Board of Directors

Hanzade Doğan is a leading figure in business world as well as a leading philanthropist. As a pioneer of e-commerce & technology businesses in Turkey, she founded Doğan Online Group with diverse portfolio of technology companies. She has led the group company Hepsiburada with subsidiary businesses to become the biggest online retailer in EMEA. As the Chairperson and leader of the Turkey’s largest technology platforms Doğan continues to lead the digital transformation of Turkey to create a significant impact on digitalization of the retail industry across the country.

Beyond her entrepreneurial accomplishments, Doğan has vast experience in leading established Turkish companies across industries. Previously, as Vice Chairperson of Doğan Holding & Doğan Media Group, she managed operations in various industries such as energy, media and trade. As Chairperson of Petrol Ofisi, she led the fuel products distribution and lubricants company where she later formed strategic partnerships for the company. Doğan currently serves also as the Chairperson of Aydın Doğan Foundation, which oversees Group’s philanthropic activities. She has established and led the award-winning government backed “Dad Send Me To School” campaign that aimed to eliminate economic and cultural barriers in young female education across Turkey. 50K scholarships were given to young girls and 33 girls’ dorms were built throughout Turkey, in line with the objectives of this nationally recognized program. Under her auspices Aydın Doğan Foundation continues to serve for the development of young girls in Turkey through various programs.

Doğan is actively involved in various non-profit, business and trade organizations. She is the founding member and Vice Chairperson of Global Relations Forum as well as a member of the Brookings Institute Board of Trustees, European Council on Foreign Relations and Turkish Industry and Business Association. Doğan is an active participant to World Economic Forum and a Committee Member of the Digital Platforms and Ecosystems Initiative.

She is a graduate of London School of Economics, has received her MBA from Columbia University where she also serves on the Columbia Business School Board of Overseers.

Agah Ugur was born in 1957 in Istanbul, Turkey.

He studied industrial engineering at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and 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 Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He worked as a Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) between 2001-2019 and still is the advisor to the Chairman and a member of the Board of Borusan Holding. Agah has held numerous board and advisory board positions in NGO’s. Currently he serves as a member of TUSIAD’s High Advisory Council, a board member of Dogan Holding A.S. and the Turkish American Business Council, a member of the board of Trustees of Sabanci University, a member of the advisory council of Bahçeşehir University and a member of the advisory board of Columbia University’s Istanbul Global Center. He invests in tech start-ups.

Begüm Doğan Faralyalı received her bachelor’s degree in Economics and Philosophy from the London School of Economics (UK) and earned her MBA from Stanford University (USA).

She began her professional career as a consultant at Arthur Andersen’s New York office before joining the London office of Monitor Group, where she worked on restructuring projects for leading European media and technology companies.

In 2004, she joined Doğan Media Group, holding various leadership positions. In 2007, she led the launch of Kanal D Romania, a national entertainment channel that later became one of Romania’s top three television networks. She became the CEO of Star TV in 2009 and became President of Doğan TV Holding in 2010, overseeing two national entertainment channels, a news channel, radio stations, and a production company.

In January 2012, she became Chairwoman of Doğan Holding, a publicly traded conglomerate with operations in electricity generation, petroleum products retail, industry & trade, automotive trade & marketing, finance & investment, internet & entertainment, and real estate investment. During her tenure, she led the strategic transformation of Doğan Holding, shifting its focus from traditional media to renewable energy, sustainable manufacturing, automotive & mobility, digital finance, and investment banking. Under her leadership, the company successfully divested from its legacy media assets and expanded into future-oriented industries, strengthening its position as a diversified investment group. She also served as President of Doğan Yayınları, Sesa Production, Sesa Packaging, and Karel.

Faralyalı is an advocate for sustainability, social impact, and values-driven leadership. She is on the advisory board of Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. She is the founder and spokesperson of the Common Values Movement, a civic initiative promoting a society based on shared values rather than polarization. She is also a Board Member of WWF Turkey, a partner at Young Guru Academy (YGA), a non-profit supporting young social entrepreneurs, and a member of the advisory board of the UNDP Istanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development.

Since the beginning of her professional life, Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ has been involved in initiating new projects. In 1990 while working with Milpa she brought the German mail order company, Quelle, to Turkey and headed the company until 1993. In 1994, she took part in the establishment of Alternatifbank and served as a board member. A year later, she became the CFO of Milliyet Magazine Group. She joined Kanal D in 1996 and was in charge of various departments.

One of her major accomplishments was the launching of CNN Turk in 2000, which was the result of the negotiations she initiated in 1999 with Time Warner Group. In 2005, she became the CEO of Doğan TV Holding, the parent company of Kanal D, CNN Turk, DMC, D Productions, D-Smart satellite platform and radio concerns.

In 2007, she was elected as the first female President of the country’s leading business organization, TUSİAD - Turkish Industry and Business Association, in the organization’s 40 year-history. She held this post until 2010, and then moved to become a member of the Council of Presidents of the Association’. She has been also serving as the Vice President of High Advisory Council.

After leaving post at TUSİAD, she took over the chair of Doğan Holding from her father, the founder of the company, started as the first member in the second generation of the family to lead the organization.

She is one of the founding board members of Aydın Doğan Foundation, established in 1996 and served as the Chairperson between 2010 and 2011. The then Foreign Minister, former President Abdullah Gül, appointed her as an honorary ambassador of Turkey to EU; with this capacity Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ launched “Women’s Initiative for Turkey in the EU”. She is among the founding members of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey - KAGIDER; she was also selected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She assumed duties in the Board of Directors of Education Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV). She has been among the founding members of Turkish American Businessmen Association (TABA) and assumed duties in the Board of Directors.

Again, she was one of the founders of the Turkish Third Sector Foundation - TÜSEV, and has been a founder and a board member of Istanbul Modern Art Museum since January 2004. Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ is a member of Vodafone Turkey Foundation Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of American Turkish Society. She was serving at the advisory board at Expo 2015 Milano. She was awarded the title of Commander of Italy’s Star Order (Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia) in 2009. She is a member of World Economic Forum’s Industry Partner of Media, Entertainment and Information (MEI) Executive Board, member of Board of Trustees at The Paley Center for Media and also a member of Directors’ Comittee of International Academy of Television, Arts&Sciences.

Vuslat Doğan Sabancı is a business leader and a philanthropist, as well as a leading voice on human rights, gender equality, and freedom of expression, both in Turkey and globally.

In her 22 years at Hurriyet Publishing, the leading newspaper group in Turkey, Ms. Doğan Sabancı served as CEO from 2004-2008, and as chairwoman from 2008-2018. She retired from her position in May 2018, when the Doğan family divested from all their major media assets.

Under Ms. Doğan Sabancı’s leadership, Hürriyet not only became the largest and most influential newspaper in Turkey, but also Turkey's largest digital content company. Before her retirement, one in every two Turkish Internet users interacted with Hürriyet’s online content daily, more than any other digital company. She also led the startup of, and still chairs, Hurriyet Emlak, which started operations as classified ads in Hurriyet newspaper and transformed into Turkey’s number one digital real estate vertical.

In addition to leading a major digital transformation, Ms. Doğan Sabancı led the editorial policy of promoting gender equality and minority rights, and played a major role in highlighting such rights in the public perception as well as in the legal system.

She initiated the “No! To Domestic Violence” campaign in 2004 to advance social empowerment of women, the first example of her efforts to use media in order to effect major positive social change. The campaign was honored with a UN Grand Award for outstanding achievement in October 2006, and was also introduced as an exemplar in the European Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly Women’s Rights Commission’s report. For the empowerment of women in politics, Ms. Doğan Sabancı initiated The Rightful Women Platform, which was formed in cooperation with 42 prominent NGOs. The platform strives to achieve equal representation of women in politics, business and social life. With her support of a major microcredit project by the Grameen Bank in Turkey, Ms. Doğan Sabancı is also contributing to the economic empowerment of Turkish women.

