Güler Sabanci

Guler Sabanci is chairman and managing director of Sabanci Holding, the parent company of the Sabanci Group, Turkey’s leading industrial and financial conglomerate.

A graduate of Bogazici University, Faculty of Business Administration, Sabanci started her career at LASSA, Sabanci Group’s tire production company, in 1978. In 1985, she was appointed General Manager of KORDSA, the Group’s tire cord production company. In 1997, she assumed the office of President of Sabanci Holding’s Tire and Tire Reinforcement Materials Group. Sabanci was elected to her current post in May 2004.

Sabanci holds many offices. She was the Founding President of Sabanci University and has been presiding over the Board of Trustees since its establishment in 1996. She also acts as Chairman of the Sakip Sabanci Museum. She is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sabanci Foundation, which supports the social development of Turkey through various programs since it was founded in 1974.

Sabanci is the first female member of TUSIAD, Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association, as well as the first and only female member of European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). Sabanci also sits on the United Nations Global Compact Board, International Business Council of WEF and the External Advisory Board of MIT Energy Initiative.