Welcome to the Turkey Chapter

More information coming soon!

Where We Are

30% Club Turkey
Targets

The founding members of the 30% Club Turkey represent most of Turkey’s powerful business groups that collectively dominate the stock market

Our Board has the following targets:

30% participation of women in the boards of BIST Star Market and Main Market companies by 2025

30% women in the top executive team (representing an increase of 100% from 15% in 2016)

Zero all-male boards in BIST 400 companies by 2025 (targeting 26 companies with all-male boards in BIST 100 as of 2022)

These targets correspond to approximately a three-fold increase in the number of professional women on corporate boards from the current level considering that half of the women sitting on corporate boards today are members of controlling shareholder families

Our aim

To support the achievement of a minimum of 30% Female Representation at all senior decision-making levels across Turkey, including Boards and C-Suite.

1

Activate

Activate senior leaders

Engage chairs and CEOs to drive change and support organisations in their diversity & inclusion endeavours, with a specific focus on gender

2

Influence

Influence those with power to drive change

Influence at a national level on diversity-related topics and working complementary to other national initiatives including Balance for Better Business, the State Boards Diversity Initiative

3

Enable

Enabling future women leaders

Support the development of talent pipeline through mentoring, executive education scholarships, and board-ready initiatives

Achieving gender equality in leadership positions requires transformation at all levels and all spheres, and it can’t be separated from eliminating all forms of discrimination and prejudice. Men and women are and should be leaders. Men and women can be equally effective leaders provided that their role does not conflict with their self-identity. Solidarity between men and women based on sharing a higher-order identity and positioning men and women as agents of change towards a common cause is the essence of this transformation. The social purpose of the campaign is not to put an individual woman in positions of power and influence, but to mobilize collective action for a social change.

Melsa Ararat, Founder and Chair of the Board, 30% Club Turkey

Chapter progress

How female representation at the board level has progressed by percentage (%) across the listed companies on BIST since 30% Club was launched in Turkey in 2016

2016

progress

2017

13.9

2018

15.2

2019

15.9

2020

17

2021

16.7

2022

17.5

Members

Membership is primarily targeted at Chairs and CEOs of listed companies - if not within the BIST 400, organizations need to have a significant Turkey workforce or presence to qualify for membership. Currently, there are 78 members of 30% Club Turkey.

Please fulfill a form if you want to join us and find more information on how to become a member section below.

Filter by Chapter
Company Member name Job Title Chapter membership
CCN Group Murat Çeçen Chair Turkey
Akmerkez GYO Süleyman Hakan Tümkaya General Manager Turkey
Takeda İlaç Şeyda Atadan Memiş Chair Turkey
MNT Şükrü Buzluolçay Chair Turkey
Bayazıt Consulting Tayfun Bayazıt Chair Turkey
Alpplas Endüstriyel Yatırımlar Tufan Öney General Manager & Board Member Turkey
Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık Tülay Güngen General Manager Turkey
İş Finansal Kiralama U. Şafak Öğün General Manager Turkey
Stanton Chase Yeşim Anı Sönmezer Managing Partner Turkey
Koç Finans Yeşim Pınar Kitapçı General Manager Turkey

Showing 1 to 10 of 78 people found

Board of Directors

As of 2022, governing body of 30% Club Turkey is it is board of directors who are appointed from our member companies. Board of Directors has started to work with an ambition to improve female representation at boardrooms in BIST 400 and launched a campaign to decrease the number of 'all-male board' firms

Ahmet Dördüncü

CEO, Akkök Holding

Country Chair

Özgür Tokgöz Altun

CFO, Boyner Holding

Board Member

Oya Sener

Head of Retail, FIBA Retail Group

Board Member

Nazan Somer Özelgin

Chair, Mapfre Sigorta

Board Member

Murat Yeşildere

Senior Partner, Egon Zehnder

Board Member

Murat Kolbaşı

Chair, Arzum

Board Member

Melsa Ararat

Advisory Board Member, SU CGFT

Board Chair

Füsun Akkal Bozok

Board Director, Ford Otomotiv

Board Member

Our Work

On March 22, 2017 Borsa Istanbul (BIST) hosted the launch of the 30% Club’s Turkey Chapter as a business led campaign, aimed at improving corporate boards’ gender diversity. The founding members of the 30% Club Turkey represent most of Turkey’s powerful business groups that collectively dominate the stock market. The 30% Club in Turkey is a spin off from the Independent Women Directors Project of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum. The Forum, which maintains a database of female talent and tracks improvement in BIST boards’ gender diversity, facilitates and coordinates the 30% Club Turkey campaign. It is not an organization, it is a campaign based on the cooperation of members. It is a non-profit and impartial campaign. 

Committees are Communication, Governance and Membership Committee as well as Investors Group. Each committee has been involved of senior executives working in our member companies.

Governance Committee

The committee, which started its activities with the approval of the Steering Committee, carried out works on updating the campaign charter and creating the charter of the Board of Directors in order to provide the Turkish campaign with a more institutional structure.

Membership Committee

Communication Committee

Project and Fund Raising Committee

Investors Group

Main Aim

The 30 percent Club Turkey membership is open to CEOs and Board Chairs. Members declare their adoption to the principles of diversity and inclusion as the most competent people in their companies.

Members’ names are publicly disclosed and they agree to be involved in the communication campaigns of the Club.  All members are invited to events, but participation is completely optional. It is not required to be involved in its activities unless members want to.

There is no target requirement regarding to the representation of women on boards. Also, 30 Percent Club Turkey does not measure  performance of boardrooms. There is no requirement that the board of directors should have at least 30% of women.

Underrepresentation of women in decision-making is a global phenomenon. Therefore, the gender balance improvement is a future-oriented desire.

There is no membership fee. However, if companies wish to, they can sponsor events and donate to the campaign. 

Contact

To become a member, you should fill a membership form. Therefore, please send an e-mail to 30percentclubturkey@sabanciuniv.edu to request the form.

 

Project: Decreasing the number of all male board firms in Turkey

30 Percent Club Turkey has sent an invitation letter to the all male board firms listed in BIST. In the following, it has collaborated with several stakeholders to send similar invitation letters to the Chair and CEOs of their member companies which have no women on their boards. It is an ongoing project.

Events

30 Percent Club Turkey in collaboration with Sabanci University Corporate Governance Forum and Independent Women Directors Project has been organizing Women Directors in Turkey Conference annually.

contact-info

Contact Us

E-mail for General Enquiries
30percentclubturkey@sabanciuniv.edu

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