Sani Şener

Sani Şener was born in Trabzon, Turkey, as the third and last child of prominent Turkish bureaucrat and politician Ahmet Şener (1921–1991) and Feride Şener (née Külür). Sani has one older brother, Sadri Şener and an older sister, Prof. Dr Sezer Şener Komsuoğlu.

Şener had his mechanical engineering degree in 1977 at the Black Sea Technical University. He holds an M.Phil degree in Engineering from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. He received his doctorate degree from the Black Sea Technical University in acknowledgement of his distinguished contribution in the infrastructure development projects of Turkey. He also received training on management of complex systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sani Şener managed and led many development projects ranging from dam construction to housing complexes; from hospitals, universities, airports, highways, trade centers, tunnels to power plants in Turkey and abroad since 1979.

Sani Şener is best known for his leadership in design, construction, financing and operation of the Istanbul Atatürk Airport’s international terminal building and its side facilities project in 1997. Under his leadership, TAV Airports was founded as a joint-stock company for Istanbul Atatürk Airport’s 500 thousand m2 of construction and operation project which was one of the first major airport Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects in the world. The construction of the colossal project was complete in only 22 months, 8 months ahead of schedule.[2]

Since the beginning of Istanbul Atatürk Airport project, Sani Şener has been the chief executive officer of TAV Airports Company, which has fast evolved into an airport construction and operation holding group that manages 13 airports and 24 airport related subsidiary companies as of March, 2017.

In 2010, Şener was selected the “Investor Relations CEO of the Year in Turkey” by Thomson Reuters and Acclaro.[3]

Şener became the head of the Turkish-French Business Council at Foreign Economic Relations Board in 2012.[4]

Sani Şener represents the European region at Airports Council International World Governing Board –the global industrial body of world’s airports.[5]

Şener received the "Industry Hero" award at the Global Airport Development Conference held in Nice, France in 2013. The award was to honor his outstanding performance for keeping TAV Airports' strategy and vision intact during turbulent times in the aviation industry.[6]

Sani Şener was presented with the Georgian State Medal of Distinguished Service in 2016 by the Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, for his contributions to the development of the country.[7]

In 2016, Sani Şener received the Legion d'honneur of the Chevalier order by France in recognition of his remarkable contributions to development of the Turkish-French bilateral relations.[8]