Hayri Çulhacı has been appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sabancı Holding. According to a statement from the company, this decision was made during the General Assembly held in honor of the 100th anniversary of Sabancı Group, marking the first time a professional executive has become the Chairman of the Board of Directors in the history of the holding. Following the Board of Directors elections at the General Assembly, Güler Sabancı, who has held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors for 21 years, stepped down, and finance and business veteran Tayfun Bayazıt was elected as an independent member of the Board of Directors. In the Board of Directors meeting held after the General Assembly, as part of the new term’s distribution of duties, Hayri Çulhacı, who has been a Board Member of Sabancı Group for approximately 35 years, was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

WHO IS HAYRI ÇULHACI? Çulhacı graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences in 1978. He obtained his MBA degree from Northeastern University in the United States in 1986. Between 1979 and 1990, Çulhacı served as an Auditor and Department Head at the Ministry of Finance. In 1990, he joined Akbank as Deputy General Manager. From 2009 onwards, Çulhacı served as a Delegate Member of the Board of Directors at Akbank, and from 2010 onwards, he took on the position of Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, while also chairing the Audit Committee, Corporate Governance Committee, and High-Level Risk Committee. Çulhacı retired from Akbank in 2020. In addition to being a member of the Board of Directors of Aksigorta AŞ and Avivasa Emeklilik ve Hayat AŞ, Çulhacı also assumed the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors at Ak Yatırım Menkul Değerler AŞ and Ak Portföy Yönetimi AŞ. Currently serving as a Member of the Board of Trustees and Vice President of Sabancı Foundation, Çulhacı has taken over the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors at Sabancı Holding after Güler Sabancı, becoming the first professional executive to hold this position in the history of Sabancı Group. Prior to this role, Çulhacı held positions such as Member of the Executive Board at Sabancı Holding and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Akbank, as well as various board memberships at Sabancı Holding and its subsidiaries.