Professional Profile: Ilkay Cam-Spanos

Family: Husband, six nephews, four nieces

College: BS from Marmara University, MS from Rutgers/NJIT, and MBA from University of Cyprus

First job unrelated to your current field: Bookkeeper

First job in current field: Lab analyst

What your firm does now and its plans for the future? We are a land development engineering and consulting firm with 30 offices worldwide. Recently, Zweig Group ranked Langan one of the “Best Firms to Work For.” We plan to keep up the good work and continue climbing the list every year.

Hobbies: Traveling (I’m going on a 10-day vacation next week) and spending time with my nieces and nephews

Favorite novel: Tough one, but “Sophie’s World” taught me a lot

Favorite film: “The Last of the Mohicans” 

Keys to success: Focus on the solution not the problem

Person(s) you most admire (outside of family): As a leader: Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey; as mentors: my math and physics tutors in high school

If you had to choose a different profession, what would it be? Surgeon