International advisory board

Suzan Sabancı is the Chairman of Akbank. Ms. Sabancı is also a board member of Sabancı Holding and a member of the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University and the Sabancı Foundation. In 2009, Ms. Sabanci founded the Akbank International Advisory Board and currently serves as its chairman.

Suzan Sabancı began her career in banking in 1986 and joined Akbank as Executive Vice President in charge of Treasury in 1989. Having specialized in Treasury and Risk Management, she has been active in these two subjects since 1993. In 1997, she was named Executive Board Member for Treasury and International Banking Relations. Ms. Sabancı was appointed as Executive Board Member to oversee the bank-wide change and transition program in 2001. She was named Chairman in March, 2008.

Ms. Sabancı is a member of the Institute of International Finance Board of Directors and Emerging Markets Advisory Board, Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council, Harvard Business School’s Global Leaders Circle, and an emeritus member of the Harvard Business School’s Middle East and North Africa Advisory Board. Suzan Sabancı is also co-chair of the New York-based American-Turkish Society, as well as a member of the Global Board of Advisors at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Board of Managing Directors of Venetian Heritage, Inc, and the Cultural and Social Affairs Committee of the Serpentine Council respectively.

From 2010 to 2014, Suzan Sabancı served as the chairman of the Turkish-British Business Council for two terms. From 2009 to 2016, Ms. Sabancı sat on the Global Board of Advisors of Chatham House and she is currently a member of the Chatham House Chairman’s Circle. In 2012, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II awarded Ms. Sabancı the title of "Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE)" in recognition of her proactive and influential contributions to the development of Turkey-UK relations. Having previously served as an Advisory Board Member for The Prince's Charities, Ms. Sabancı is currently a Patron of Prince’s Trust International, a highly prestigious charity organisation set up by King Charles III, then The Prince of Wales, in 1976 and aimed at promoting the development of young people.

Suzan Sabancı is strongly committed to corporate social responsibility activities and assumes various positions in the fields of culture, education, and the promotion of entrepreneurship. Between 2014 and 2018, Sabancı acted as the Advisory Board President of the Women on Board Association Turkey, dedicated to promoting social development by increasing female representation on boards. She is a founding member and board member of the leading high-impact entrepreneurship movement, Endeavor Turkey, a founding and honorary member of the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey, and chairman of the Executive Advisory Board and member of the board of patrons of the Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair. Ms. Sabancı acted as Luxembourg’s Honorary Consul in Istanbul between 2005 and 2022 for 17 years. In 2014, Ms. Sabancı was given the Order of Civil Merit (Orden del Mérito Civil) of the Kingdom of Spain by King Felipe VI of Spain for her contributions to the relations between the two countries and for her support to the cultural convergence.

Suzan Sabancı holds a BA in Finance from Richmond College in the UK and an MBA from Boston University in the USA. Ms. Sabancı has two children.

Hamid Biglari is currently Senior Partner and Chairman of Asset Management & Financial Services at RedBird Capital Partners, a global private equity firm.  In that capacity, he helps to oversee the financial services investment portfolio and is also involved with the firm’s strategic growth initiatives globally.

From 2017 through 2022, he was a senior executive at Point72 Asset Management, a global hedge fund, responsible for global equities trading and portfolio analytics.

From 2000 to 2013, he was a senior executive at Citigroup, ending his tenure there as Vice Chairman & Global Head of Emerging Markets, responsible for Citi’s business portfolio across both Consumer and Corporate & Investment Banking in 78 emerging market countries.  He was a member of Citigroup’s Operating Committee and held various senior management roles throughout his 13-year tenure at the institution, including Chief Strategy Officer of Citigroup, Chief Operating Officer of the Citi’s global investment bank and trading business, and Global Head of Investment Banking for Financial Institutions.

Prior to joining Citigroup, Hamid was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he co-led the Firm’s investment banking consulting practice. Prior to that, he was a theoretical nuclear physicist at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory, the nation’s leading center for controlled thermonuclear fusion research.

Hamid sits on the Board of Directors of SparkCognition, a global provider of enterprise AI solutions.  He is a member of Council on Foreign Relations and a Vice-Chair of Asia Society’s Board of Trustees.  He also sits on the President’s Advisory Council and Advisory Board of the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University.  While at Citigroup, he was a member of the US-China Business Council.  From 2013 to 2015, he was a Board member of Avolon Holdings, the global jet leasing company, and Chair of its Compensation Committee, until its sale to HNA Group.

An Iranian-American, Hamid was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2009, given for outstanding contributions to the United States by immigrants.

He holds a Ph.D. degree in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University.

Lubna S. Olayan is Chair of the Executive Committee of Olayan Financing Company (OFC), the holding company for The Olayan Group’s trading, real estate, investment, consumer, and industrial-related operations in the Gulf region. She also chairs the board of Olayan Saudi Holding Company (OSHCO), an OFC affiliate through which consumer and industrial-related operations are conducted, as well as chairs and sits on the board of a few of its companies.

