Board of Directors

Hanzade Doğan is a serial entrepreneur, an experienced leader of blue-chip companies, a philanthropist committed to social impact and an active voice on global issues. As a pioneer of e-commerce & technology businesses in Turkey, she founded Hepsiburada, the only Turkish company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, and has steered its rapid growth to make it the largest ecommerce platform in Turkey. She is also the Founder and Chairwoman of Nesine, the country s standard-setting and most widely used sports betting platform.

She has vast experience in leading established Turkish companies across industries. Doğan serves also as the Chairwoman of Aydın Doğan Foundation where she has established and led the award-winning government backed “Dad Send Me To School” social mobilization movement that aimed to eliminate economic and cultural barriers in young female education across Turkey.

She is a founding member and Vice Chairwoman of Global Relations Forum as well as a member of the Brookings Institute Board of Trustees and an active participant to World Economic Forum.  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.

Mr. Emirdağ serves as a member of the board of directors at Hepsiburada where he previously held the CEO role for approximately 4 years.

Prior to Hepsiburada, he held different executive and management roles at leading companies such as Instacart, Zynga, Microsoft and Unilever.

Mr. Emirdağ received his MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and holds degrees in Chemical engineering and Mechanical engineering from Bosphorus University in Istanbul. He is fluent in English, German and Turkish.

Tayfun Bayazıt joined our board of directors in July 2021 as an independent board member. After having received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering (1980) and an MBA from Columbia University, New York, (Finance and International Business - 1983), Mr. Bayazıt started his banking career at Citibank in 1983.

He subsequently worked in executive positions within Cukurova Group for 13 consecutive years (Yapı Kredi as Senior EVP and Executive Committee Member, Interbank as CEO, Banque de Commerce et de Placements S.A. Switzerland as President and CEO). In 1999, he was appointed as Vice Chairman of Doğan Holding and an Executive Director of Disbank. In 2001 he assumed the CEO position at Disbank. In 2003, he was also appointed Chairman and was requested to remain as CEO of Fortis Turkey and the region in July 2005 after its acquisition. Subsequently, he was elected as Chairman of Fortis in 2006.

Mr. Bayazıt came back to Yapı Kredi in 2007 (at which time Yapı Kredi was owned by a joint venture of the UniCredit and the Koç Group) as CEO and two years later he was elected as Chairman. He served as chairman of all Yapı Kredi subsidiaries including Yapı Kredi Sigorta (property and casualty insurance) and Yapı Kredi Emeklilik (private pension and life) for 4 years. Yapı Kredi was the fourth largest high street bank in Turkey with subsidiaries in Holland, Bahrain and Russia, actively involved in mortgage lending among other individual banking activities with a strong digital focus.

Mr. Bayazıt left this post in August 2011 to set up his own firm “Bayazit Consulting Services.” He was then elected as the Country Chairman for MarshMcLennan Group (Marsh, Mercer and Oliver Wyman exist in Turkey) in September 2012 and serves on the board of directors of MLP Care (healthcare) and Coca Cola Icecek (bottling and distribution) as an independent director. He is also a board member at Aydem Enerji and Boyner companies.

He is a member of TUSIAD (Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association) High Advisory Board and takes an active role in other non-governmental organizations such as the World Resources Institute, Corporate Governance Association of Turkey. He is a member of the board of trustees of Bosphorus University and Turkish Education Volunteers Foundation

Erman Kalkandelen has served as a member of our board since August 2020. Mr. Kalkandelen currently serves as the CEO and Chairman of Franklin Templeton Turkey. Mr. Kalkandelen previously co-managed the Templeton Emerging Market Small Cap strategy. He is currently heading the private equity practice of Franklin Templeton in Turkey and CEE and focusing mainly on the technology industry. He is a member of the board of directors of Netlog Lojistik, Gözde Girişim and Gozde Tech Ventures, Fibabanka, Şok Marketler, Bleckmann, Penta Teknoloji and Bizim Toptan.   

Mr. Kalkandelen holds a Master of Business Administration, with honors, from Sabanci University. During his MBA, he also studied strategic management at the Warrington School of Business Management, Florida University and graduated with honors from the Labor Economics Department of the Political Sciences Faculty, Ankara University.

Tolga Babalı has been a member of our board of directors since May 2021. Since 2008 he has held several management roles in Doğan Holding and related companies in the Doğan Group and, since 2017, Mr. Babalı has served as a member of the executive committee of Doğan Holding, with responsibility for financial and operational management. He has also served as board member or chairman of the board of directors of a number of Doğan Group companies.   

