Kıvanç Zaimler is the Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of Sabancı Holding, one of Türkiye’s leading industrial and investment groups with interests spanning banking and financial services, energy and climate technologies, material technologies, and digital. He leads the Group’s enterprise-wide transformation and growth agenda: sharpening strategic focus, rebalancing the portfolio, and aligning capital allocation with disciplined ROIC targets to drive sustainable, profitable growth.

His agenda includes simplifying governance, strengthening board effectiveness, driving a leaner, more agile holding center, and scaling technology-enabled growth across the portfolio, from advanced materials and cement to energy and climate technologies and digital platforms.

Internationally, Zaimler steers Sabancı’s expansion in the United States and Europe through long-term partnerships and selective M&A. Current priorities include building a data-center and digital infrastructure strategy, at the intersection of compute, power and connectivity, and maturing the Group’s renewables and storage platform in the U.S., with an emphasis on bankability, execution quality and risk management rather than sheer scale. He also sponsors the Group’s advanced materials and composites initiatives, linking R&D with commercialization and global customers.

Before becoming CEO, he served as Sabancı’s Energy Group President (2018-2025) and held chair and board roles across multiple businesses. He began his career as an industrial engineer and has built teams that deliver under volatility by pairing operational discipline with an ecosystem approach to innovation.

Zaimler participates in policy and industry dialogues in Türkiye and abroad and mentors young leaders. He studied Industrial Engineering at İstanbul Technical University and pursued further studies at Technische Universität Berlin. A former competitive basketball player and youth coach, he brings a team-first, performance-driven mindset to leadership. He is fluent in Turkish, English and German.