Assoc. Prof. ARİF ÇETİN

In 1985, I was born in Istanbul. After graduating from the "Coaching Education (Double Major)" and "Sports Management" departments at Kocaeli University School of Physical Education and Sports, I earned a master's degree in "Master of Business Administration (MBA)" from Istanbul University, the oldest and most prestigious university in Turkey. Then I concluded my doctoral program at the Faculty of Business Administration at Istanbul Aydin University. I was eligible to obtain the title of Associate Professor in the field of Sports Sciences from the Interuniversity Institution in 2021.

I was an observer and official at numerous international sporting events, including the 2005 Universiade in Izmir, the 2010 and 2011 Prague Marathons, and the Erzurum Half Marathon. Winter Universiade of 2011, Trabzon 2011 European Summer Youth Olympic Games, Paris 2013 World Table Tennis Championships, 2013 Mediterranean Games in Mersin, and 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Tokyo, 2014 Berlin Marathon, 2019 Athens Marathon, and Houston 2021 World Table Tennis Championships. As an invited speaker, I attended the "Global Running Business Conference" hosted by World Athletics in Bangkok, Thailand in 2022.

Between August 2008 and February 2023, I held various positions at SPOR Istanbul, one of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's subsidiary corporations, including Chief of Foreign Relations, Chief of Special Projects, and Chief of Event Management. Every year, in these positions, I coordinated nearly fifty national-international sporting events with significant attendance. The Istanbul Marathon, which is in the elite category of World Athletics, and the Istanbul Half Marathon, where the Women's World record was broken in 2021, are among the most significant of these competitions.

Since 2017, I have taught part-time at the Sports Science Faculties of Istanbul Aydn University, Halic University, Okan University, and Nişantası University.

At the same time. I was a member of the coordination committee for the Istanbul Marathon and Istanbul Half Marathon; I worked as a researcher on the project "Energy Saving by Using Information and Communication Technology in European Public Buildings - SMARTSPACES" with a budget of 7 million Euros, which was funded by the European Union under the CIP ICT Policy Support Program; and I was involved in the Erasmus+ project Integration of Migrants through Sports.

I also served as the Chairman of the External Relations Board of the Turkish Table Tennis Federation from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2021 to 2022, as well as the Secretary General of the Mediterranean Table Tennis Union (MTTU) from 2014 to 2018.

Since February 7, 2023, I have been an Associate Professor in the Department of Sports Management at the Marmara Faculty of Sports Sciences.