After working at every level of the organization, Güler Sabancı is the Chair of Sabancı Holding since 2004, one of the leading and most reputable business groups in Turkey and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Sabancı Foundation, the leading private foundation in Turkey. Sabancı is the Founding Chair of Sabancı University and also acts as Chair of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Besides being an effective industrialist, art-enthusiast and prominent business figure, she has also been accepted as one of the most influential women in the region for her work on inclusion of women and social development. Her efforts have been recognized internationally with numerous awards including David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award, Clinton Global Citizen Award, Raymond Georis Innovative Philanthropist Award and European School of Management Responsible Leadership Award. Güler Sabancı has been the first female member in most of the organizations like European Round Table for Industry. She also sits on the External Advisory Board of MIT Energy Initiative and Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School.
Born in Ankara in 1956, Prof. Dr. Sadık Esener received his BS degree in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in 1979, and MS degree from Michigan University in 1981. He joined the UCSD faculty in 1987, after receiving his PhD in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering from UCSD the same year. Esener leads UCSD's OptoElectronic Computing Group, and is the director of the DARPA-funded multiuniversity Center for Chips with Heterogenously Integrated Photonics (CHIPS), the 3D-Opto-Electronic Stacked Processors industry/university consortium; and the Fast Readout Optical Storage (FROST) Industry consortium. He has authored more than 100 journal publications and 200 conference abstracts. Esener is a member of IEEE, OSA, and SPIE, and co-founded San Diego-based Nanogen, Optical Micro-Machines, Parallel Solutions, Genoptix, and Call/Recall Inc. He is an internationally known expert in photonics and opto-electronics, and he has been closely involved with five startup companies based on technology developed in his laboratories, and holds 15 patents in these areas. Esener is presently a professor at Nano Engineering, Electrical and Computer Department of UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering, Director of Nano-Tumor Center, and a member of Sabancı University Board of Trustees.
Suzan Sabancı Dinçer is the Chair and Executive Board Member of Akbank. Mrs. Sabancı Dinçer is also a board member of Sabancı Holding. Suzan Sabancı Dinçer began her career in banking in 1986 and joined Akbank in 1989. Mrs. Sabancı Dinçer is a member of the Institute of International Finance Board of Directors and Emerging Markets Advisory Board, Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council, Harvard Business School’s Global Leaders Circle, and the Harvard Business School’s Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia Advisory Board (MCAB). Suzan Sabancı Dinçer is also a member of the Global Board of Advisors at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Mrs. Sabancı Dinçer founded Akbank's International Advisory Board, a platform to discuss and evaluate global and local economic developments and their strategic implications for Turkey. She also sits on the Chatham House Panel of Senior Advisers. From 2010 to 2014, Mrs. Sabancı Dinçer served as the chairman of the Turkish-British Business Council for two terms. Mrs. Sabancı Dinçer is on the Board of Directors of the Global Relations Forum and a TÜSİAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association) member. She is also the Luxembourg Honorary Consul in Istanbul. In 2012, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II awarded Mrs. Suzan Sabancı Dinçer the title of "Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE)" in recognition of her proactive and influential contributions to the development of Turkey-UK relations. In 2014, Mrs. Sabancı Dinçer was given the Order of Civil Merit (Orden del Mérito Civil) of the Kingdom of Spain by King Felipe VI of Spain for her contributions to the relations between the two countries and for her support to the cultural convergence. Suzan Sabancı Dinçer is strongly committed to social responsibility activities and assumes various positions in the fields of culture, education, the promotion of entrepreneurship and environmental protection: she is a member of the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University, as well as a founding member and board member of Endeavor Turkey and of the Advisory Board of Akbank Sanat. Mrs Sabancı Dinçer is a patron of Contemporary Istanbul. Under Mrs. Sabancı Dinçer’s stewardship, Akbank became the first deposit bank in Turkey to issue a GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) rated Sustainability Report. It also pioneered the Carbon Disclosure Project in Turkey. Suzan Sabancı Dinçer holds a BA in Finance from Richmond College in the UK and an MBA from Boston University in the USA. Ms. Sabancı Dinçer is married with two children.
