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.[1] He was the head of Turkey's largest business conglomerate and 147th richest man on the Forbes list of billionaires in 2004.
In the 1980s, he took over the family business with assistance from his brothers.
The Sabancı Group of Companies operates in eighteen countries and markets its products internationally. Currently, Sabancı Holding controls more than 60 companies, in textiles, tourism, automotives, chemicals, tobacco, cement, insurance and banking. The group also has partnerships with the Hilton Group, Bridgestone, Du Pont, Philip Morris, Bekaert, Heidelberg Cement, IBM, BNP Paribas, Dresdner Bank, Carrefour and International Paper.[2] Sabancı Holding and ten other companies within the group are listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. In 2011, the consolidated revenue of the company was $13.4 billion. The Sabancı family holds a 60.6% share of the firm.
Sakip Sabanci founded the Sabancı University in 1999. His collections of more than 320 Ottoman and Turkish paintings, statues and more than 400 examples of Ottoman calligraphy are exhibited at Atlı Köşk (English: The Equestrian Villa) at Bosporus in Emirgan, Istanbul, where he and his family lived for years, and which was converted into the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in 2002.[3]
In 2016, Columbia University established the Sakıp Sabancı Chair and Center for Turkish Studies, the first initiative of its kind in the United States.[4] This initiative, supported by a $10 million donation, aims to enhance knowledge and awareness of Turkey through research, teaching, and intellectual exchange. The establishment of the professorship and the center is part of a broader effort to foster academic collaboration and promote Turkish studies globally. Additionally, the gift will contribute to research and academic partnerships at Sabancı University in Istanbul.
He wrote books mostly on his experience in business life. Some of them are translated into English and Japanese. The royalties from his books are being donated to Darülaceze and Türkiye Spastik Çocuklar Vakfı (English: Turkey Foundation for Spastic Children).
