Mehmet Omer Koç

Koç was born on March 24, 1962 in Ankara, Turkey. A third generation of the Koç family, he is the second son of Rahmi Koç and grandson of Vehbi Koç, founder of Koç Holding.[3]

He graduated from the exclusive Robert College in Istanbul, studied at Georgetown University before graduating from Columbia College in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in Ancient Greek. He obtained his MBA from Columbia Business School in 1989.[4][5]

Koç began his business career working at Kofisa Trading Company in Geneva, Switzerland. He joined the family business in 1992 as a finance coordinator and served as vice president and president of the Energy Group. He became a member of the Board of Directors in 2004 and Vice Chairman in 2008.[4]

Shortly after his brother, Mustafa Vehbi Koç, passed away after a heart attack in 2016, Koç was elected chairman of Koç Holding, Turkey's largest company, in 2016.[6] The company's output contributes nearly 10 percent of Turkey’s total GDP and is the only Turkish company on the Fortune 500 list.[6]

He also serves as the chairman of Tüpraş, the largest oil refiner and industrial company in the country.[7][8][9]He is also chairman of the board of trustees of Koç University, frequently ranked among the best universities in Turkey.[10]

Not much of Koç's personal life is known as he shies away from the public and media.[5] He lives in London and is known for his fondness for both contemporary and classical art.[5][11][12][13] He is a sponsor of the Istanbul Biennial and Turkey's pavilion at the Venice Biennale.[14] He established the nonprofit art space Arter in 2010.[15][13] For his sponsorship of Turkey's contemporary art scene, he was named by ArtReview as of the "100 Most influential people in 2016 in the contemporary artworld."[14]

He also maintains an interest in Ottoman art and owns large Iznik pottery collection.[16] He is reported to possess the finest private collection of objects and books about Ottoman history in the world.[15][17][18]