İzzet Oğuzhan Özark
Chairman

Denizbank A.Ş.
Deputy General Manager, Retail Banking

Born in 1976, in Istanbul, Oğuzhan Özark graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Department of Mathematical Engineering. Mr. Özark started his career in the Retail Banking Department of Garanti Bank in 1997. He served as the director of SME Banking at the same bank from 1999 to 2002, and director of the CRM department from 2003 to 2004. Özark joined Denizbank in 2004 as the Sales Manager of the SME Banking Department. After successfully serving as the Sales Management Group Head of the Retail Banking Department from 2009 to 2013, he was appointed as Deputy General Manager of Retail Banking in February 2014. Appointed as a Member of the Board of Directors of KKB on 28 April 2014, Özark served as the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of KKB between March 2020 and 2021. Özark has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of KKB since March 2021.

Şükrü Alper Eker
Deputy Chairman

T. Garanti Bankası A.Ş.
Coordinator, Individual and SME Loans Risk Management

Şükrü Alper Eker was born in Eskişehir in 1973 and graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Chemical Engineering in 1996. He received his Master’s degree from Texas A&M University - College Station in 1998, and his Ph.D. from the University of Houston in 2001. He started his professional career in 2001 at GE Global Research Center in the United States as the System Control and Optimization Project Leader. After working on R&D projects for GE Energy, Medical Systems, and other GE companies, he moved over to Risk Management at GE Capital in 2005. Between 2005 and 2011, he served in various positions and levels at GE Capital in the US, Europe, and Turkey. He went on to work as Risk Director at Garanti Bank-BBVA Representative Office between 2011 and 2015. Since September 2015, he has served as the Coordinator of Garanti Bank Individual and SME Credits Risk Management Department. Served as a Member of the Board of Directors of KKB between 2016-2020, Eker has been as the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of KKB since March 2021.

Şükrü Tuğbay Kumoğlu
Member of the Board of Directors

Şekerbank T.A.Ş.
Executive Vice President, SME, Retail and Agricultural Banking

Graduating from Gazi University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Finance, Şükrü Tuğbay Kumoğlu started his banking career at Garanti Bank in 1999. Kumoğlu, who took on different duties in the branch, regional and head office organizations of the bank, assumed the position of Regional Director at Türk Ekonomi Bankası A.Ş. (TEB) in 2006. He was appointed to the position of Retail Banking Sales Director of the same bank in 2007, after serving as the Regional Director for one year. In addition to his position as Sales Director, Kumoğlu served as a Member of the Board of Directors responsible for the expansion of retail banking activities in TEB Sha Kosova between 2013 and 2018, and most recently, he served as TEB Retail Banking Sales and Call Center Group Director. Şükrü Tuğbay Kumoğlu was appointed as an Executive Vice President at Şekerbank Retail and Agriculture Banking in December 2019. Since July 2020 he has assumed the responsibility of Small- to Mid-size Enterprise Banking. Kumoğlu is also a member of the Board of Directors at Kredi Kayıt Bürosu A.Ş. and a member of the Board of Directors at Credit Guarantee Fund.

Celal Candan
Member of the Board of Directors

Türkiye Halk Bankası A.Ş.
Executive Vice President, Credit Risk Monitoring and Legal Follow Up

Born in Konya in 1970, Celal Candan worked as a freelance attorney after graduating from Istanbul University Faculty of Law. He served as VakıfBank Anatolian Side Legal Affairs Director, Halk Leasing Board Member, Halk Emeklilik Board Member, and President of Halkbank Credit Risk Liquidation Department, respectively. As of 22 September 2020, he has been serving as the Deputy General Manager of Credit Risk Monitoring and Legal Follow-Up by proxy at Halkbank. He is married and has three children.

Arif Çokçetin
Member of the Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board
Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O.

Executive Vice President, Loan Monitoring and Financial Appraisal

Arif Çokçetin graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Finance. After working at the Ministry of Finance for a while, he started working at VakıfBank in 1996 and worked as a financial analyst, manager, and president in various units and branches ever since. He was appointed as the Executive Vice President on 13 July 2020. Currently, Mr. Çokçetin serves as the Executive Vice President responsible for Loan Monitoring and Financial Appraisal. He served as a Board Member at Vakıf Faktoring A.Ş. from 2013 to 2019. Having been appointed as a Board Member to KKB in 2019, Mr. Çokçetin served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors between March 2020 - 2021. Mr. Çokçetin has been serving as a Member of the Board of Directors of KKB since March 2021.

