Team
Resit Melik
My name is Reşit, a Kurdish Armenian born in the crossroads of cultures, Sanliurfa – also known as ancient Edessa. This city, nestled in the heartland of Mesopotamia, instilled in me a deep sense of roots, values, and ambition.
I grew up as part of a large and traditional Kurdish family involved in the agricultural business. My formative years were deeply connected with the operations of cotton farming and the trade of fertilizers and pesticides. Raised by my father, a small business owner and farmer, and my mother, a dedicated housewife, I grew up with three sisters in a household where work and family were inseparable.
From my earliest days, I remember being captivated by the inner workings of our family business. I cherished the idea of someday taking over and adding my own imprint. Despite my father’s aspiration for me to choose a safer path in medicine, my entrepreneurial spirit remained undeterred.
The journey towards my dream began when I left home to pursue higher education. This step set the stage for my life’s trajectory, taking me from my family’s farm to Istanbul, where I studied industrial engineering for college, and later to the United States.
After a failed attempt to start my career at our family business – thwarted by my father’s concerns for entrepreneurial path and his hesitation towards my ambitions – I joined Deloitte. There, I spent four enriching years working on operational strategies like supply chain management, inventory planning, sales and operations planning, and supply chain strategy for Fortune 500 companies. This experience nurtured my passion for entrepreneurship and equipped me with invaluable skills for my future endeavors.
Driven by a desire to broaden my financial acumen, I moved to the United States in 2016 to pursue an MBA at Columbia Business School. Though I initially planned to return home, I fell in love with the American spirit, its welcoming people, and its endless opportunities. Post-MBA, I joined McKinsey. There, over the course of five years, I helped companies debottleneck their businesses, improve their operations, and set them on a growth trajectory.
Today, I am the proud founder of Edessa Growth Partners. Named after my birthplace, this venture is a culmination of my journey from the small agricultural town of Sanliurfa to the skyscrapers of US. It symbolizes a dream nurtured by my father’s hard work, my mother’s dedication, and my relentless pursuit of knowledge and growth.
As I embark on this new chapter, I am excited about investing in my new community, building a legacy that my future children will be proud of, and positively impacting the lives of those associated with the company I will serve.