Ömer Koç

Koç was born on 24 March 1962 in Ankara, Turkey. A third generation of the Koç family, he is the second son of Rahmi Koç and grandson of Vehbi Koç, founder of Koç Holding.

He graduated from Robert College in Istanbul, attended Millfield School in England, studied at Georgetown University before graduating from Columbia College in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in Ancient Greek.

He obtained his MBA from Columbia Business School in 1989.

Koç began his business career working at Kofisa Trading Company in Geneva, Switzerland. He joined the family business in 1992 as a finance coordinator and was vice president and president of the Energy Group.

He became a member of the board of directors in 2004 and vice chairman in 2008.

Shortly after his brother, Mustafa Vehbi Koç, died after a heart attack in 2016, Koç was elected chairman of Koç Holding, Turkey's largest company, in 2016.

The company's output contributes nearly ten percent of Turkey's total GDP and is the only Turkish company on the Fortune 500 list.

He is also chairman of Tüpraş, the largest oil refiner and industrial company in the country. He is chairman of the board of trustees of Koç University.

As of January 2018, Koc owns 0.74% of Koç Holding.

He sits on the steering committee of the Bilderberg Meeting. Koç is chairman of the board of trustees at the Turkish Education Foundation (Turkish: Türk Eğitim Vakfı, commonly abbreviated as TEV).