Kemal Şahin
Kemal Şahin (born 1955) is a Turkish - German entrepreneur and a textile tycoon. He is also an environmental activist against erosion.
Early life
Sahin (which means falcon in Turkish) was born to a poor family in the village of Taşlıpınar in the Beyşehir district of Konya Province, Turkey. His birth date is not known, but his family registered his birth on April 11, 1955.
After finishing primary school in his village, secondary school in Beyşehir and high school in Konya, Sahin went to Germany on a scholarship in 1973 to study metallurgical engineering for Etibank, a large state-owned mining company. He completed a German-language course, then attended Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), from which he graduated in 1982 with a Diplom degree.
Entrepreneur
As a student, Sahin was interested in trade. After finishing university, he established his own textile-importing company, Santex Moden, in 1980 with a starting capital of 5,000 DM. Within three or four years, he became a German millionaire before his 30th birthday.
Today, he owns 27 production and trading companies, integrated facilities from cotton to cloth, 18 of which are united under Şahinler Holding in Turkey. One of the biggest exporters in Turkey, the group also has its own steam and electric power station, a catering company, a building contractor and a holiday resort in Antalya Province, Turkey. The worldwide Şahinler corporation, with a turnover of one billion Euros, consists of two companies in Germany and one each in the Netherlands, Austria, France, Switzerland, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, United Kingdom and the U.S., as well in Turkey. The group has about 10,000 employees. Santex Moden ranks 25th in Germany and is among the 100 largest companies in Europe.
Awards
- 1997 "Manager of the Year" by the Schitag Ernst & Young management consulting firm and by Manager magazine for entrepreneurial achievement.
- 1998 "Honorary Investor of Europe" by the Club of Europe.
- 2000 Order of Merit of Turkey for his extraordinary activities, by President Süleyman Demirel.
- 2000 Honorary doctorate by the Selçuk University of Konya for his achievements in education.
Other activities
Besides his entrepreneurship, Sahin has been:
- President of the Sahinler Foundation, which is active in education, health, and welfare and provides scholarships to 450 orphan or indigent secondary and high school students.
- President of the TEMA Foundation in Aachen, Germany, an international foundation fighting erosion and favoring restocking and nature conservation.
- Chairman of the Association of Turkish Businesspeople in Europe.
- Founder and chairman of the Turkish-German Association of Textile and Clothing.
- Chairman of the German-Turkish Chamber of Commerce.
- Honorary member of Euro-Türk (liberal Europe-Turkey alliance of friendship),
Books
- Zirvedeki Şahin: Hayatım ve Fikirlerim (The Falcon at the Summit: My Life and My Thoughts) 2000, 280 pp., Autobiography in Turkish, ISBN 975-8243-90-X
- Der Falke in der Fremde (The Falcon Abroad) 2002, 240 pp., Autobiography in German, ISBN 3-430-17887-8
References
- Biography (Turkish)
- Tahiroglu, Gulcin Uysal (2001-05-27). "Tekstil kralı". Aksam (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-09-08.