In 2004, Ms. Olayan became the first woman to join the board of a Saudi publicly listed company when she was elected to the board of Alawwal Bank. In 2018, following the merger of Alawwal with SABB, the Saudi affiliate of HSBC, she was elected and still serves as Chairman of the newly merged entity.

Ms. Olayan is also currently a member of several international advisory boards, including those of Akbank, Allianz SE, and Bank of America. Ms. Olayan is a trustee of MIT, a Chairman Emeritus at the Asia Business Council and a member of the panel of senior advisors at the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to serving as President of the Suliman S. Olayan Foundation Ms. Olayan Chairs Alfanar, a UK-based charity that is one of the first venture philanthropy organizations in the Arab world. In 2020, Ms. Olayan took on the role of Chair of the B20 Trade & Investment Taskforce, during Saudi Arabia’s Presidency of the G20 and has most recently been appointed Chairman of the Saudi-Greek and the Saudi Swedish Business Councils.

Ms. Olayan holds an MBA from Indiana University, a BS from Cornell University and an honorary Doctorate of Law from Trinity College.

Dante Roscini holds the MBA Class of 1952 Chair at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches Business, Government, and the International Economy. He joined the faculty in 2008 and has published extensively on sovereign debt, monetary policy, central banking, and international investment. He is the Chairman of the European Economic Policy Forum at the Harvard Center for European Studies. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a summa cum laude Laurea degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Rome.

Before returning to HBS, Professor Roscini spent twenty years in investment banking with senior positions at three top US bulge bracket firms in New York and London. He was Head of European Capital Markets for Goldman Sachs, Head of Global Equity Capital Markets, and Head of the European Capital Markets and Financing Group for Merrill Lynch, where he was also a member of the Capital Commitments Committee and the Managing Directors Promotions Committee. Finally, he was Country Head of Italy, Chairman of European Capital Markets for Morgan Stanley, and a board member of Morgan Stanley International Bank. Prior to his investment banking career, Prof. Roscini worked as a researcher in nuclear archaeometry at the University of Rome, as a design engineer and project manager with Westinghouse Electric Corp. in the US, and as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Paris.

He has been a member of the board or advisory board of numerous industrial and financial companies, including several publicly listed in the US and Europe. He is a senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and of the Atlantic Council, a member of the American Economic Association, National Association for Business Economics, and Centro Studi Confindustria. He was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy by the President of the Italian Republic.

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is currently the Chairman of Société Générale.

He is also the Chairman of the Pecci Museum of Contemporary Art in Prato.

He is Honorary Professor at University College London’ Policy Lab and CEPR Distinguished Fellow. He is Honorary President of the Italian Alumni of the University of Chicago.

From June 2005 to December 2011 he was a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank.

Over the last 20 years he held several positions as Chairman of the board (Italgas, SNAM and SACE) and member of the Board (Finmeccanica, MTS, the European Investment Bank, Morgan Stanley International and Tages Holding). He was Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the first Chairman of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, a cultural institution in Florence.

He started his career in 1983 as an Economist in the Research Department of the Banca d’Italia. He moved in 1994 to the European Monetary Institute to head the Policy Division, preparing for the creation of the ECB. In 1998 he was appointed Director General for International Affairs in the Italian Treasury.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Chicago.

He is author of several articles and books on international and European monetary and financial issues (available in www.lorenzobinismaghi.com), in particular "Austerity: European Democracies against the Wall" (CEPS, July 2013), "33 false verità sull'Europa" (Il Mulino, April 2014) and “La tentazione di andarsene: fuori dall’Europa c’è un futuro per l’Italia?” (Il Mulino, May 2017).

Tom de Swaan was appointed to the Supervisory Board of ABN AMRO Bank N.V. as Chair and member effective 12 July 2018 and reappointed effective 20 April 2022 for a period of four years. His term of appointment will expire upon the closing of the annual general meeting in 2026.

Tom started his career at De Nederlandsche Bank N.V. (DNB) in 1972. In 1983, Tom became a Deputy Member of the Board in charge of DNB’s accounting, legal and banknote departments. Two years later, he was appointed as a full Member of the Governing Board. In 1992 he moved over to the regulatory and policy side of DNB as the Governing Board Member responsible for Banking Supervision. In this capacity he became a member and subsequently Chair of the European Monetary Committee’s Banking Supervisory Committee, and member and subsequently Chair of the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision.

In 1999, Tom joined the Managing Board of ABN AMRO as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer. While at ABN AMRO he continued his international activity on the policy and regulatory side. In 2000 he became a nonexecutive member of the board of the Financial Services Authority in the UK. In 2006, Tom stepped down from his executive role at the bank and held various non-executive positions at GlaxoSmithKline, DSM, Ahold and Van Lanschot Bankiers, an executive position at Zurich Insurance Group (CEO a.i.), as well as a variety of other boards and advisory functions in banking and other sectors. On the not for profit side Tom was Chair of the Supervisory Council of the Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis/Netherlands Cancer Institute until 1 June 2019 and member of the Board of the Foundation Premium Erasmianum until 24 May 2022.

