Gülnur Tumbat, MSc, MBA, PhD, Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University, is a marketing scholar, consultant, speaker, and athlete.
After completing her undergrad and masters degrees in Türkiye, Gülnur moved to the US to get her PhD. In 2004, she ventured alone to Everest base camp and stayed the whole climbing season in her tent on rock and ice to collect data for her dissertation on risk consumption and risk marketing. Following the sudden loss of her father to cancer and then surviving a major accident totaling her car, she went back in 2014 for her sabbatical to continue her research and to attempt to climb, only to witness the biggest avalanche in the history of Everest, claiming the lives of five Sherpa teammates (a total of 17 deceased). After years of grief and self-reflection, she decided to take a leave from work in 2018, went back and finally reached the summit in response to her lifelong calling.
Gülnur went on to conquer all 7 Summits, the highest peaks on each continent, becoming the first Turkish woman to achieve this feat - accomplishing it with the Messner list and 28 years after the first Turkish man. Also, she recently summited K2, the mountain of mountains, again as the first Turkish woman, on August 11 2025 4pm Pakistani time - which ultimately carved her place at the top.