İhsan Sabancı (1931–1979) was a Turkish businessman and a second-generation member of the

Sabancı family The Sabancı family is one of the wealthiest families in Turkey. The family's main business entity was founded by Hacı Ömer Sabancı in the 1930s. Hacı Ömer Sabancı, the progenitor of the Sabancı family, moved from his native Kayseri to Ada ...

. He was born in 1931 in the village of Akçakaya village in

Kayseri Province The Kayseri Province () is a province and metropolitan municipality in central Turkey. Its area is 16,970 km2, and its population is 1,441,523 (2022). It borders with Sivas, Adana, Niğde, Kahramanmaraş, Yozgat and Nevşehir provinces. T ...

as the first of six sons of

Hacı Ömer Sabancı Hacı Ömer Sabancı (1 January 1906 – 2 February 1966) was a Turkish entrepreneur, who founded a number of companies, which later formed the second largest industrial and financial conglomerate of Turkey, the Sabancı Holding. He initiat ...

and Sadıka. His brothers were Sakıp (1933–2004), Hacı (1935–1998), Şevket (1936–2021), Erol (1938–) and Özdemir (1941–1996), all of whom contributed to the growth of a business imperium from nothing, founded by their father. İhsan dropped out of school, and was a passionate

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player in his youth. Unlike his father and brothers, he was not much interested in business. With his father's backing, he dealt with textile and cotton purchasing until 1975, during the time his family's major business was cotton trade. However, he spent most of his time at the Demirspor football club's facilities in

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

. He married Yüksel in 1953, with whom he had two daughters, Güler (born 1955 in İstanbul) and Nur, and a son, Ahmet Yakup. İhsan had also three more children from his second marriage (religious marriage) with Nevin Tenik in Adana, two daughters, Sevgi Sabancı and Sevilay Sabancı (born 1966), and a son, Murat Sabancı (born 1967). İhsan Sabancı died in 1979 at a young age of 48. After the death in 2004 of İhsan's brother Sakıp, who led the family-controlled

Sabancı Holding Hacı Ömer Sabancı Holding A.Ş., commonly abbreviated as Sabancı Holding, is an industrial and financial conglomerate with headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey. The company's primary activities are in financial services, energy (electricity genera ...

, İhsan's daughter Güler Sabancı was appointed the chairperson of the second-biggest industrial and financial conglomerate of Turkey.

References

Biography at Unforgettables on Sabancı Holding website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabanci, Ihsan 1931 births 1979 deaths People from Talas, Turkey Death in Istanbul

Ihsan ''Ihsan'' ( , also romanized ''ehsan'') is an Arabic term meaning "to do beautiful things", "beautification", "perfection", or "excellence" (Arabic: , ). ''Ihsan'' is a matter of taking one's inner faith ('' iman'') and showing it in both deed ...

20th-century Turkish businesspeople Burials at Adana Asri Cemetery