Serra Sabancı was born in Adana in 1975 and graduated from the University of Portsmouth, and Istanbul Bilgi University, Department of Economics, where she graduated as the top student in her class. Having served at Temsa, Serra Sabancı participated in the Institute of Directors (IOD) seminars and courses on Board Membership, Mergers and Acquisitions in London after becoming a Board Member of Sabancı Holding. Serra Sabancı currently serves as Board Member at Sabancı Holding. She is also a Member of the Board of the Sabancı Foundation.
Orhun Köstem received his bachelor’s degree from Middle East Technical University Mechanical Engineering Department in 1991 and his MBA degreed at the same university. He also has a master’s degree in Finance and Corporate Law from Bilgi University. Mr. Köstem joined Anadolu Group in 1994 and held various management positions until 2008. In 2008, he was appointed as the CFO of Efes Breweries International and in 2009 continued his career as Corporate Finance Coordinator of Anadolu Group. Mr. Orhun Köstem pursued his career in Coca-Cola İçecek where he worked from 2010 to 2016 as the CFO and from 2017 to 2018 as the Regional Director responsible for Middle East and Pakistan. Mr. Köstem served as the CFO of Anadolu Efes between 2019 and 2021. Mr. Köstem is the Group CFO of Sabancı Holding since July 1, 2021. He is also the Chairman of Carrefoursa, Vice Chairman of Sabancı İklim Teknolojileri, Supervisory Board Member of Cimsa Sabanci Cement BV and Member of the Board of Directors of Akbank, Kordsa, Enerjisa Enerji and Enerjisa Üretim. Mr. Köstem is one of the three authors of the book “A Window to Capital Markets: The A to Z of Public Offering and Investor Relations” published in 2009. In 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2021 he was listed among “Turkey’s Most Influential 50 CFOs”, according to a research conducted by BMI Business School in collaboration with DataExpert. He was awarded as Turkey’s Best CFO in the Investor Relations Awards organized by Thomson Reuters Extel in 2011 and 2013, while he was also honored with the “Best CFOs” by Sell Side analysts in Consumer Sector in Emerging EMEA by Institutional Investor Magazine and Institutional Investor Research Group in 2020. He was ranked as Best CFO in Industrials Sector in the Emerging EMEA Region by Instutional Investor in 2022 and he was named among C-Suite Series – Fortune CFO 2022 list. He is also a member of CFA Society and CFO Network of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
Prof. Dr. S. Tamer Cavusgil serves as Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair, and directs the national resource center, Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Georgia State University, Atlanta, U.S.A. Tamer also serves as a visiting professor at the University of South Australia Business School and Leeds University Business School (U.K.). He is also a Trustee of Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey. Tamer specializes in the internationalization of the firm, global strategy, emerging markets, and buyer-seller relationships in cross-border business. Earlier in his career, Tamer Most recently, Tamer has been researching the evolution of middle-class in rapidly transforming economies. Tamer also developed decision support systems for international managers (e.g., CORE – Company Readiness to Export), and spearheaded the development of now leading international business knowledge portal, globalEDGE. Tamer’s professional career spans teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities in international business at Michigan State University (inaugural holder of John W. Byington Endowed Chair in Global Marketing; 1987-2008), Bradley University (1983-87), University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (1978-83), and the Middle East Technical University (ODTU), Turkey (1976-78). In addition, he served as Senior Fulbright Scholar to Australia and taught at Monash University. Tamer also served as a visiting professor at Manchester Business School, and held the Gianni and Joan Montezemolo Visiting Chair at the University of Cambridge, the United Kingdom. Tamer authored more than several dozen books and some 200 refereed journal articles. His work is among the most cited contributions in international business. Various reviews have listed him as one of the most influential and prolific authors in international management. Google Scholar indicates over 34,000 citations as of early 2018 (h- index of 82). Google Scholar lists him 1st in the world in export marketing, and emerging markets. He ranks 2nd in international marketing and 5th in the world in international business. Tamer is the senior author of the leading textbook, International Business: The New