is the interviews she and her team have conducted with thousands of people with disabilities, the employment she has provided for hundreds of people with disabilities, and the organizations and individuals for whom she has raised awareness on 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' in their policies on human resources. She works harder to increase the engagement she describes as "thousands" who had their share of this social influence and to make it "millions".

Esra Odabasi wants to inspire everyone not only with her business life and her entrepreneurial approach but also with her social life: She regularly does sports, takes lessons to professionally pursue her hobby of becoming a DJ, which started in her childhood, and, in her own words, is an amateur DJ for the time being.

Every day and every step that she takes, she continues to question whether her environment, work-life or activities are compatible for people with disabilities and continues to spread her perspective in this regard.