Hayri Çulhacı has been appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Sabancı Holding.

According to a statement from the company, during the General Assembly held in celebration of Sabancı Group’s 100th year, a decision was made for the first time in the history of the holding to have a professional executive as the Chairman of the Board. Following the Board of Directors elections at the General Assembly, Güler Sabancı, who has been serving as the Chairman of the Holding’s Board for 21 years, stepped down from the position, while Tayfun Bayazıt, an experienced figure in finance and business, was elected as an independent member of the Board of Directors. During the Board of Directors meeting held after the General Assembly, as part of the new term’s distribution of responsibilities, Hayri Çulhacı, who has been serving as a Board Member of Sabancı Group for approximately 35 years, was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

WHO IS HAYRI ÇULHACI? Çulhacı graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Political Science in 1978. He obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Northeastern University in the USA in 1986. Between 1979 and 1990, Çulhacı served as an Auditor and Department Head at the Ministry of Finance. In 1990, Çulhacı joined Akbank as Assistant General Manager. From 2009 onwards, Çulhacı held the position of Executive Board Member at Akbank, and from 2010 onwards, he also took on the roles of Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, while simultaneously serving as the chairman of the Audit Committee, Corporate Governance Committee, and Senior Risk Committee. Çulhacı retired from Akbank in 2020. In addition to being a member of the Boards of Directors of Aksigorta AŞ and Avivasa Emeklilik ve Hayat AŞ, Çulhacı also assumed the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors at Ak Yatırım Menkul Değerler AŞ and Ak Portföy Yönetimi AŞ. Still serving as a Trustee and Vice President of the Sabancı Foundation, Çulhacı took over the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sabancı Holding following Güler Sabancı, becoming the first professional executive to hold this position in the history of the Sabancı Group. Çulhacı previously served as a member of the Executive Board of Sabancı Holding, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Akbank, and held various positions on the boards of Sabancı Holding and its subsidiaries.