Güler Sabancı named fourth-most powerful woman in EMEA region

ISTANBUL

DHA photo

Turkish businesswoman Güler Sabancı, the chairperson of Sabancı Holding, was ranked fourth on a recent list of the most powerful women in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region prepared by Fortune magazine.

“It was a tough year for Sabancı, whose $13 billion-in-revenue financial and industrial conglomerate, Sabancı Holding, posted modest gains in 2014, because of a weakening Eurozone and the Middle East crisis. But Sabancı’s power in the region is undeniable: A member of Siemens’ supervisory board, she began acting as co-chair of the Business 20 (B20) Trade Task Force—an outreach group for the G20 economies—earlier this year,” said the magazine about Sabancı, according to a press release by Sabancı Holding on Sept. 15. 

“She is also a formidable voice for women’s empowerment in Turkey, a nation with one of the worst gender gaps in the workplace; the university founded and chaired by Sabancı made headlines last year when it published a report on the impact of domestic violence against white-collar working women in Turkey. It is the first study of its kind in the country,” added the magazine. 

Banco Santander Executive Chairman Ana Botín ranked first in the EMEA list of Fortune. She was followed by Imperial Tobacco CEO Aliso Cooper and SEB Group President and CEO Annika Falkengren.