Guler Sabanci
Güler Sabancı is Chairman and Managing Director of Sabancı Holding, the parent company of the Sabancı Group, Turkey’s leading industrial and financial multi-business firm.
A graduate of T.E.D. Ankara College High School and Bogazici University’s Faculty of Business Administration, Güler Sabancı started her career at LASSA, Sabancı group’s tire production company, in 1978.
In 1985, she was appointed General Manager of KORDSA, the group’s tire cord production company. During that period, she shepherded the implementation of the 50/50 international partnership agreements signed by Sabanci Holding. Guler Sabanci also led the foundation and operation of a variety of industrial joint ventures with international partners, both at home and abroad.
In 1997, she assumed the office of President of Sabancı Holding’s Tire and Tire Reinforcement Materials Group. Following the passing of Sakin Sabanci, Güler Sabancı was elected to her current post in May 2004. Guler Sabanci also serves as the President of Sabanci Holding’s Human Resources Committee.
Güler Sabancı is the President of the Board of Trustees of Hacı Omer Sabancı Foundation, charitable contributions of which have amounted to over USD 1.5 billion since it was founded in 1974.
Guler Sabanci is the Founding President of Sabanci University and has been presiding over the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University since its establishment in 1996.
A passionate patron of the arts, she also acts as Chairman of Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Guler Sabanci pioneered the “Picasso in Istanbul” exhibition, thus enabling the works of a major artist of the 20th Century to reach the Turkish public for the first time. Guler Sabanci was also instrumental in allowing Sakıp Sabanci’s Calligraphy and Painting Collections to show in Lisbon, Madrid and Seville. In March 2007, Guler Sabanci signed a cultural partnership agreement between the Louvre, Sabanci University, and Sakıp Sabanci Museum.
Güler Sabancı is the first female member of TUSIAD, Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association as well as the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). She sits on the board of the International Crisis Group and the Atlantic Council, and is also a member of the International Business Council of WEF.
In 2006, Guler Sabanci was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the prestigious Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA.
In 2009, Güler Sabancı was named 5th on the Financial Times’ list of the Top 50 Women in World Business. In 2010, Fortune magazine ranked her the 7th most powerful businesswoman.
Guler Sabanci received the “Corporate Partnership Award” from the American Turkish Society in 2007. She was also awarded “The 2009 Raymond Georis Prize for Innovative Philanthropy.”
Guler Sabanci was awarded the Italian state decoration in 2002. In November of 2007, she was presented with the “Decoration of Honor of Commander in the Order of Leopold II” by Armand De Decker, President of the Senate of Belgium, for her contributions to economical cooperation between Turkey and Belgium. In 2009, King Juan Carlos I of Spain granted Guler Sabanci the Spanish Order of Civil Merit, “Encomienda de Numero.” In 2010, she was honored with “Silbernes Ehrenkreuz der Republik Österreich,” the highest decoration of the Republic of Austria. Guler Sabanci is also a 2010 recipient of the Legion d’Honneur decoration of the Republic of France.