Hayri Çulhacı
Chair
Hayri Çulhacı serves as Chair of the Board of Sabancı Holding since March 2025, becoming the first non-family career executive to assume this role. He also serves as Vice Chair and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Sabancı Foundation.
Mr. Çulhacı brings more than four decades of leadership experience across finance, governance, and corporate transformation. Before joining the Board of Sabancı Holding, he spent over 30 years at Akbank, one of Türkiye’s leading financial institutions. He joined Akbank in 1990 as Executive Vice President and went on to hold key strategic responsibilities throughout his tenure. He was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2009, became Vice Chairman in 2010. He also chaired the Audit Committee, Corporate Governance Committee, and High-Level Risk Committee until his retirement in 2020.
In addition to his executive positions, Mr. Çulhacı has served on the Boards of Aksigorta A.Ş. and Avivasa Emeklilik ve Hayat A.Ş., and held the Chairmanship of Ak Yatırım Menkul Değerler A.Ş. and Ak Portföy Yönetimi A.Ş.
He began his career at the Turkish Ministry of Finance in 1979, serving for more than a decade in various leadership roles.
Mr. Çulhacı earned his undergraduate degree from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University (1978) and an MBA from Northeastern University in the United States (1986).