Tekfen Holding, boasting four women on its board – three of whom are independent members – was given a ‘Boards Empowered by Women’ Award for the year 2020 during the Women Directors Conference of Turkey. This is Tekfen’s third award of this kind, the previous two having been given in 2018 and 2019.
The 8th Women Directors Conference of Turkey, organised by the Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, was held online on 19 November. Tekfen Holding was found worthy of the award as it is one of the three companies listed on the BIST 100 Index that gained the highest points in the ‘Boards Empowered by Women Index’ by reason of the woman members it has on its board.
Speaking at the Conference, Tekfen Holding Board Member Osman Birgili said: “The women on our board make extremely valuable contributions to our institution at every opportunity thanks to their knowledge and experience, and I am very grateful to them. As a holding company active in international contracting and industrial sectors, in which blue-collar workers predominate, we employ an appreciable number of women. Hundreds of wonderful woman engineers work in Tekfen – under challenging conditions presented by construction sites, in factories and in R&D laboratories. We will continue to play a leading an exemplary role in women’s empowerment.”
Of the eleven members of Tekfen Holding’s Board of Directors, four are women: Vice-Chairwoman Cansevil Akçağlılar, Independent Board Members Neriman Ülsever, Gülsüm Azeri and Cansen Başaran Symes.
The three companies that received the highest points in the ‘Boards Empowered by Women Index’ were Aksa Akrilik Kimya, Koç Holding and Tekfen Holding.