Husnu Ozyegin Net Worth, Biography, Career and Achievements

Husnu Ozyegin Net Worth $3.2 Billion

Hüsnü M. Özyeğin is a renowned businessman and philanthropist from Turkey. He is the Chairman of Özyeğin University as well as the Honorary Chairman of FIBA Holding of which he is the founder.

Born in 1945 in İzmir, Turkey, this businessman graduated from Robert College before attending Oregon State University where he received his B.Sc. degree in civil engineering.

He later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. Known for his business prowess, the reputed Mr. Hüsnü served as the Managing Director and Board Member of Pamukbank from 1974 to 1984 and as Managing Director and Vice Chairman of YapıKredi Bank until 1987 when he founded Finansbank which evolved to become one of the most prominent and successful banks in Turkey almost instantly under his control as Chairman until 2010.

His sale of Finansbank in 2006 to the National Bank of Greece was, at the time, the single biggest foreign trade in Turkey. The FIBA Holding Company which he founded and serves as an honorary chair is a private group of companies interested in health, retail, finance, energy, and real estate sectors in fifteen countries.

A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Özyeğin has founded 99 companies employing 15,000 people. He is also active in philanthropy and has invested in many significant programs that have reached more than a million people in Turkey.

He is the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Özyeğin University, and also serves as a Member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors of Harvard Business School, the Chairman of Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation, and a Trustee of Mother and Child Education Foundation.

Here’s all that you should know concerning the life and business accomplishments of this active 78-year-old influential investor and family man.

Early Life: Childhood, Education, Family

Hüsnü M. Özyeğin is the son of a Turkish medical doctor. He was born and brought up in Izmir, Turkey, in the company of his siblings and close relatives.

In 1963, he graduated from Robert College in Istanbul and then moved to the United States with around $1000 to his name. He then attended Oregon State University for an engineering degree before graduating from Harvard Business School with an MBA.

Professional Life: Business Career

Spending over three years in the United States was helpful to Hüsnü Özyeğin as he returned to his country a more experienced man who was ready to take the bull by the horns with regard to his career. He joined Pamukbank to start the professional side of his life. This was a bank that belonged to his former schoolmate, Mehmet Emin Karamehmet.

In 1977, at the age of 32, he became the general manager of Pamukbank and he held this post until 1984 when he transferred to Yapı ve Kredi Bankası to take the role of general manager. The Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi was a much bigger bank in Turkey that his friend Mehmet acquired in the year 1984.

The bank, which was losing money already before his arrival, witnessed a sudden transformation under his leadership and became profitable over the next two years.

In 1987, when he was 43 years of age, he left Yapı ve Kredi Bankası to set up his own bank, the Finansbank, and eventually expanded it to a large bank with over 200 branches operating in several countries out of Turkey, mostly in Europe.

He also founded several finance firms and brought them under the umbrella of his holding company Fiba Holdings, which currently has more than 90 companies employing more than 15,000 people.

Over the years in his successful business career, Mr. Hüsnü Özyeğin invested in high-demand businesses in various industries such as real estate, energy, and retail, building malls, and condominiums across the main domestic business districts in Turkey.

In 1996, he announced his entrance into the retail business by acquiring the supermarket chains Greens, Gima, Endi, and Spar. He then purchased Sakura Bank in addition to signing a franchising contract with the popular British retail chain Marks & Spencer

Achievements: Awards & Honors

In 2000, Mr. Özyeğin was awarded “Businessman of the Year” by the Turkish magazine Ekonomist. He has been lauded in the media for his commitment to expanding educational opportunities for children and women.

In May 2007, his foundation, the Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation, founded Özyeğin University in Istanbul, which the businessman plans to spend up to $1 billion on over the next 15 years.

Personal Life: Wife, Children, Private Interests

Özyeğin and his wife Ayşen Özyeğin have been married for a long time now. They have two children and five grandchildren and live quietly in Istanbul, Turkey, where most of his businesses are headquartered.

Husnu Ozyegin Net Worth: Salary, Assets, Income Sources

Mr. Husnu Ozyegin’s net worth of 3.2 billion dollars makes him one of the richest men in Turkey. He is reputed as a Turkish businessman whose business intelligence has helped quite a lot throughout his career life.

After working for a number of Turkish banks earlier on in his life, Mr. Husnu launched his own bank in 1987, and it eventually became a huge success under his leadership.

Asides from his involvement with his bank, Finansbank, Mr. Husnu currently controls around 99 companies concerned with real estate development, energy, health, education, and retail. He is also the founder of Ozyegin University, a tertiary institution located in Istanbul, Turkey.