Board of Directors

He completed his undergraduate education in Gazi University Mechanical Engineering Department and his graduate education in Maltepe University Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Starting his career as a Domestic Industry Specialist at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Tütüncü took on the duties of Production Manager, Operations Manager and General Manager, respectively, during his 10 years of experience at Best Rothmans Entegre Sigara ve Tütün Sanayi A.Ş. He started to work at Ülker Gıda A.Ş. in 1996 as the Operations Coordinator. He served as the General Manager of Ülker Biscuits and Chocolate factories, Vice President of Ülker Group, Head of Food and Beverage Group, President of Food Group and Ülker International Group. In 2016, he was appointed as the Regional CEO responsible for Turkey, Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia to the pladis organization established within Yıldız Holding. In 2017, he continued his duty as pladis Deputy CEO, taking the responsibility of South Asia and Latin America regions and pladis Global Information Systems and Business Models Transformation. In October 2018, he was elected to the position of Deputy Chairman of Yıldız Holding Board of Directors and also appointed as Yıldız Holding CEO. In addition to his duties at Yıldız Holding, he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and a member of various companies. Being a member of Turkish Food&Beverage Industry Employers Association Board of Directors, Tütüncü is a member of many Turkish and foreign sectoral organizations.

Ali Ülker was born in 1969, following his education at Istanbul Erkek Lisesi he graduated from the Business Administration Department of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. Having participated at different education programs at IMD, INSEAD, Wharton, and Harvard, Ali Ülker worked in the Internal Kaizen Projects at De Boccard & Yorke Consultancy (1992) and on IESC Sales System Development and Internal Organization Projects (1997). Mr. Ülker joined the group in 1985 as an intern in the quality control department of Ülker Gıda. From 1986 to 1998 he worked at chocolate production facilities and at Atlas Gıda Pazarlama in positions including sales manager, sales coordinator, product group coordinator, and product group director. In 1998 Mr. Ülker became General Director of Atlas Gıda Pazarlama, in 2000 Vice Chief of Retail Group, and in 2001 General Director of Merkez Gıda Pazarlama A.Ş. In 2002, he rose to Vice Chairman of the Food Group and in 2005 Chairman of the Group. After working as Vice Chairman of the Yıldız Holding Board of Directors for nine years, as of January 29, 2020, Ali Ülker became the Chairman of Yıldız Holding.Having a deep expertise and experience in marketing and sales, Ali Ülker is especially interested in innovation and supports teams working on this subject in the Group. He is Fluent in English and German and he is married with three children.

Currently serving as the CEO and Chairman of Franklin Templeton Danışmanlık A.Ş. Since joining Franklin Templeton in 2006, Mr. Kalkandelen has focused on Emerging Markets, Small-cap Companies and Turkish Stocks. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Defacto Perakende Ticaret A.Ş., ŞOK Marketler Ticaret A.Ş. and Gözde Girişim Sermayesi Yatırım Ortaklığı A.Ş. Kalkandelen holds an MBA degree, with honors, from Sabancı University. During his MBA, he also studied strategic management at Florida University, Warrington School of Business Management, and he completed the Labor Economics Department of the Political Sciences Faculty, Ankara University, as a high honor student.

Born in Malatya in 1968, Mürsel Özçelik graduated from Kabataş High School for Boys in 1986 and completed his university education at Istanbul Technical University, Department of Control and Computer Engineering. Özçelik, who founded Penta Bilgisayar with his university friends in 1990, also served as the General Manager of the Company for many years. He has been appointed as the Executive Director by the Board of Directors on 30 November 2021.

Pınar Ilgaz graduated from Izmir Bornova Anatolian High School in 1983 and from the Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration of Boğaziçi University in 1988. In 1989, she started her career in banking and continued as assistant finance manager in the financial leasing sector. Since 1995, she works at the ARGE Consultancy department. She continues to provide management consultancy in various projects as a Managing Partner at ARGE Consultancy. Within the scope of her expertise areas such as Strategic Assessment and Performance Improvement Projects, Institutionalization, Corporate Governance Structures and Sustainability Strategies, Integrated Thinking and Reporting, and Human Resources areas under ARGE Consultancy, Ms. Ilgaz has conducted management consultancy projects for more than 100 institutions and companies of different magnitudes and in different sectors. She serves at the Advisory Board of a food industry company with production and global sales activities. She is Managing Partner at ARGE Consultancy (www.arge.com), Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Argüden Governance Academy Foundation (www.argudenacademy.org), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Private Sector Volunteers (OSGD- www.osgd.org), Member of the Placement Committee of the Association of Women at the Board of Directors. She has been selected for the 'More Women in the Boards of Directors' Program, together with 40 Women Executive in the first group to be selected in Turkey, she has completed the trainings within the program, including Preparations for Being an Independent Member in the Boards of Directors, Information and Mentor Guidance.

Aytaç Saniye Mutlugüller obtained her undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Boğaziçi University and spent most of her professional life at the Şişecam Group, which operates in all fields of glass with production plants in many countries. She began her professional life as an assistant specialist for finance and then was directly involved in the domestic and overseas growth of the Group that adopted a centralized financial management style. Ms. Mutlugüller supported the development of a robust financial structure and played an active role as manager in the first-time implementation of various financial products. She represented the Group in several conferences as a speaker, in addition to her representative duties for foreign and domestic shareholders. After she retired as the Vice President for Finance, she served the Boards of four companies under the Group, provided advisory, and supported the implementation of different projects.