Rahmi Koç

Rahmi Koç
Born	1930 Istanbul, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Occupation	Businessman
Net worth	US$2.5 billion (April 2015)

Rahmi Mustafa Koç (born in 1930 in Ankara), is a Turkish businessman and philanthropist. In 2016, Forbes ranked him #906 richest person in the world with a net worth of $2.6 billion.^[1] In 2013, he is the Turkish person who paid the most income taxes in his country, totalling 37.5 million liras.^[2]

Biography

Early life

Rahmi Koç was the only son of one of Turkey's wealthiest man Vehbi Koç, he attended high school at Robert College in Istanbul after his primary education in Ankara. Rahmi Koç then studied at the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. and received his B.A. in industrial management.

Career

Following his military service, he started actively working for the Koç Group in 1958 joining the Otokoç Company in Ankara. In 1960, he transferred to Koç Ticaret, which represented the Koç Group in Ankara. Following the relocation of the Koç Holding headquarters from Ankara to Istanbul in 1964, which was established a year earlier, he became general coordinator of Koç Holding A.Ş. and moved to Istanbul.

Thereafter in 1970, he became chairman of the executive committee and in 1975 deputy chairman of the board of management. Rahmi Koç was appointed chairman of the Koç Holding management committee in 1980. His father Vehbi Koç transferred his chairmanship to his son on March 30, 1984. Rahmi Koç retired from this duty on April 4, 2003, transferring his chair to his eldest son Mustafa Koç. Rahmi Koç is currently Honorary Chairman of the Koç Holding.

A visit to Henry Ford Museum in Michigan inspired him to create the Rahmi M Koç Museum in Istanbul, which is dedicated to the history of transport, industry and communications exhibiting trains, submarines and autos.

In 2013, he bought the Merrill-Stevens Drydock & Repair Co., Florida's oldest boat yard, and renamed it RMK Merrill-Stevens. He is the owner of a 171-foot yacht, the Nazenin V.^[3]

Other mandates and memberships

Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce for the term 1995-1996
Member of the Rotary club
Member of the Istanbul Open Sea Yacht Club and New York Yachting Club.

Honorary doctorates

Rahmi Koç received honorary doctorates from the following universities:

May 21, 1998 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
September 28, 1998 Anadolu University, Eskişehir
May 14, 1999 Ege University, İzmir
June 14, 1999 Bilkent Üniversitesi, Ankara
April 23, 2001 Ovidius University, Constanţa, Romania.

Awards

Rahmi Koç was awarded by various national and international institutions as listed below:

Officier dans L'Ordre national de la Legion d'Honneur (of France), 2015
German "Großes Verdienstkreuz" (Great Cross of Merit)
Italian "Ordine al Merito della Repubblica" (Order of Merit of the Republic), 2001
Turkish "State Medal of Distinguished Service" (1997)^[4]

Private life

Rahmi Koç has three sons: Mustafa Vehbi (1960-2016), Ömer Mehmet (1962) and Ali Yıldırım (1967) from his previous marriage to Çiğdem Simavi. His son Mustafa died on January 21, 2016, of a heart attack, at the age of 55.^[5]

References

↑ "#906 Mustafa Rahmi Koc". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
↑ "Koç family dominates Turkey’s tax champions list". 4 May 2014. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
↑ Martha Brannigan (26 October 2014). "‘Affinity for old things,’ drove Koç’s decision to buy RMK Merrill-Stevens boatyard". Miamiherald.com. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
↑ "Geniş Açı". Milliyet (in Turkish). 1997-10-28. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
↑ "Funeral held for Turkey’s leading businessman Mustafa Koç". Hurrietdailynews.com. 24 January 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-13.