Filiz Yavuz Diren has held senior executive positions across various departments at Philip Morris Türkiye, including Finance, Strategic Planning, Corporate Affairs, and Sales, during her career spanning more than 23 years. After serving as the company's first female Director of Corporate Affairs and subsequently the first female Sales Director, Diren went on to become the first female Managing Director of Philip Morris Turkey.
Throughout her career at Philip Morris Turkey, Diren has been instrumental in enhancing efficiency and effectiveness across commercial operations. She spearheaded the company's digital transformation, introducing advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and sophisticated data analytics. By significantly digitalising traditional retail channels, she laid the foundations of an innovative business model.
Diren also led the establishment of Philip Morris International’s first global "Oriental Tobacco Agronomy Centre," aiming to improve sustainability and productivity in Turkish tobacco farming. Furthermore, she initiated the "Tobacco Agriculture and Development Programme," designed to cultivate high-quality oriental tobacco for export, enabling hundreds of farmers from Southeast Anatolia to become exporters.
Diren holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and an MBA from the University of Hartford in the United States. She is actively involved in several prominent NGOs, including TÜSİAD, SwissCham, Catalyst Organisation, and the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association.
She is married and a mother of three.