TÜSİAD, the Turkish Industry and Business Association ( tr, Türk Sanayicileri ve İş İnsanları Derneği), is
Turkey's top business organization.
Founded in 1971, TÜSİAD is a voluntary, independent, non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting public welfare through private enterprise. TÜSİAD promotes principles of participatory democracy, a competitive market economy, environmental sustainability, and universal freedoms and human rights. The Association supports independent research and policy discussions on important social and economic issues in Turkey and abroad. TÜSİAD is composed of CEOs and executives from major industrial and services companies in Turkey, including Fortune 500 companies. The current Chairman is Simone Kaslowski and the Secretary-General (CEO) is
Bahadir Kaleagasi.
About
TÜSİAD represents more than 4,000 member companies which represent half of the Turkey's value-added; 80% of Turkey’s total foreign trade volume; more than 50% of private sector employment; and 80% of corporate tax revenue.
Structure
TÜSİAD headquarters are in Istanbul and there are seven representative offices: Ankara, Brussels, Washington, D.C., Paris, Berlin, Beijing and London.
TÜSİAD's activities are structured around round tables led by members of the board of directors and 36 working groups.
TÜSİAD partners with the
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...
, the
German Marshall Fund of the United States, and
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
TÜSİAD is a member of the
Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), Global Business Coalition, and
BusinessEurope.
Political Context
TÜSİAD is considered
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
's secular, pro-Westernization business organization (For its pious Muslim counterpart see
MÜSİAD).
In the early 2000s, TÜSIAD coordinated heavily with the newly elected
AKP majority, with the shared aim of joining the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
. TÜSIAD is also credited with laying the groundwork for Turkish support for the
Annan Plan on
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
. However, as the EU accession process began to deteriorate in 2006, then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's administration reversed course away from the EU, driving a wedge between the two. Since then, TÜSİAD has embarked on a project of
public diplomacy, opening representative offices in European capitals and
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
to engage and collaborate with relevant actors in the private sector and general public.
In June 2016, TÜSİAD released a statement criticizing a proposed law which would enhance the government’s authority to appoint boards of trustees to companies. The controversial article was later removed from the law.
Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized TÜSİAD on multiple occasions. In April 2015, Erdoğan was critical of comments made about the Turkish economy. In December 2014, Erdoğan criticized the organization for apparently side-stepping his office after then TÜSİAD President Haluk Dinçer explained the organization works with the prime minister and ministers whose business is related to the organization’s efforts, not the president.
Though occasionally at odds politically with the ruling AKP, they are a united front on economic matters; immediately following the
July 15th 2016 coup attempt TÜSIAD took out ads in major world newspapers and held high level meetings with American and European think tanks,
NGOs
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...
, and government officials in tandem with Turkish government officials in order to brandish Turkey's image abroad and reassure investors of Turkey's economic and political health.
Presidents
* 1971–1979
Feyyaz Berker
* 1980–1984
Ali Koçman
* 1985
Şahap Kocatopçu
Şahap Kocatopçu (1916–2012) was a Turkish engineer, politician and businesspeople. He was the minister of industry for two times in the cabinets established after the military coups. He headed several state and private companies.
Early life ...
* 1986
Sakıp Sabancı
Sakıp Sabancı (7 April 1933 – 10 April 2004) was a Turkish business tycoon and philanthropist.
Biography
He was the second son of a cotton trader and worked in his father's business without completing high school. He was the head of Turkey' ...
* 1987–1988
Ömer Dinçkök
* 1989–1990
Cem Boyner
Cem Boyner (born September 23, 1955) is a Turkish businessman in the textile industry, owner of department stores, and was a short-time politician.
Early life and education
Cem Boyner was born on September 3, 1955 in Istanbul to Osman Boyner, a ...
* 1991–1992
Bülent Eczacıbaşı
Bülent Eczacıbaşı (, born 1949) is a Turkish businessman. Currently, he serves as chairman of the board at Eczacıbaşı Holding, a prominent Turkish conglomerate.
Background
Bülent Eczacıbaşı was born in İstanbul in 1949 to Nejat Ec ...
* 1993–1996
Halis Komili
* 1997–1998
Muharrem Kayhan
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or ...
* 1999–2000
Erkut Yücaoğlu
* 2001–2003
Tuncay Özilhan
Tuncay Özilhan (born 9 July 1947) is a Turkish businessman and billionaire. He is the current chairman of the board of Anadolu Group, as well as the president of Anadolu Efes. He was also the president of TÜSİAD from 2001 to 2004. He is al ...
* 2004–2006
Ömer Sabancı
Ömer Sabancı (born 1959) is a Turkish businessman and a member of the Turkey's second-wealthiest Sabancı family in third generation. He is the ex-chairman of the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD). Due to the share ...
* 2007–2009
* 2010–2013
Ümit Nazlı Boyner
Ümit Nazlı Boyner (née Alpay; born 28 September 1963) is a Turkish businesswoman who served as the 14th President of the Turkish Industry and Business Association
TÜSİAD, the Turkish Industry and Business Association ( tr, Türk Sanayicileri ...
* 2013–2014
* 2014–2015 Haluk Dinçer
* 2015–2017 Cansen Başaran–Symes
* 2017–2019 Erol Bilecik
* 2019–Present Simone Kaslowski
External links
* http://www.tusiad.org/
* http://www.tusiad.us
References
Business organizations based in Turkey
Conservatism in Turkey
Organizations established in 1971
Organizations based in Istanbul
1971 establishments in Turkey
{{Turkey-org-stub