TESTIMONIALS

 
Image courtesy of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Image courtesy of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

“It is my great pleasure to provide this reference for Yaprak Berktin.

From 2013 through 2016, Yaprak was involved with and made a significant contribution to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s (CAMH) Phase 1C Project. This significant phase, 655,000 square feet, is part of CAMH’s overall Queen Street Redevelopment initiative.

Based on her extensive experience in intricate deal structuring, project management, and contract management, Yaprak, as a Senior Vice President at Infrastructure Ontario, demonstrated an exceptionally high caliber of professionalism, technical insight and partnership building, all of which enabled best in class contract documents for the next phase of CAMH’s Redevelopment initiative. Her salient advice throughout the years has been invaluable and has greatly contributed to creating contract requirements that will revitalize CAMH in the community.

Yaprak’s deep understanding of complex planning, architecture and related engineering disciplines, and her desire to work hard and be creative not only allowed Yaprak to use her contract management and P3 advisory skills to find solutions to a myriad of issues, but enabled her to garner an very high level of respect from CAMH at all levels.

I was very fortunate to work with Yaprak Berktin on Phase 1C of the CAMH redevelopment project and certainly give her a “glowing” recommendation.

I would be pleased to discuss this reference with anyone who may be interested."

David Cunic
Vice President, Redevelopment and Support Services
Centre of Addiction and Mental Health

Image courtesy of Halton Healthcare

Image courtesy of Halton Healthcare

“Halton Healthcare was delighted to have the opportunity to work with Yaprak on the delivery of two of our major redevelopment projects; the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH), which is one of the largest healthcare projects delivered in Canada in the recent years, as well as the Milton District Hospital (MDH), which is a major extension to the existing facility. Both of these projects were delivered under Infrastructure Ontario’s AFP delivery using Design-Build-Finance-Maintain model.

Yaprak worked with us on both of our major projects, and through Yaprak, we have established a great partnership with Infrastructure Ontario. She has also been a strong advocate of ours when working with Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Throughout her involvement, we had tremendous respect for her project knowledge, her hands on approach, and the advice that she provided to our project team. Delivering Hospital projects under any circumstance are high risk endeavours, and when done under an Alternative Financing and Procurement delivery model, they require trust and confidence in the people you work with. We know that we have benefited from Yaprak's expertise in project management, contract management and issue resolution, but most importantly her skills in AFP/PPP project delivery. We commend her for her results oriented creative thinking, willingness to explore new ways to achieve our organizational interests and her approach to risk management to avoid downstream project issues."

Bill Bailey
Vice President, Redevelopment
Halton Healthcare

Image courtesy of Humber College

Image courtesy of Humber College

“The Learning Resource Commons project was the first post-secondary project delivered under Infrastructure Ontario’s Alternative Financing and Procurement model. Yaprak led our project from Infrastructure Ontario and we achieved the optimum outcome, in great part, with her leadership.

Yaprak led the development of a complicated 2-envelope procurement process, which was not commonly used but was required to meet our needs. We incorporated long-term value enhancement concepts into our Project Agreement such as the durability and lifecycle considerations, enhanced warranty services, and energy conservation concepts. It was a successful construction period. Our project became one of the few projects within Infrastructure Ontario’s portfolio that achieved Final Completion on the day that it was planned.

Going through the AFP process was new and challenging for our organization as well. Working with Yaprak, through an open and trusting relationship, we realized our project with success.

From inception to final completion of the project, in addition to her strong leadership skills, Yaprak demonstrated solid technical and contractual knowledge, swift adaptation and understanding of post-secondary education sector drivers. She has highly creative and innovative thinking, pays attention to risks and rewards, and was clearly dedicated to the achievement of our project goals and interests."

Rani K. Dhaliwal
Senior Vice President, Planning and Corporate Services, and CFO
Humber College

Image courtesy of St. Joseph's Healthcare

Image courtesy of St. Joseph's Healthcare

"Yaprak worked with St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton during both the construction and operational phases of our new hospital project. Her interpersonal and leadership skills were key in helping us in better understand our rights and obligations under our contract with Project Co. Yaprak was quickly able to understand the inner workings of our organization and get to the root of our needs. This understanding, along with her expertise and attention to detail enabled her to provide us with relevant options and potential risks to some very complex and tough questions. Yaprak's knowledge of the contract and experience with construction and operations provided us with key insights which helped us anticipate and negotiate both risks and rewards."

Karen Langstaff
Chief Planning Officer
St.Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton

Image courtesy of Woodstock General Hospital

Image courtesy of Woodstock General Hospital

“Working in the new capital environment (AFP/P3), The Woodstock Hospital was very fortunate to have Yaprak’s, comprehensive knowledge of the Project Agreement and past work experience to assist us in navigating through the procurement, building and operational phases of our New Hospital Project.

Yaprak, was instrumental in ensuring that Project Co. was adhering to their obligations in relation to the Project Agreement."

Perry Lang
Chief Operating Officer
Woodstock General Hospital