Board of Directors

Alpaslan ÇAKAR
Chairman of the Board of Directors

Graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Science, Department of Public Administration. He started his career at T.C. Ziraat Bankası A.Ş. in 1996 as Assistant Inspector, later serving as an Inspector and Branch Manager. In 2005, he was appointed as Regional Head Manager. In August 2007, Mr. Çakar was promoted to Chairman of the Department, then worked as Vice President in charge of Individual Banking, Vice President in charge of Operational Transactions, Vice President in charge of Individual Banking and Vice President in charge of Retail Banking, respectively. He served as Vice President in charge of Distribution Channels between January 2016-July 2017, as Vice President in charge of Payment Systems between July 2017-June 2018 and Vice President in charge of Retail Banking-2 between June 2018-March 2021. At the same time, between 2003 and 2019, Mr. Çakar served as a member of the Board of Directors/Audit Committees of Ziraat Finansal Kiralama A.Ş, Bileşim Alternatif Dağıtım Kanalları Ödeme Sistemi A.Ş, Ziraat Hayat ve Emeklilik A.Ş., Ziraat Sigorta A.Ş, Kredi Kayıt Bürosu A.Ş., Ziraat Bank (Moscow) JSC, Türkmen Türk Ticaret Bankası, Ziraat Teknoloji A.Ş., Bankalararası Kart Merkezi A.Ş., Ziraat Gayrimenkul Yatırım Ortaklığı A.Ş., Ziraat Bank (Moscow) JSC. As of 16.07.2019, he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ziraat Bank (Moscow) JSC, and as of March 2021, he was appointed as CEO and Member of the Board of Directors of Ziraat Bank. Since April 22, 2021, he has been the President of the Banks Association of Türkiye. Since February 1, 2022, he has been serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ziraat Katılım.

Fikrettin AKSU
Vice Chairman of the Board

Graduated in 1979 from the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences in Kütahya, under the Eskişehir Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences. After serving in various institutions between 1980 and 1984, Aksu began his career at T.C. Ziraat Bankası A.Ş. in 1984. Between 1984 and 2014, he held various positions within the Bank. He subsequently served as General Manager of Ziraat Hayat Emeklilik A.Ş. and Ziraat Sigorta A.Ş., as well as General Manager of Ziraat Yatırım Menkul Değerler A.Ş. From October 2018 to December 2019, Aksu held the position of Group Head of Human Resources. Between December 2019 and August 2020, he served as Group Head of Internal Operations. As of June 19, 2020, he has been serving as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Ziraat Katılım, as well as a Member of the Audit Committee and the Corporate Governance Committee. Additionally, since November 3, 2021, he has been serving as an Alternate Member of the Credit Committee.

Metin ÖZDEMİR
Member of the Board, CEO

Graduated from the Faculty of Business Administration at Istanbul University in 1990. He began his professional career in 1992 at Kuveyt-Türk Finans Kurumu A.Ş. and continued in the retail sector as an executive starting in 1996. Between 2004 and 2014, Özdemir served as a Member of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Council. From April 2012 to May 27, 2019, he held positions at Ziraat Bank as a Member of the Board of Directors, a Member of the Remuneration Committee, and an Alternate Member of the Credit Committee. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Participation Banks Association of Türkiye from May 2018 to May 2021. Since February 18, 2015, he has been a Member of the Board of Directors at Ziraat Katılım. On June 12, 2017, he was appointed as the General Manager of Ziraat Katılım Bankası A.Ş.

Mahmut Esfa EMEK
Member  

Born in Erzurum in 1965. He graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Department of Business Administration in 1985. Then he started to serve as Deputy Inspector in 1988. Between 1990 and 2017, he worked as Inspector, Chairman of the Inspector Board, Department Manager, Senior Department Manager and Vice President in Charge of Operations and Credits at Albaraka Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş. He served as the Member of the Board and CEO of a private company. Mr. Emek was the CEO of Birleşik Fon Bankası between 2017 and 2019. Since March 31, 2021, he has been serving as a Member of the Board of Directors of Ziraat Katılım Bank and also serving as Member of the Audit Committee and Alternate Member of the Credit Committee.

Ahmet BUÇUKOĞLU
Member

Born in Kayseri in 1955. He graduated from the Department of Economics and Finance of the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University in 1980. He started to work at T.C. Ziraat Bankası A.Ş. in 1982. Between 1982 and 2014, he served as an Assistant Inspector, Inspector, Agricultural Loans Assistant Manager, Head of the Intelligence Department, Branch Manager and Regional Manager. Between 2014 and 2018, he served as the General Manager and Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Development Bank of Türkiye. Mr. Buçukoğlu, who has been serving as a Member of the Board of Ziraat Katılım since June 19, 2020, is also a member of our Bank’s Credit Committee and Remuneration Committee.

Mehmet BAŞIBÜYÜK
Member

Born in Artvin in 1966. He graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Political Sciences Public Administration Department in 1988. After working in various institutions between 1988 and 1991, he started to work at Albaraka Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş. in 1991 at the Fund Extension Department. Between 1995 and 2004, he took different positions at the Headquarters of Albaraka Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş. and acted as a Branch Manager between 2008 and 2019. As of March 25, 2022, Mr. Başıbüyük was appointed as a Member of the Board of Directors at Ziraat Katılım and also has been acting as member of the Credit Committee and Corporate Governance Committee. He is also a member of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce Council and the Representative of the Finance Sector Committee.

Dr. Murat CANGÜL
Member

Born in 1974 in Balıkesir. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Ankara University in 1996. He completed his master’s degree in the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations at Gazi University, and earned his PhD in Private Law – Commercial Law at Selçuk University.
‍
He started his professional career in 1997 as a research and collective bargaining specialist at Belediye İş Trade Union affiliated to Türk-İş Confederation. For many years, he worked as an independent attorney and served as a court expert at Commercial Courts and Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights Civil Courts. He also held managerial positions in various non-governmental organizations and is a registered trademark attorney before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. Between 2016-2019, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of Halk Portfolio Management at Halk Bank of Türkiye, between 2018-2020 as a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Security Institution, between 2019-2020 as a consultant at Halk Life and Pension. Until August 2022-2023, he served as Secretary General of TESK and Board Member of the Ministry of Trade-Turkish Tradesmen and Craftsmen Registry Gazette. Since September 2022, he has been teaching as a lecturer at Ankara Medipol University Faculty of Law. Since August 3, 2023, Mr. Cangül has been serving as a member of Ziraat Katılım Board of Directors and is also a member of the Bank’s Remuneration Committee.