August 20, 2010 19:06

August 20, 2010 dated Regulatory Disclosure – Two New Appointments

Published under Investor Relations

Türk Telekom, the leading communication and convergence technology Company in Turkey, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Hakam Kanafani as Türk Telekom Group CEO and the appointment of Mr. K. Gökhan Bozkurt as Türk Telekom CEO.

Chairman of Türk Telekom, Mr. Mohammed Hariri, said commenting on the new appointments: “This is an essential step for a more dynamic and efficient management of Türk Telekom Group which will ensure a strong and sustainable growth of the Group’s operations which will soon reach nine companies post the Invitel International acquisition.”

Mr. Hakam Kanafani currently serves as Oger Telecom's Chief Business Development & Synergy Officer, and has been with Oger Telecom since 2006. Mr. Kanafani was a leading figure in the team that has developed and implemented the business strategy and transformation of the Türk Telekom Group post privatization including the fixed, mobile and data applications. Mr. Kanafani will assume his new role as CEO of Türk Telekom Group with immediate effect and will be reporting to the Türk Telekom board of directors and Türk Telekom Executive Committee. All Türk Telekom Group CEOs will be reporting to their respective board of directors through the Türk Telekom Group CEO.

Mr. K. Gökhan Bozkurt currently serves as the VP of Human Resources at Türk Telekom. Since he joined Turk Telekom in 2006 after the privatization of the Company, Mr. Bozkurt was instrumental in leading the transformation program which created a customer-centric, region-based organization with new divisions such the new customer care department and the new call centre, namely AsissTT. Mr. Bozkurt will assume his new role as the CEO of Türk Telekom with immediate effect and in his new role he will be leading the Türk Telekom fixed network operating entity.

The Chairman of Türk Telekom, Mr. Mohammed Hariri concluded: “I would like to thank Dr. Paul Doany for the outstanding performance and for establishing a strong team of professionals in Türk Telekom which has led to the resounding transformation and expansion of Türk Telekom Group into a world class operator. Dr. Doany will continue in his role as CEO of Oger Telecom and will lead the next phase of its strategic growth focusing on new acquisitions, ICT alliances and new strategic initiatives, taking the Oger Telecom Group and its subsidiaries to the next level. Dr. Doany will also remain a Türk Telekom Board Director, member of Türk Telekom Executive Committee, and member of the board of directors of Türk Telekom subsidiary companies.”

K. Gökhan Bozkurt:

Kamil Gokhan Bozkurt has an economics degree from Bilkent University and a masters degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University.

In 2003, after several years in private sector, Mr. Bozkurt joined Ziraat Bank as the senior manager overseeing the bank's all financial institutions. During this period, he was a board member at Ziraat Bank Moscow CJSC and Ziraat Bank International AG. Mr. Bozkurt then joined Halkbank as the Executive Vice President of Organization and Human Resources in 2004. In this capacity, he successfully managed the merger between Halkbank and Pamukbank.

In 2006, he was appointed as the Executive Vice President who managed the bank's both Financial Institution and International Banking units.

During his tenure, Mr. Bozkurt was an active member of the Privatization Committee of Halkbank and a board member at Birlik Insurance. He has been serving as the VP of Human Resources at Turk Telekom since he joined the company on November 1st, 2006. Mr. Bozkurt was instrumental in leading the transformation program which created a customer-centric, region- based organization with new assets such as new call center business, namely AssisTT. He is currently the Vice Chairman of Turk Telekom Sports Club and also the head of Basketball branch.

Mr. Bozkurt was born in 1971 in Istanbul. He is married to Ahu Bozkurt and he has two kids named Sevde and Omer Erva.

Hakam Kanafani:

Hakam Kanafani is a University Trustee Scholar and holds Beta Gamma Sigma honors from the United States. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.A. in Economics and a B.Sc. in Management Information Systems. Kanafani holds an MBA with a 4.0 GPA and he continued his Executive Education at Harvard Business School.

Kanafani worked in the Apple Research Lab in College Park, Maryland and upon graduation he joined the Information Technology team based in Goddard Space Flight, NASA, Greenbelt, Maryland. He then moved to the Middle East as the Business Development Director for Egypt’s oldest running private holding company “MM Sons Conglomerate.” He spearheaded the conglomerate’s efforts to establish successful, rapidly growing ICT enterprises. Then he was appointed CEO of Jawwal, Palestine's first private cellular network. Later Kanafani became Chief Operating Officer of the PalTel Group, where he led strategy, acquisitions and financial consolidation for the Group.

Kanafani is currently a Non-Executive Director on the board of directors of TTNET, Argela, Assist, Innova and Sebit in Turkey and Cell C in South Africa. He also served on the board of directors of AVEA in 2007 and 2008.

Kanafani is a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He wrote several papers on Information Communications Technology and International Management. He was featured in the Independent, Forbes magazine and other periodicals. In 2005, he was named as one of the 100 most influential figures in the Arab Word.

Kanafani is married to Fatenn Mostafa and the proud dad of; Marwan, Ahmad and Jenine. Kanafani is a private pilot and enjoys diving and football.