Goksel and Birckhead Named to Board of Trustees
Nichols College has named two new members to its Board of Trustees: Asuman Goksel of Istanbul, Turkey and Jane Birckhead of Cincinnatti, Ohio. Each will serve a four-year term.
Asuman Goksel founded Imaj Real Estate Co. in Istanbul in 1992. She is a certified and experienced premier property specialist who concentrates on strip center development, tenant representation and investment brokerage. Goksel endeavors to run her company like a family business and to carry out international real estate standards. Among her corporate clients are Unilever and Novartis.
Goksel is a member of the ITO (Istanbul Chamber of Commerce) and the National Association of Realtors International and has recently represented both buyers and sellers in residential transactions of more than $1 million.
Previously, Goksel served as an electrical engineer at Eskisehir Anadolu University and worked at Koc Allianz Insurance Co. in Istanbul, where she also took sales and marketing courses.
She earned a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Yildiz Technical University and has studied English and business at European University, the International Center for American English (San Diego), and Memphis State University.
Fluent in Turkish and English, Goksel has spent time in the United States and Switzerland performing real estate market research. She considers herself a global citizen and humanist and is planning to work with European University in Istanbul on a student exchange program in international business education.
Goksel is married and has a son.
Jane Birckhead is executive vice president of Hukill Hazlett Harrington Agency, Inc., which she joined as an independent agent in 1993. The agency has $3,500,000 in revenues and 30 employees and serves corporate clients and their employees with a complete insurance package. The business is comprised of 43% commercial lines, 13% benefits, including life and health, and 44% personal lines. Birckhead is one of three shareholders in the firm.
Previously, Birckhead completed a management training program at SAFECO Insurance Co. and moved to Cincinnati with the company in 1978. In 1982, she joined a small regional insurance company and, in 1987, received the professional insurance designation of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU).
Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, Birckhead was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where she graduated from The Kentucky Home School for Girls. She is a 1973 graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism and history, and a minor in business. She also participated in an MBA program with Pepperdine University for working young executives.
Birckhead has served on several boards, including The World Piano Competition and The Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation. She is currently active in the Rotary Club of Cincinnati, serving on the Board of Directors for a three-year term, and as the secretary/treasurer of the Rotary Club's Foundation, which manages $6,500,000 in assets. Birckhead is the Rotary Club's representative on the Board of Trustees of the Stepping Stones Center, a privately funded school and camp for disabled people, for which the Rotary Club is the major donor. In addition, she is a member-at-large of the Reds Community Fund's Miracle League Baseball Field of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Last year she spearheaded a fundraiser to raise over $450,000 for the seed money to build the field for handicapped youths.
Birckhead stays active with swimming, golf and fly fishing which she enjoys each summer in Montana. She is a member of the Queen City Club, the Cincinnati Country Club, the Cincinnati Symphony Club, and High Hopes Auxiliary, a fundraising arm for the Lindner Center for Hope, and is active in the Indian Hill Episcopal Presbyterian Church.
Birckhead is married to Nichols College graduate Oliver W. Birckhead Jr.; they live in Indian Hill with a 7-year-old English setter and three cats.