Ege Gültekin
Member of the Board of Directors

Akbank T.A.Ş.
Executive Vice President, Credit Monitoring and Legal Follow Up

Ege Gültekin was born in Aydın in 1969 and graduated from Middle East Technical University, Department of Economics. Subsequently, she earned a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. After graduating from Ziraat Bank’s Banking School in 1992, she began her career at Ottoman Bank on the Inspection Board. Mrs. Gültekin is currently Executive Vice President in charge of Credit Monitoring and Legal Follow Up at Akbank T.A.Ş. She has been a member of the Board of Directors at KKB since May 2015.

Şahismail Şimşek
Member of the Board of Directors

T. İş Bankası A.Ş.
Deputy General Manager; SME and Business Banking Sales Department, SME and Business Banking Marketing Department, Agricultural Banking Marketing Department, and Commercial Banking Product Department

Şahismail Şimşek was born in Erzurum in 1968 and graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Finance. Mr. Şimşek started his career as Officer at the Yenişehir/Ankara branch in 1992. Between 1995 and 2007, he worked in the Sultanhamam Branch as, respectively, Service Officer, Deputy Manager, and Assistant Manager. Between 2007 and 2012, he assumed the roles of Assistant Manager and Unit Manager in the Commercial Banking Product Management Department and Branch Manager at the Avcılar Commercial Branch from 2012 to 2016. Having served as Commercial Banking Sales Department Manager since 2016, Şahismail Şimşek was appointed Assistant General Manager on 28 November 2017. Since March 2018, Mr. Şimşek has been a Member of the KKB Board of Directors.

Ahmet Fakı
Member of the Board of Directors

T.C. Ziraat Bankası A.Ş.
Head of Credit Risk Monitoring and Structuring Department

Ahmet Fakı was born in 1979 in Ankara. He graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations in 2002. After starting to work as an Assistant Inspector at our Ziraat Bank in 2005, he worked as an Inspector, Structuring Manager in Credit Risk Monitoring and Credit Risk Liquidation Departments, and Branch Manager in Ambarlı-Avcılar, Avcılar and Bakırköy branches. He has been working as the Head of Credit Risk Monitoring and Structuring Department since April 2021.

Mehmet Erkan Akbulut
Member of the Board of Directors

Yapı ve Kredi Bankası A.Ş.
Assistant General Manager - Credits

Mehmet Erkan Akbulut graduated from Business Administration Department of Faculty of Political Science at Ankara University in 1989. He started his career in Yapı Kredi Bank as an Assistant Internal Auditor in 1990, then worked as Department Manager in Credits Management, then as Directors in Corporate Banking Management and Commercial Banking Management. He had been expatriated to Yapı Kredi Azerbaijan and worked as Assistant General Manager, Credits between 2009 and 2013. Returning to Yapı Kredi, he worked as Director and then Group Director in Monitoring and Workout in Corporate and Commercial Credits between 2013 and 2018. Between 2018 and 2020 he worked as the Group Director of Corporate and Commercial Credits Underwriting. He worked as a Head of Collection and Workout Management between the dates of 2020 August - 2021 August. As of August 2021 he has been serving as Assistant General Manager - Credits and Yapı Kredi Bank Executive Committee Member. Akbulut is also a member of the Board of Directors of Yapı Kredi Faktoring, Yapı Kredi Leasing and KKB.

Veysel Sunman
Member of the Board of Directors and Deputy General Manager

Veysel Sunman was born in Sakarya, in 1967. Mr. Sunman started his career in 1988, at Pamukbank T.A.Ş.
He served at the bank’s Credit Risk Monitoring Department until 1994. From 1994 to 2001, he worked as the Manager of Ottoman Bank's Credit Monitoring Unit.

He worked as Head of Credit Risk Monitoring Department of Halkbank from 2002 to 2005, and as the Department Head of Internal Control and Monitoring Center at MNG Bank from 2005 to 2007. He started working at Ziraat Bank as the Head of Credit Risk Monitoring Department in 2007 and continued serving in this position until May 2020.

Since 2008, Mr. Sunman has also been a member of KKB’s Board of Directors and Audit Committee. Having complete knowledge of all the dynamics of KKB, Mr. Sunman has taken an active role in the formation of many milestones, such as the diversification of KKB’s product and service infrastructure, the initiation of activities carried out on behalf of the Risk Center, the expansion of KKB’s field of activity to include the real sector, and the launch of the Findeks Platform, KKÇ Report, Electronic Letter of Guarantee and the KKB Anadolu Data Center Project.

After serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of KKB between March 2019 and 2020, he started his current position at Kredi Kayıt Bürosu as of May 2020.