Education:

• Master in Monetary and Macro Economics, University of Amsterdam (1972)

Other ancillary positions:

• Member of the Supervisory Board, Foundation Holland Festival, the Netherlands
• Chair of the Board, Foundation National Opera & Ballet Fund, the Netherlands
• Member of the International Advisory Board, Akbank
• Chair of the Management Board, Foundation Funds Netherlands Cancer Institute
• Member of the Advisory Board, Stichting tot Instandhouding van de Diergaarde van het Koninklijk Zoölogisch Genootschap Natura Artis Magistra
• Member of the Board, Stichting Liszt Concours
• Member of the Board of Directors, The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children
• Chair of the Board, LJC Amsterdam

Paul was Executive Vice Chairman at UBS from 2018 to 2021. He joined UBS in 2010 initially as Head of Global Emerging Markets and later served as UBS’ Head of Wealth Management for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America where he managed $450 billion of client assets and over 3,000 employees across four continents.

Before joining UBS in 2010, he spent six years at Credit Suisse, including three years in Hong Kong as Head of Investment Banking for the Asia Pacific region. Before joining Credit Suisse, Paul spent 10 years with Merrill Lynch in London and Paris and eight years at Salomon Brothers in New York in various M&A and capital markets roles.

Paul is a member of the advisory board of LIFE where he was founding chairman and a member of the Special Advisory Council of International Crisis Group. He is also a member of international advisory board of Akbank. He has a degree in economics from the University of Maryland and an MSC in management from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Yuval Atsmon is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, focused on serving TMT and Consumer clients on growth transformations with increased focus on tech, digital, and AI enablement. A graduate of the Tel Aviv University Law School and of Harvard Business, Yuval joined McKinsey in 2002, and has worked across multiple continents, including in China, out of the Shanghai office between 2006 and 2012. Amongst various roles he has had at the firm, he has been the leader McKinsey’s global Growth and Innovation practice, China Strategy Practice and the Global TMT Knowledge and Capabilities agenda. He is currently supervising all finance for McKinsey sector and functional practices, a member of McKinsey global Core Leadership Team and Europe’s Operating Committee. In addition is the Chair of McKinsey Centre for Strategy Innovation where he is leading the firm’s effort to scale the usage of AI across all strategy work.

Between 2017 and 2019, Yuval also spent two years as Chief Customer Officer of Globality (the world’s first global premium B2B services marketplace, leveraging an innovative AI platform ) where he expanded Globality’s customer base, and built a strong team to support the Fortune 500 companies and the service providers working alongside them. Yuval is also prolific author, writing regularly for the McKinsey Quarterly and other publications.

Kaan Gür, with over 30 years of experience in the banking sector, obtained his degree from Gazi University's Faculty of Banking and Insurance and an Executive MBA from the Middle East Technical University. He began his career in a prominent private sector bank, holding positions such as Branch and Regional Manager in Corporate, Commercial, and SME Banking, later transitioning to the role of Director of SME Marketing Coordination.

In 2011, Gür joined Akbank as the Executive Vice President of SME Banking. From 2013 to 2017, he served as the Executive Vice President of the Commercial Banking segment, overseeing the Cash Management and Trade Finance departments. During this period at Akbank, he also held the positions of Chairman of AK Lease and Vice Chairman of AK Investment, both Akbank subsidiaries.

Between 2017 and 2023, Gür assumed the role of CEO and Board Member at another private sector bank, leading transformations across various areas, including corporate, technological, and cultural sectors. As of October 2023, Gür has assumed the position of CEO and Board Member of Akbank.

Hakan Binbaşgil joined Akbank as the Executive Vice President in charge of Change Management in October 2002. He initiated the Bank's "Restructuring Programme" which has transformed Akbank into one of Turkey's most customer-focused, modern and innovative financial institutions. He was appointed Executive Vice President in charge of Retail Banking in November 2003 and Deputy CEO in May 2008. Hakan Binbaşgil was the Chief Executive Officer from January 2012 until October 2023, when he was appointed Vice Chairman and Executive Board Member. In addition, he is the Chairman of Akbank AG Supervisory Board and, Banking Unit President and Executive Committee Member of Sabancı Holding. Prior to joining Akbank, Binbaşgil worked as a Management Consultant in the London and Istanbul offices of Accenture, and as Executive Vice President in a different private sector bank. Binbaşgil also served on the boards of directors of numerous companies domestically and abroad.​

After graduating from Robert College, Hakan Binbaşgil graduated from Bosphorus University, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Binbaşgil also holds MBA and MS degrees in Finance from Louisiana State University, USA.

Ahmet Fuat Ayla was elected as Executive Board Member in charge of credits as of 12 July 2017. Ahmet Fuat Ayla joined Akbank as Corporate Branch Manager in 2002, became the Senior Vice President in charge of Corporate and Commercial Credits Approval Unit in 2005 and was appointed as Executive Vice President in charge of Corporate and Commercial Credits Approval in 2007. Before joining Akbank, Ahmet Fuat Ayla worked in marketing and sales department positions at Head Office and branches at different private sector banks. Ahmet Fuat Ayla is a graduate of Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration.