Senior Management

Ümit Önal, a graduate of Istanbul University Faculty of Communication, started his professional life in media and communication sector. He joined Turkuvaz Media Group in 2007 and served as the General Manager of ATV, Advertising Group President and Executive Board Member, respectively, until 2015. After being appointed as the Board Member and CEO of Digitürk in 2015, he managed Digiturk's sales process to BeIN Media Group. Önal joined Türk Telekom family as the Assistant General Manager responsible for Sales and Customer Services at the end of 2016, and in December 2018, he was appointed as the Assistant General Manager responsible for Marketing and Customer Services, and in August 2019, he was appointed as the CEO of the company. Having more than 20 years of experience in the media and communication sector, Önal has contributed significantly to the process of radical change in the Turkish media, and he continues to lead the digital and technological transformation of Türkiye in Türk Telekom.

Throughout his career, Ümit Önal has actively taken positions in national and international associations. Önal served as the Chairman of the Board of Mobile Telecommunication Operators Association (m-TOD) in 2020; he is still actively Chairman of TV Monitoring and Research Committee (TİAK A.Ş.); Board Member at Advertisers Association (RVD), member to Foreign Investors Association (YASED), Board Member at Yıldız Teknopark of Yıldız Technical University and US Business Council Member of Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK); and he represents Türk Telekom at Association of TV Broadcasters (TVYD).

Önal joined the Türk Telekom family as the Assistant General Manager responsible for Sales and Customer Services at the end of 2016, and was appointed as the Assistant General Manager responsible for Marketing and Customer Services in December 2018. In August 2019, Ümit Önal was appointed as the CEO of the company and has been serving as a member of the Türk Telekom Board of Directors since March 2022.

Kaan Aktan, after Galatasaray High School, graduated from Boğaziçi University, Economics in 1995. He started his career at Anadolu Group. He worked in PepsiCo Türkiye Operation in 2002 and afterwards he worked at Texas Pacific Group Investment Fund Türkiye Asset Management companies as finance manager since 2007. He joined Türk Telekom in 2010 as Director of Financial Projects. He was appointed as TTNET CFO in March 2013. During his successful term of employment, he has also taken on several management roles at Turk Telekom and Turk Telekom Group Companies. Mr. Aktan is serving as Finance Assistant General Manager since December 2016.

Upon graduating from the Faculty of Economics at Erciyes University in 1996, Dr. Hüseyin Aslan received his master's degree in the department of International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of London/SOAS in England in 1999; and his PhD from the department of Political Sciences at the University of Exeter in 2008. He took an active role in the establishment of the Turkish Department at the London School of Economics, where he did his post-doctoral studies.

He served as an intern and consultant at the House of Lords, and as a Board Member at the Turkish-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry for 5 years.

In 2007, he served as the founding representative of UK and Northern Ireland of the Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency of the Republic of Türkiye. He organized/represented many important meetings regarding Türkiye's administrative and economic issues on various platforms, especially at the House of Lords.

In 2010, he was appointed as Vice President of the Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency. He worked at the Investment Agency Center for 5 years as the Vice President responsible for the preparation and implementation of Türkiye's Investment and Promotion Strategy Document, communication promotion, marketing and international desks. He carried out the processes of implementing the necessary regulatory transactions and different business models in order to provide Türkiye's investment environment a competitive structure.

Lastly, he served as the Assistant General Manager responsible for investor relations at Tower Company of Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. Subsequently he worked as a consultant in the Human Resources department and wrote nearly 30 articles.

Hüseyin Aslan knows English, Arabic and Italian.

Dr. Mehmet Beytur, after receiving bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, he completed his Master's Degree in Economics at Marmara University with his thesis on 'Energy Resources and Cooperation Opportunities of Islamic Countries'. In 2008, he received doctorate degree in Gebze Institute of Technology with his thesis on "Utilization of Outsourcing" in the field of Business Administration.

He started his career as an access engineer at Türk Telekom (at that time PTT) in 1991 and after serving as chief engineer, manager, assistant region manager and provincial manager, he has served as Istanbul Region Manager for more than 10 years. In this role, he carried out technical, commercial and all support functions.

He has worked in technology, customer, system and management based transformation projects in the company and the sector. Dr. Mehmet Beytur is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Türk Telekom SYS (Health and Social Aid Foundation) as well as serving as a member of the Board of Directors in Türk Telekom Group Companies. Mehmet Beytur (PhD) is serving as Support Services and Procurement Management Assistant General Manager since September 2019.

Starting his career as an auditor at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 1997, he served as Deputy Private Secretary and Minister Advisor between 2003 and 2005. During this period, he actively took part in various commissions within the scope of the restructuring of the Ministry, and the development of the financial infrastructure, accounting systems and legislation activities of agricultural non-governmental organizations.

In 2005, he was appointed as Internal Auditor to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). Later that year, he was appointed as the Head of Internal Audit and held this position until 2014. During his presidency, he provided consultancy services to improve corporate business processes, as well as the development of internal control and internal audit systems. He also gave trainings and seminars and wrote articles within the scope of promoting and developing internal audit activity.

In 2014, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Inspectors of TÜRKSAT Satellite Communication, Cable TV and Management A.Ş. and served in this position until January 2024. In TÜRKSAT; he led the process of establishing and developing an audit system in line with the Global Internal Audit Standards. In addition to his duty as Chairman, he actively participated in important activities in the process of updating the company's legislation at all levels, creating new regulations and institutionalization, and served as a Commission Member and Commission Chairman. He served as a consultant to the General Manager, the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors on administrative, financial and fiscal issues and process improvement.

In January 2024, Mr. Çavuşoğlu was appointed as the Head of Internal Audit at Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. He has been a member of the Institute of Internal Auditing-Turkey (TİDE) since 2014 and a member of the Audit Board of the Access Providers Association (ESB) since 2016. He acted as a founding member of the Board of Directors of TCDD Teknik A.Ş. in 2018-2019. He served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Public Internal Auditors Association (KIDDER) in 2022&2023, and currently holds a position as a member of the Advisory Board of KİDDER.

He completed his undergraduate education at Istanbul University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Public Administration and his master's degree at Selçuk University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration.

He graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Public Finance in 2001. Before starting his corporate career as an Accounting Specialist at TTNET Corp. in 2008, he had worked in the accounting and financial consultancy area in various companies.

He took part in many projects in the process of structuring corporate functions at TTNET Corp, and upon taking over various managerial positions in the Finance department, he served as the Director of Sales Finance and Fraud Control and as CEO Office Director respectively until the integration of Türk Telekom Group.

After the integration, he managed different departments under the Sales function, and then served as
the Channel Operations Director and Sales Development Director under Türk Telekom Consumer Sales
Department.

Osman Çolak, who most recently served as TT CEO Office Director, has been serving as Consumer Sales Assistant General Manager since November 2023.

Mustafa Eser graduated from the Department of Physics of Hacettepe University in 1996. Between 1996 and 1998, he conducted his master’s degree studies at the University of Cologne and Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. Since 1998, he has been taking part in Information and Education sectors as an entrepreneur and a manager. Between 2007 and 2014, he worked at Türksat A.Ş as Director. Between 2014 and 2017, he worked as the Manager responsible from Public Sector Relations and Regulation at Digitürk. Since May 2017, he served as the Public Sales Director at Türk Telekom. Mustafa Eser, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sebit A.Ş., a subsidiary of Türk Telekom and Türkiye’s leading educational technology company, also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Türk Telekom Sports Club and is responsible for the basketball branch.

Mustafa Eser is serving as Corporate Sales Assistant General Manager of Türk Telekom since April 2020.

Gökhan Evren was born in Tokat in 1978. After graduating from Trabzon Yomra Science High School, he graduated from Marmara University, Department of Computer Engineering in 2000. He received a Master's degree (MS) in Science and Technology Policy from Middle East Technical University (METU) and also a Master's degree (MA) in Communications from the University of Westminster in London. He completed the Cyber Security Program at Carnegie Mellon University and the Regulation Program at Michigan State University in USA. He continues his PhD studies in Political Science at Hacettepe University.

After working as a software engineer in private sector from 2000, Gökhan Evren joined the Information and Communication Technologies Authority in October 2001, and worked as an ICT expert and chief expert in tariffs, competition, consumer rights, information technologies, etc. departments; after 2014, he has managed regulation, audit and cyber security operations with a title of manager, head of department and Deputy Head of the Institution respectively.

He worked for the establishment of the National Cyber Incident Response Center (USOM) within ICTA, creation of malware and digital analysis laboratories, development of domestic and national cyber security solutions and systems, acquisition of cyber threat intelligence capabilities, creation of cyber security organisational structure throughout the country and capacity building processes.

He had been serving as the General Manager of Communications at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure since 2018 and implemented projects for the expansion of universal service mobile infrastructure and networks. He is also vice chairman of the Cyber Security Working Group at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). He is married and has one child.

After graduating from Istanbul Kültür University, Department of Industrial Engineering, Ahmet Kamil Gençel completed his MBA at the same university. He started his career in the Regulatory Strategy department at Avea. He took an active role in critical processes such as mobile number portability and 3G tender process. During the Liberalization of our country's Telecommunications sector, when the number of operators in the market increased rapidly, he took over a strategic role in the sector by serving as Inter-Operator Relations and Wholesale Services Manager.

Following this position, Ahmet Kamil Gençel served as Strategy & PMO Director at Turkish Radio and Television Corporation TRT, where he managed the preparation process of TRT's new term strategy and business plans, the Corporate Transformation process, the establishment of TRT World, and he took an active role on the formation of TRT's digital VOD platform and game vertical. Before joining our company, he served as the Assistant General Manager responsible for TRT Strategy & Digital Products.

Ali Gürsoy graduated in Faculty of Management from Bilkent University in 1993. He started to work for Şişecam Group as Assistant Specialist in 1995 and continued his professional life at Esbank T.A.Ş as Specialist in marketing department. In 1997, he relocated to the United States and worked as a Financial Analyst at ATB Consulting (New York) followed by a role as a Financial Risk Manager at Aragon Asset Management (Chicago).