With the hindsight of 20 years experience in journalism, media and civic leadership, Ms. Doğan Sabancı was compelled to explore alternative channels to convene thoughtful conversations in the midst of escalating social, economic and political divisions. To this end, she is in the process of launching the V Foundation as a global initiative to promote genuine connectedness “within and with the other” through art and storytelling, cultural entrepreneurship, and research and policy partnerships.

Recently Ms. Doğan Sabancı has been actively advancing better conversations on difficult issues such as Islam, and the role of media as a channel to initiate better conversations. In line with these efforts, she co-hosted a panel titled, “Islamophobia: Overcoming Myths and Engaging in a Better Conversation” with the Atlantic Council. She also delivered a keynote speech at the World Leader Forum in Columbia University on ‘Fostering a Better Conversation on Islam: The Role of Media’.

As a forward spokesperson, Ms. Doğan Sabancı constantly promotes Gender Equality on different platforms. She gave a keynote speech about gender issues in the media, “Women and Media: Gender Equality”, at Columbia University campus.

Before joining Hurriyet, Ms. Doğan Sabancı worked at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, where she dealt with the formation of the Asian Business World News Channel and the Latin American Edition of the Journal. She holds a BA in Economics from Bilkent University, and completed her graduate studies in International Media and Communications at Columbia University's SIPA.

Currently, Ms. Doğan Sabancı is a Member of the Board of Doğan Group of Companies Holding, one of Turkey’s largest business enterprises with investments in petroleum products retail, electricity generation and trading, automotive trade and marketing, industry, finance and investment, internet, real estate investments, entertainment and media, tourism and foreign trade.

Ms. Doğan Sabancı is a lifetime honorary board member of the International Press Institute (IPI), which promotes freedom of expression and media globally. She serves on Columbia University's Global Centers Advisory Board, as well as the Columbia Global Leadership Council.

She is a Founding Board Member of Endeavour Turkey, which cultivates entrepreneurship in Turkey, and a member of the board of Turkish Businesswoman Association (TIKAD).

Çağlar Göğüş earned his B.Sc. degree in Business Administration at Bilkent University in Turkey, and his MBA from the University of Florida. He began his professional career in 1996 as a Senior Analyst at Coopers & Lybrand (current PwC). In 2000, Following his tenure as Senior Analyst and consultant at Arthur Andersen and AT Kearney, he joined the Peppers & Rogers Group. Later becoming an international partner at Peppers & Rogers, he initially served as the General Manager overseeing after- sales services in all regions. Göğüş played an important role in Peppers & Rogers’ growth in the EMEA region and beyond. Through his consultancy work for over fifty major companies and regulatory authorities across a range of geographic areas, he has gained special expertise in strategic growth and transformation. He has attained vast experience over the years in the new economic order as well as in classic economics.

Göğüş joined the Doğan Group in 2015 as an independent board member for Hürriyet Gazetecilik. After holding this position for one year, he served for over two years as Hürriyet Gazetecilik’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). During his tenure, he oversaw important projects, including those involving digital transformation, efficiency, profitability, redefining of business processes and the designing of a corporate character for Hürriyet Emlak (Hürriyet Real Estate and Properties).

Born in 1959 in Istanbul, Ahmet Toksoy was graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Business Administration, Finance Department in 1981 He worked as a Tax Inspector in the Ministry of Finance from 1984 to 1989 Following that, he began to work in Hürriyet Holding as a member of the Supervisory Board. He occupied the position of Deputy Director of Finance from 1990 to 1991 and Director of Finance from 1991 to 1995 in Hürriyet Newspaper. Then, he worked as a certified public accountant in Aktif Denetim Certified Public Accounting Company for 3 years.

