Kimberly McCauley is a co-founder of Elysian Olive Oil Co., a premium olive oil company dedicated to bringing high-quality Turkish olive oil to the United States with integrity, transparency, and respect for origin.
Her involvement with Elysian began not as a planned business venture, but through relationship and opportunity. After living in Türkiye for six years, becoming fluent in Turkish, and developing a deep understanding of the culture, Kimberly was approached by a Turkish friend who owned olive trees and asked a simple question: would she be interested in exporting olive oil?
Olive oil had always been something Kimberly found interesting and enjoyable. She had lived with it daily, cooked with it constantly, and experienced firsthand how central it is to Turkish life. When the opportunity to export arose and a great partner emerged, what had once been a casual interest became a real possibility. That moment marked the beginning of Elysian.
A Life Lived Between Cultures
Kimberly moved to Türkiye at the end of 2019, a decision that would quietly reshape the direction of her life and work. What began as a season of exploration became a long-term immersion into Turkish culture, language, and daily life.
She did not live as a visitor passing through. She learned the language fluently, navigated local systems, built friendships across generations, and adapted to the rhythms of Turkish life. Markets, neighborhood shops, shared meals, holidays, and long conversations became part of her everyday world.
Over time, her fluency in Turkish allowed her to move beyond surface-level interactions into meaningful relationships. She learned not only how to speak the language, but how to listen. During this time, she served on the board of a business leaders association and supported small businesses with their social media and design needs.
Through these experiences, Kimberly developed a strong understanding of the cultural values that shape Turkish business and daily life, including the importance of trust, reputation, hospitality, and long-term relationship.
This cultural fluency would later become one of the defining strengths behind Elysian Olive Oil Co.
How Olive Oil Entered the Picture
Olive oil was not something Kimberly set out to build a business around. It entered her life the same way it enters most Turkish homes, quietly and consistently.
In Türkiye, olive oil is not a specialty product. It is a daily staple. It appears at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is poured generously over vegetables, legumes, eggs, bread, soups, and salads. Families speak about their oil with familiarity and pride. It is simply part of life.
As Kimberly lived in Türkiye, she began to notice a clear difference between the olive oil she had known in the United States and the oil she encountered there. The oil was fresh, aromatic, and full of flavor. It tasted alive.
She did not visit farms or villages, as that work belongs to her business partner Marcus. Instead, her relationship with olive oil was experiential. It was everywhere. It was used daily. It was talked about casually and confidently. Over time, she developed an intuitive sense of what good oil was meant to taste and feel like.
When the opportunity to export oil arose, Kimberly began to connect her lived experience with deeper learning.
Learning What “Good Oil” Means
Once Elysian became a possibility, Kimberly began learning more technically what she had already been experiencing for years.
She studied polyphenols, harvest timing, storage practices, oxidation, and the ways transport and handling affect oil quality. She learned why freshness matters, how easily olive oil can degrade, and how often consumers unknowingly purchase oil that has lost much of its value before it ever reaches their kitchen.
This learning did not replace her lived experience. It gave language and structure to it.
At the same time, she became increasingly aware of how little most consumers are taught about olive oil.
In the United States, olive oil is often old by the time it reaches shelves. It is frequently blended, mislabeled, or improperly stored. Marketing language often replaces transparency, and origin can be vague or misleading.
Meanwhile, high-quality Turkish olive oil remains largely absent from the U.S. market, not because it lacks quality, but because small producers often lack export access and infrastructure.
This contrast stayed with her.
Why Elysian Exists
Elysian Olive Oil Co. was born from a simple question. What would it look like to responsibly bring good Turkish olive oil to consumers who care about quality and transparency?
Elysian is built on relationship-based sourcing and clear roles. Marcus leads farm relationships, production knowledge, and on-the-ground expertise in Türkiye. Kimberly leads cultural translation, communication, education, and the bridge between Turkish producers and the U.S. market.
Rather than extracting product, Elysian collaborates. The goal is to honor the work behind the oil while creating a viable and ethical path into the United States.
For American consumers, Elysian offers olive oil that is fresh, traceable, and sourced with intention. It is oil chosen not just for flavor, but for integrity.
Living in Türkiye Shaped How She Does Business
One of the most important outcomes of Kimberly’s time in Türkiye is how it shaped her approach to business.
In Turkish culture, trust is not transactional. It is built slowly. Relationships come before contracts. Presence matters. Who introduces you matters.
Because Kimberly speaks Turkish fluently and understands cultural nuance, she operates within these systems with clarity and respect. She is able to communicate directly, understand expectations, and navigate unspoken dynamics that are often missed when working across cultures.
This allows Elysian to function differently from many importers. It is relational, intentional, and built for long-term partnership.
What She Is Doing in the United States
Now based in the United States, Kimberly is focused on building Elysian’s presence through thoughtful distribution, education, and relationship-driven growth.
Her work includes developing partnerships with gourmet retailers, chefs, and specialty food buyers who value quality and story. She oversees logistics, compliance, and quality control to ensure oils arrive fresh and are handled properly from port to shelf.
Education is a central part of her role. Kimberly believes consumers deserve to understand what they are buying. Through writing, tastings, and direct conversation, she helps people learn how to recognize good olive oil and why it matters.
Her background in branding, design, and education allows her to communicate clearly without exaggeration or oversimplification.
A Founder Who Stands in the Middle
What makes Kimberly uniquely positioned to co-found Elysian is not technical agricultural expertise. It is her lived experience between cultures.
She understands Turkish culture because she lived within it.
She understands American consumers because she is one.
She understands the responsibility of ethical export because she has navigated it firsthand.
Elysian is not a side project or trend-driven brand. It is the natural convergence of relationship, opportunity, and years of lived experience.
A Long-Term Vision
Kimberly’s vision for Elysian is steady and long-term.
She is committed to scaling responsibly without sacrificing quality, supporting producers who value excellence, educating consumers with honesty, and building a brand that earns trust over time.
From the beginning, her goal has been to create a true win-win-win: for Turkish producers to receive a fair and sustainable price for their work, for Elysian to grow as a healthy and successful business, and for American consumers to have access to olive oil they can genuinely trust.
She also believes olive oil plays a meaningful role in long-term health when it is produced and handled well. High-quality extra virgin olive oil is naturally rich in polyphenols and monounsaturated fats, which have been widely studied for their role in supporting cardiovascular health, reducing oxidative stress, and contributing to overall metabolic well-being.
In Turkish and broader Mediterranean cultures, olive oil is not treated as a supplement or trend, but as a foundational food used daily over a lifetime.
For Kimberly, this perspective matters. When olive oil is fresh, properly stored, and responsibly sourced, it becomes one of the simplest and most sustainable ways people can support their health through everyday choices.
She believes olive oil is not just a product, but a daily companion to food, hospitality, culture, and long-term well-being.
Why This Work Matters
At its core, Elysian exists because Kimberly and Marcus Gokmen Cakmak share a belief that business should help people succeed on every side of the table.
Together, they are committed to creating real opportunity for small family farmers in Türkiye by giving them a viable way to bring their oil across the ocean, while also ensuring that American consumers have access to olive oil they can genuinely trust. At the same time, they are building Elysian as a company where employees are supported not just to work, but to grow, develop, and pursue the lives they want to build.
Together, they bring complementary strengths to the company. Marcus brings deep, generational knowledge of Turkish olive oil production and on-the-ground relationships with growers. Kimberly brings cultural fluency, communication, and the ability to bridge Turkish producers with the U.S. market. Elysian exists because of this partnership and the trust they have built working side by side.
By bringing high-quality Turkish olive oil to the United States with transparency and care, Elysian restores something simple and meaningful: trust at the table.
While this work is personal for Kimberly, it is not hers alone. It is the outcome of shared vision, collaboration across cultures, and years of lived experience now expressed through olive oil that tells the truth about where it came from and why it matters.
