Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO), Turkey's largest non-governmental business organization in terms of number of members, is focused on the November election. In the ITO Assembly; GMK Group Chairman of the Board Murat Kalsın, who made a speech to the members of the assembly, officially announced his candidacy for the chairmanship. Murat Kalsın has been conducting his election consultations at the election office at the Istanbul Congress Center since July.
“WE PUT OUR BODY UNDER THE RESPONSIBILITY”
In his speech at the ITO Assembly, Murat Kalsın drew attention to the economic and political environment Turkey is in and said that they set out with the vision of representing the business world in Istanbul in the strongest way and making Istanbul the capital of global trade. Pointing out that the ITO is the largest non-governmental organization representing the business world with its 640 members, Murat Kalsın said, “It is our duty to put our body under the responsibility to ensure that our country takes the strongest place in the new global economic order. We established our election office in order to support and strengthen the Istanbul business world for.”
“A NEW STORY CAN BE WRITTEN IN TRADE”
Murat Kalsın noted that the presidency of the chamber is a way, not a goal, and said, “Our establishment of the election office is a structure established to plan the vision of the ITO of the future, rather than a presidential candidacy. Elections are not places of promise of office. Because the seats of the Assembly are the seats to represent our members. And only with a fair, innovative Assembly can a new story be written in commerce. Now is the time to turn your dream of writing a new story into a goal. Let's bring this opportunity to life together, let's write the new story in trade together.” Murat Kalsın added that they set out to establish an ITO management that will strengthen the country's economy with the projects to be carried out by qualified and experienced teams. Kalsın was the vice president of ITO and chairman of the construction and real estate expertise committee between 2013 and March 2018.
WHO IS MURAT KALSIN?
Murat Kalsın, who is the chairman of the GMK Group Board of Directors, made investments in various sectors such as textile, energy and real estate in the USA, Europe and Turkey between the years of 1988 - 2000. Focusing on real estate investments in Turkey as of 2001, Kalsın also continued its export activities in the field of textile and technology. In 2018, it gathered all its activities under the roof of GMK Group. In addition to his business life, Kalsın, who takes an active role in non-governmental organizations, is the vice chairman of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, the chairman of the Architects and Engineers Group, the vice chairman of Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (MUSIAD), the vice chairman of the DEIK Turkey-Qatar Business Council, the membership of the GYODER Board of Directors and the chairman of the Energy Efficiency Association. Born in Muş in 1966, Murat Kalsın graduated from Yıldız Technical University, Department of Architecture. He continued his education at Georgetown University's graduate program in business administration. Murat Kalsın, who speaks English and German, is married and has 3 children.