Realities, with G. Knight and J. Riesenberger (5th ed., 2019, Pearson). He is the founding editor of the Journal of International Marketing now published by the American Marketing Association, and Advances in International Marketing published by Emerald Group Publishing. Most recently, Tamer has helped launch a new business journal, Rutgers Business Review, to feature managerially relevant research for business executives. Tamer has so far mentored over 35 doctoral students, who have gone on to become successful academics at major business schools around the world. Tamer was awarded an honorary doctorate, Doctor Honoris Causa, by The University of Hasselt, Belgium in May 2014, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern Denmark in October 2017. In April 2018, Tamer was honored as a Honorary Professor by Atilim University in Ankara, Turkey. Tamer is an elected fellow of the Academy of International Business, a distinction earned by a select group of intellectual leaders in international business. He also served as vice president of the AIB, and on the board of directors of the American Marketing Association. Tamer earned MBA and Ph.D. degrees in business at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, and B.S. from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
Agah Ugur was born in 1957 in Istanbul, Turkey. Studied industrial engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK then qualified as a chartered accountant in England in 1985. He worked in accountancy, consulting and banking firms in England and Turkey before joining Borusan Group in 1989 as its CFO. He worked as a Group CEO between 2001-2019 and still he is the advisor to the Chairman and board member of the Board of Borusan Holding. Agah held numerous board and advisory board positions in NGO’s. Currently he is a member of TUSIAD’s High Advisory Council, board member of Dogan Holding AS & Turkish American Business Council, member of the board of Trustees of Sabanci University, member of the advisory council of Bahçeşehir University and member of the advisory board of Columbia University Istanbul Global Center. He is an investor in tech start-ups. Married with two daughters; he is also an art collector.
Born in Birmingham in 1967, Gonca Artunkal is a graduate of Robert College in Istanbul. Gonca received her undergraduate degree in economics from Oglethorpe University and her master’s degrees from the London School of Economics and Boğaziçi University. She started her career in 1991 at Andersen Consulting in London and worked in investment banking and corporate finance at The Chase Manhattan Bank, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Societe Generale and UBS in both London and Istanbul. She was the CEO and Chairperson of UBS in Turkey until the end of 2018. She currently advises leading local and foreign organizations on mergers and acquisitions transactions as well as corporate finance and corporate governance. She is the Vice Chairperson of Special Olympics Turkey and is a member of TUSIAD – Turkish Industry and Business Association, FODER - Financial Literacy and Inclusion Association and WWHR – Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways and a founding member of 65+ Elderly Rights Association. Ms. Artunkal is married with one son.
Yusuf Leblebici received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 1984 and 1986, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL, USA, in 1990. Between 1991 and 2000, he worked as a faculty member at UIUC, at Istanbul Technical University, and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where he established and directed the VLSI Design Laboratory. From 1999 to 2002, he also served as the Microelectronics Program Coordinator at Sabanci University. In 2002, Yusuf Leblebici became a Chair Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and Director of the Microelectronic Systems Laboratory. In November 2018, he was appointed as President of Sabanci University. His research interests include design of high-speed CMOS digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits, computer-aided design of VLSI systems, intelligent sensor interfaces, modeling and simulation of semiconductor devices, and VLSI reliability analysis. He is the coauthor of seven books (including two internationally acclaimed textbooks), as well as more than 250 articles published in various journals and conferences. Yusuf Leblebici has been the recipient of the prestigious Young Scientist Award of the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council in 1995, and the "Joseph S. Satin Distinguished Fellow Award" in 1999. He was elected as an IEEE Fellow in 2009, and as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society for 2010–2011.