Zeynep Ekemen is the founder of Z Realty Group and Silver Defender, passionate about creating innovative solutions that promote health and safety while empowering women in business.
Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire for more freedom and potential, she founded Z Realty Group in 2009, specializing in ground-up national retail development. Under her leadership, the firm has twice received the CoStar Broker of the Year award for Northern New Jersey. In 2018, Zeynep invented Silver Defender, an antimicrobial film that protects high-touch surfaces worldwide, including NFL and MLB, and the World Trade Center buildings. Despite launching just before the worldwide lockdown in 2020, her dedication and relentless effort led to Silver Defender being installed on every continent and winning the prestigious ISSA Award the same year. Today, she continues to develop innovative antimicrobial solutions to tackle everyday cleanliness challenges.
Driven by a passion for empowering women, Zeynep’s achievements serve as an inspiration to others in male-dominated industries. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the NJBiz Best Fifty Women in Business award in 2021 and being a finalist for Business of the Year in 2021.
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Susan Kleiner: Hello, and welcome back to The Think Factory podcast, where we explore the minds behind innovative ideas shaping our world and businesses today. I’m your host, Susan Kleiner, from OGC Solutions and today we’re thrilled to welcome a powerhouse in both real estate and health tech innovation, Zee Ekemen.
Zee is the founder and CEO of Silver Defender Corp, a trailblazing company that develops antimicrobial adhesive films that are used in high-touch environments, from hospitals and schools to NFL stadiums and even the World Trade Center.
Zee launched Silver Defender just before the global pandemic, and despite the timing, or maybe because of it, the company quickly rose to prominence, winning the prestigious ISSA Innovation Award in its first year. The company and Zee were also awarded the NJBiz Business of the Year Award and NJBiz Best 50 in Business. But Zee’s entrepreneurial journey did not start there.
She’s also the principal of Zee Realty Group, a commercial real estate firm specializing in national childcare development. With an MBA in accounting from Pace University and a fierce commitment to empowering women in business, Zee is a true innovator who’s redefining what it means to lead with purpose and resilience.
Zee, welcome to The Think Factory!
Zeynep Ekemen: Thank you so much for having me.
Susan Kleiner: Yeah, so I am so excited about having you here. I’m so excited about your product. You sent some to me, and I think that this is, like, the best idea.
Zeynep Ekemen: Thank you so much.
Susan Kleiner: So that we can set the stage, can you please explain to me what is your product? What is the Silver Defender?
Zeynep Ekemen: So Silver Defender is an antimicrobial film.
So think of it as, like, a sticker that goes on high-touch points, like door handles, elevator buttons, pretty much everything you’re touching once you leave your home. And it’s a self-cleaning film, so you are always touching a clean surface. So you put it on high-touch areas.
Susan Kleiner: What I immediately think of is, like, bathrooms, right? Because bathroom handles, you know, I try and use paper towel, but with something like this, you don’t even need it because whatever I’m touching is a clean surface from one person to the other person to the other person. This is such a good idea.
Can you tell our audience, how did you first envision it? What inspired your idea? And actually, just tell us, too, the timeframe of this, because I know that it takes time to get from the idea to a prototype to, I mean, it’s a long time period.
Zeynep Ekemen: Of course, and you actually mentioned it without even knowing how I came up with the idea. So it was 2018, two years before COVID. I am at Starbucks with a bunch of friends…
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