He was assigned as the Group Head of Finance at Hurriyet Newspaper in 1998, which he continued for 11 years, and in early 2010, he took up the position of Head of Audit and Risk Management at Doğan Holding. In the course of that period, he held offices of Member and Chairman of Board in various companies of the conglomerate. Toksoy also worked as the Chairman of Board at Hürriyet Journalism and Printing Inc. during 2017-2018.

Toksoy left the offices of Doğan Holding Head of Finance and Executive Board Member which he held from September 2011 until the end of July 2019.

He was appointed as a Board Member of Doğan Holding in March 2019.

Murat Emirdağ earned his B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from Boğaziçi University and his MBA from Columbia Business School in New York. He held various executive and senior leadership roles at leading technology companies in the United States, including Instacart, Zynga and Microsoft. Previously, Mr. Emirdağ served as the CEO and Board Member at Hepsiburada, Türkiye's leading technology platform. Currently, Murat Emirdağ is a Senior Advisor at KKR. He is fluent in English and German.

After completing his education at Istanbul Technical University as a Mechanical Engineer, Ali Aydın Pandır started his professional business life at Koç Holding, where he worked between 1981 – 1989, having started as an engineer and an executive at its R&D and Otokar companies.

He joined General Motors in 1990, where he served at various positions, namely, Opel Turkey After Sales Manager until 1992, Germany Opel International After Sales Manager between 1992 and 1995, Business Development Manager at Singapore General Motors Asia Pacific Center between 1995 and 1998, General Manager at Shanghai General Motors between 1998 and 2000, General Manager at General Motors Overseas Distribution Corporation between 2000 and 2005, and Chairman at General Motors Indonesia between 2005 and 2006.

After having continued his career as the Tofaş CEO until 2012 and the Fiat Group Turkish Country Head until 2013, upon joining Fiat in 2006, he has joined the Erdemir Group in 2013, and served as the Chairman and the CEO of the Ereğli and İskenderun Iron and Steel Industry Co. until 2017.

He has been making investments in the education sector in addition to serving as management consultant, independent board member, and NGO board member at various institutions and entities since 2017.

Ali Aydın Pandır was elected as an independent board member at the General Assembly Meeting on April 8, 2021. Click here for the statement of indepence of Ali Aydın Pandır.

After having graduated from the Middle East Technical University Department of Computer Engineering in 1990, Ali Fuat Erbil earned his MBA from Bilkent University between 1990 and 1992. He started his business life and banking career as a Management Associate with Interbank in 1992, and worked at various branches as a corporate banking customer representative until 1995. In the meantime, Erbil started working on his PhD in Banking and Finance from Istanbul Technical University, and was awarded the title Doctor in 1998.

Until mid-1997, he was the Head of the Research Department at Inter Investment, upon which his career of 23 years with Garanti Bank started. He was first the Department Head for Alternative Distribution Channels with his main responsibility being the launch of Internet banking. In April 1999, he was promoted as the Deputy General Manager. Serving Garanti Bank as the Deputy General Manager for 16 years, he worked in various areas across the bank during this time. Some of these areas include Retail Banking, Corporate Banking, Digital Banking, Financial Institutions, Mortgage, and Human Resources.

As of 2015, Erbil started serving as the Board Member and the General Manager at Garanti Bank during which time he also served as the Chairman for the institutions which were subsidiaries of the Bank. Some of these subsidiaries include Garanti Bank International (Netherlands), Garanti Bank Romania, Garanti Leasing, Garanti Pension and Life, Garanti Factoring, Garanti Investment, Garanti Payment Systems, and Garanti Technology. In September 2019, he has left his duties at Garanti Bank and its subsidiaries.

Ali Fuat Erbil is the Global Advisory Board Member of C2FO, an American fintech company, and he is a board member of Akbank AG (Germany).

Ali Fuat Erbil was elected as an independent board member at the General Assembly Meeting on April 8, 2021. Click here for the statement of indepence of Ali Fuat Erbil.

