Vehbi Koç

Vehbi Koç (* 1901 in Ankara, † February 25, 1996 in Antalya) was a Turkish businessman, philanthropist and founder of Koç Holding Durable Consumer Goods Group, which includes not only companies like Beko Elektronik or Arçelik over 100 companies with nearly 56,000 employees.

Life

Vehbi Koç was born in 1901 in Ankara, according to his own statements, he started his first company at age 16. Guaranteed, however, is the acquisition of his father's business " Koçzade Ahmet Vehbi " in 1927.

Entrepreneurship

Vehbi Koç benefited from the genocide of the Armenians and the expulsion of the Greeks, were killed by the many of the formerly economically dominant non-Muslim Armenians and Greeks or fled. The companies of the minorities were expropriated by the new Turkish government. This appropriation of confiscated non- Muslim owners put for a whole new generation of Turks, including Vehbi Koç, the foundation for building a business.

In 1938 he wrote the Koç Ticaret A.Ş. in the industrial and Istanbul Chamber of Commerce a.

1942 used Vehbi Koç to reduce it by the introduction of property tax, which had the goal of the influence of the non-Turkish and Jewish population, opportunities offered and took numerous expropriated or collapsed companies.

Together with General Electric in 1952, he built a manufacturing plant for incandescent lamps in Turkey. The success of this venture justified his plans so far to produce imported goods in Turkey. In 1955 the company was founded Arçelik, a year earlier, the steel producer Türk Demir Döküm. Otosan in 1959, the first Turkish automobile producer. 1962 saw Aygaz, the current market leader in the Turkish gas market.

These companies were merged in 1963 to Koç Holding Durable Consumer Goods Group. The holding company produced from 1966, the first Turkish automobile Anadolu. The cannery TAT Founded in 1967, initially limited to tomato paste, today it is one of the biggest canned food producer in the Middle East. 1968 was founded together with Fiat, the company Tofaş, which began in 1971 with the production of the model Murat.

In 1984, Koç retired from business and devoted himself increasingly to charity. In 1987 he was appointed by the International Chamber of Commerce to the businessman of the year, the award was presented to him during celebrations in New Delhi by the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

On 14 June 1994, founded by Koç Turkish Family Health and Planning Foundation, was honored by the then UN Secretary General Boutros- Ghali with the World Population Planning Award. Koç died on February 25, 1996 in Antalya.

His work

In the early years, Vehbi Koç involved in many social areas. In 1946 he founded the Vehbi Koç dorm and helped financially in the construction of the Medical Faculty of Ankara (1963 ) and the Cardiology Institute of Istanbul University (1964 ) with. In 1967, he supported the establishment of the Turkish Education Foundation. The Atatürk Library in Istanbul was founded by Koç in 1976.

He has published several books, including:

Philosophy

After his retirement from the business of the company founders left the document Hedefler ve İlkeler ( "Objectives and Principles"), an excerpt from it says (freely translated):