In addition to his professional life, Ali Gürsoy continued his education and graduated from Pace University-M.S. in Investment Management (2001), Columbia UniversityGraduate Diploma in Computer Science (2003) and University of Chicago-M.S. in Financial Mathematics (2005) in the United States and Sabancı University-M.S. in Data Analytics (2021) in Türkiye, respectively.

After his return to Türkiye in 2006, Ali Gürsoy worked as Assistant General Manager at Risk Türk Financial Software Company for five years. During this period, Ali Gürsoy led the team that provided software and consulting services related to market risk, credit risk, asset-liability management, and portfolio management within the company. He managed a portfolio of clients consisting of Türkiye's leading banks, investment, and portfolio management companies. Since 2011, Ali Gürsoy has continued his professional career at Türk Telekom Group, where he led the establishment of the functions of Corporate Risk Management, Business Continuity, Internal Control, and Sustainability. In addition to this role, Gürsoy also served as the Assistant General Manager of Finance at AssisTT A.Ş., one of the Turk Telekom Group companies, from 2018 to 2020.

Ali Gürsoy is serving as Head of Enterprise Risk and Business Continuity at Türk Telekom since December 2019.

Tahsin Kaplan who has more than 20 years of experience in the field of Corporate Law and Regulation in both private and public institutions, graduated from Marmara University Faculty of Law in 1999.After starting his professional career as a freelance lawyer, he took office under the titles of Legal Adviser, Group Head of Legal Affairs and held several Board Memberships in finance and media sectors. He has been working as a freelance lawyer since 2016.

Tahsin Kaplan is serving as Legal and Regulation Assistant General Manager of Türk Telekom since August 2021.

He was born in Elazığ in 1973. After graduating from the Department of Electronics of Elazığ Central Technical High School, he completed his undergraduate education at Fırat University, Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has a master's degree with thesis in Business Management from Bahçeşehir University. He started his career in 1993 as Elazığ PTT Network Group Chief Engineer, and in 2000, he worked at Marketing Department of Türk Telekom Elazığ Provincial Directorate. In 2003, he was appointed as the Organization and Process Management Manager of the Strategy Directorate of Türk Telekom General Directorate, and then served as the Organizational Development Manager. Between 2011 and 2016, he worked as Deputy Regional Director of Access and Deputy Regional Manager of Commercial Activities at Türk Telekom Ankara Regional Directorate of Central Anatolia. Between 2016 and 2020, he managed the institutional transformation program of the CBRT as Assistant General Manager at the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and later as General Manager of Corporate Transformation.  In 2020, he first served as Assistant General Manager of Business Development and then as General Manager at Ulak İletişim A.Ş., a telecommunications company affiliated to the Defense Industry Presidency. In February 2024, he left his position as General Manager of Ulak İletişim A.Ş. and has become the General Manager and Group CEO of Molekül A.Ş., which includes Masttech, Inttow and Numesys companies. He is married and has two children.

Zeynep Özden, graduated from Bilgi University's Department of Public Relations in English, started her career in Corporate Customer Services at BP Petroleum, and took on professional and managerial responsibilities in the fields of strategic planning and performance management in the communication and media sectors. She joined Türk Telekom Group as 'Commercial Planning Director' in 2017 and carried out the Projects for Efficiency of Sales Channels and Restructuring of Corporate Sales Customer Segmentation. Özden, most recently served as the 'Marketing Intelligence and Customer Experience Director', responsible for Marketing Planning, Pricing, Customer Experience and Customer Analytics. Zeynep Özden is serving as Marketing and Customer Experience Assistant General Manager since September 2022.

Ali Taşkın graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Department of “Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering” in 1991. After his graduation, he started his professional career at Türk Telekom (PTT as it was known at the time). He took part in various projects until 1996. He attended his Master’s Degree in Accounting and Financial Control in Management at Istanbul University in 1991-1992. After his military service, Mr. Taşkın continued his career at Turkcell and Netaş between 1996 and 1998 and moved to the USA at the end of 1998 and worked as a manager in the field of technology at LCC Int, Nortel Networks and Comsearch until 2003. During this period, he took master classes on "Marketing" and "Human Resources Management" at Strayer University. In 2003 he returned to Turkey and joined Türk Telekom's GSM company Aycell (Avea) as the Director responsible for Network Planning, Installation and Optimization and he took an active role in Aycell-Aria merger. Upon the merger, he assumed the duties of Network Performance and Quality Director and the Director of Project Management Office at Avea. Taşkın took over the duty of founding General Manager of GSM operator Eagle in Albania in 2007 and continued until 2011.
Between 2011-2013, he provided Management Consultancy focused on e-Government, Telecom and Energy projects in Turkey and the Balkans. In 2013, he joined İşbank Group and worked as the Director responsible from Technology, Operations, Management and Strategy at İşNet until 2018.

Ali Taşkın, who started working as a consultant at the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) in April 2019, joined PTT Bilgi Teknolojileri A.Ş. as Deputy General Manager in August 2019 and has been serving as the General Manager of PTT Bilgi Teknolojileri A.Ş. since 2020. He has also been serving as the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors. Ali Taşkın is married and has two children.