When Nurten Ural tells her family story, it begins not in Michigan, but in Crimea during World War II. Her parents, forced into German labor camps as teenagers, endured years of hardship before finding refuge in Turkey. It was there that they met, married, and started a family. Their lives were marked by displacement, resilience, and a relentless pursuit of safety. When the United States began accepting Crimean refugees, they made the courageous choice to uproot once more.
The journey required sacrifice. With little more than determination, they sold their wedding gifts, and her father even parted with his gold fillings to raise money for the move. On the airplane, Nurten’s father wrote a letter to his children that her mother later gave her at age 18. “We don’t know what’s going to happen,” he wrote, “but we’re doing this for you kids.” Those words, preserved across decades, still guide Nurten today.
Arriving in Michigan with no money and no English, her parents worked tirelessly to carve out a new life. They instilled in their children the value of education and perseverance. “They did everything they could to support us in school, to make sure we had opportunities they never had,” Nurten recalls. That spirit of resilience became the foundation of her own journey.
Originally drawn to fashion design, Nurten was accepted into the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. But the pace of the city felt overwhelming, and she returned home to Michigan. At Michigan State University, she pursued the next best thing: interior design. She went on to earn both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field, combining her artistic instincts with technical training.
Within just eight months of her first job, Nurten launched her own interior design business. What started as a small venture grew steadily over the next 32 years into a thriving firm, employing up to 50 people and shaping Michigan’s commercial spaces. Her team handled everything from layouts and lighting to furniture and finishings, leaving a lasting imprint on offices, retail environments, and institutions across the state. “I worked day and night,” she says. “It was hard work, but rewarding.”
Yet even as her business flourished, Nurten’s vision stretched beyond interiors. An artist at heart and a global thinker, she longed to find a way to connect her heritage and her adopted home. That opportunity arrived when she was appointed Honorary Consul General for Turkey in Michigan. In this role, she turned her focus to international trade and cultural exchange.
“I wanted to bring companies together, to help Michigan businesses find opportunities in Turkey, and Turkish businesses grow here,” she explains. She began guiding delegations, making introductions, and showing business leaders the untapped potential in markets they had never considered. From supporting auto suppliers and tech startups entering Michigan to guiding major companies like Domino’s Pizza into Turkey, her work has strengthened economies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Nurten’s work demonstrates the impact that growing immigrant populations have on trade and investment in their new homelands. Global Detroit documented how Michigan companies and communities benefited from trade and investment that new immigrants bring in a 2016 research report entitled “Immigrant Intermediaries in the Global City: Leveraging Diaspora Communities in Urban America for Trade and Investment Opportunity.”
But for Nurten, the impact goes far beyond economics. “When people experience different cultures, through language, food, and business, they become closer and more understanding,” she says. “That’s how peace is built.”
Her advocacy naturally extends to organizations like Global Detroit and the Michigan Global Talent Initiative, where she champions immigrant entrepreneurship. She sees newcomers not as outsiders but as central to America’s success story. “This country is built by people who came from somewhere else,” she says. “Immigrants are hardworking and entrepreneurial, small and medium businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy.”
Looking back, Nurten takes pride not just in the companies she has built, but in the bridges she has helped create. Each business she has introduced to a new market, each student she has encouraged to study abroad, and each delegation she has led represents another thread woven into a larger fabric of connection. “I’m proud of every company that found new markets because of this work, because it helps both economies grow,” she says.
Her advice to the next generation of immigrants and entrepreneurs is simple but powerful: “There are many opportunities. I’ve had successes and I’ve had failures. Don’t stop. Keep working. Anybody who works hard is usually successful, in Michigan, in Turkey, or anywhere in the world.”
Nurten’s journey, from refugee roots to global connector, embodies the resilience of her parents’ sacrifice, the vision of an entrepreneur, and the heart of a cultural bridge-builder. Her story is a testament to the idea that when people and economies connect, communities everywhere are strengthened.