Prior to joining the Doğan Group, Mr. Babalı worked for the Tax Inspection Board and Revenue Administration at the Ministry of Finance of Turkey from 1998 to 2008.  

Mr. Babalı holds a Bachelor s degree in Economics from Gazi University, Ankara, and is certified as a Sworn-in Certified Public Accountant and an Independent Auditor.

Ahmet Ashaboğlu has been a member of our board of directors since May 2022. Mr. Ashaboğlu began his career as a Research Assistant at MIT in 1994, followed by various positions in capital markets within UBS Warburg, New York (1996-1999). After serving as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, New York (1999-2003), he moved back to Turkey and joined Koç Holding as Finance Group Coordinator in 2003. He was appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer at Koç Holding in 2006 and served in that position until April 2022. Ahmet Ashaboğlu is currently a board member of Mavi, Yapı Kredi Bank, Koç Financial Services, Koç Finansman and Sirena Marine.

Mr. Ashaboğlu holds a BSc degree from Tufts University and a Master of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), both in Mechanical Engineering.

Vuslat Doğan Sabancı has been a member of our board of directors since 2020. Ms. Sabancı has over twenty years of experience in publishing and media. From 2004 to 2008, she served as the CEO of Hürriyet Publishing, Turkey s foremost newspaper group, and as publisher from 2008 to 2018, during which time Hürriyet became a widely read and influential newspaper and Turkey s largest digital content company. Prior to joining Hürriyet, Ms. Sabancı worked at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ms. Sabancı founded Hürriyet Emlak, one of Turkey s leading real estate websites in 2016, and has been chairwoman since 2019. Ms. Sabancı sits on the board of a number of companies, including Doğan Group. Ms. Sabancı is a lifetime honorary board member of the International Press Institute (IPI) and serves on the Advisory Board of Columbia University s Global Centers, as well as on the Columbia Global Leadership Council.     

Ms. Sabancı is the recipient of a lifetime honorary board member of the International Press Institute and in 2006 received UN Grand Award for outstanding achievement for her social justice campaigns. She is Vice President of the non-for-profit Aydın Doğan Foundation and a founding board member of Turkish Businesswomen Association and the not-for-profit organization Endeavor Turkey.     

Ms. Sabancı holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Bilkent University and completed her graduate studies in International Media and Communications at Columbia University s SIPA.

Dr. Stefan Gross-Selbeck has been a member of our board of directors of since January 2023. He has over twenty years of experience in senior leadership roles, including as a chief executive officer (“CEO”), and has held a number of board memberships. Dr. Gross-Selbeck is a Senior Partner and Managing Director of the Boston Consulting Group. Since April 2018, he has been serving as the Global Managing Partner of BCG Digital Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Boston Consulting Group. He previously served as Managing Partner for their European operations. Prior to joining BCG Digital Ventures in 2014, Dr. Gross-Selbeck served as CEO of New Work SE (formerly known as XING AG), a leading social network for professionals in Europe, between 2009 - 2013. He also had different management roles at eBay, ProSiebenSat1 and Boston Consulting Group GmbH. Dr. Gross-Selbeck is a member of the advisory boards of the German Startup Association and several ventures built by BCG Digital Ventures. 

Dr. Gross-Selbeck holds an MBA from INSEAD and has a PhD in law from University of Konstanz, Germany. He studied law and economics at the Universities of Freiburg, Lausanne, Montpellier and Cologne.

Dr. Cem Karakaş has been a member of our board of directors since May 2022. Dr. Karakaş is an industrial restructuring leader in global snacking industry. He has led large scale restructuring and growth programs in biscuit and chocolate industries building and rationalizing several dozen manufacturing plants around the world as well as leading omni-channel market entry programs. Latest, Dr. Karakaş was the founding CEO of Pladis, the largest European biscuit player and one of the largest snacking companies globally. Prior to that Dr. Karakaş held CEO and CFO roles in Yıldız Group and Erdemir Group of Turkey. Dr. Karakaş is the executive chairman Aran Ard Teoranta and Rudi s Organic, the fastest growing European and North American free-from bakery players.

Dr. Karakaş has a Bachelor's degree in management from Middle East Technical University, Master s degree in business administration in finance from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Doctorate degree in finance from Istanbul University.