Ayşegül İldeniz is a pioneer in innovation, technology transformation and future vision in Silicon Valley and Istanbul. Ayşegül İldeniz holds a degree in Business Administration from Bosphorus University and a Masters in Digital Communications Arts from San Francisco State University, upon which she joined global microprocessor giant Intel in 1998, and was first the General Manager for Turkey, following which she ran Intel’s Middle East, Turkey and Africa region, covering 67 countries, was the Member of the Board for Intel Europe, and served as the Deputy Global Head of the New Technologies Group at the Intel Headquarters at Silicon Valley. She joined in 2016 as the COO for Silver Spring Networks, a company traded in the New York stock market, and held half of the US smart energy market with more than 26 million subscribers; and transformed leading cities of the world like Chicago, Singapore, Paris, Copenhagen, and Dubai into smart cities.

In 2015, she was listed as one of the top 100 most creative person in business by Fast Company magazine, one of the most prestigious publications in the US, and is awarded as the third most influential Turkish woman by TOA (Turks of America) magazine, and in Turkey, she was selected “Best Woman IT Manager of the Year” in 2004 and “Best Woman Manager of the Year” in 2006 by Dünya Gazette. Currently, she is the chair of TÜSİAD Silicon Valley Network and serves on the board of Turkish Philanthropy Funds.

She serves on the boards of Eczacıbaşı Holding A.Ş., Zorlu Enerji A.Ş., Vestel Elektronik A.Ş. and Vestel Beyaz Eşya A.Ş. until 2018.

Ayşegül İldeniz was elected as an independent board member at the General Assembly Meeting on April 8, 2021. Click here for the statement of indepence of Ayşegül İldeniz.

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Middle East Technical University, Faik Açıkalın began his banking career in 1987 as a management trainee at Interbank. He subsequently held various positions, including Internal Auditor, Relationship Manager, Branch Manager and Marketing Manager at Interbank, Marmarabank, Kentbank, Finansbank and Demirbank. In May 1998, he joined Dışbank— later renamed Fortis following its acquisition by the eponymous international finance group—as Executive Vice President. Later that year, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) responsible for the coordination and communication between the Board of Directors and business units. He also assumed his position as a Member of the Credit Committee. In June 1999, Açıkalın was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a member of the Board of Directors. In December 2000, he became CEO of Dışbank. Following the acquisition of the majority shares of Dışbank by Fortis in July 2005, he continued to serve as CEO of the bank after it was renamed Fortisbank. Within that period he worked at international management of Fortis. In October 2007, he resigned from his duties at Fortisbank and became CEO of Doğan Gazetecilik. In April 2009, Açıkalın was appointed Executive Director of Yapı Kredi’s Board of Directors and was also appointed Chairman of the Executive Committee.

Serving as Yapı Kredi’s CEO since May 2009, in addition to his current role, Açıkalın was also appointed as CEO of Koç Financial Services in 2010 Furthermore, in August 2011, Açıkalın became the President of Koç Holding’s Banking and Insurance Group. Açıkalın also still serves as Chairman of Yapı Kredi Malta, Yapı Kredi Invest, Yapı Kredi Leasing, Yapı Kredi Factoring, Yapı Kredi Bank Nederland NV, Yapı Kredi Bank Azerbaijan, Yapı Kredi Bank Moscow, Yapı Kredi Koray Real Estate Investment Trust, and Koç Finansman A.Ş., and as Vice Chairman of Banque de Commerce et de Placements S.A. and Allianz Yaşam ve Emeklilik and as Director of the Banks Association of Turkey. At the end of 2017, Açıkalın left his duties at Koç Holding, YKB and its subsidiaries. Hüseyin Faik Açıkalın has been serving as an Independent Board Member on Doğan Holding's Board of Directors since March 30th, 2018.

Hüseyin Faik Açıkalın was elected as an independent board member at the General Assembly Meeting on April 8, 2021. Click here for the statement of indepence of Hüseyin Faik Açıkalın.