Hakan Ateş to step down as DenizBank CEO after 27 years

Hakan Ateş, who is stepping down from his role as the Founding CEO of DenizBank, a position he has held for 27 years, and will continue his professional career as a member of the Bank's Board of Directors, has sent a farewell letter to the bank's employees.

According to the report in Dünya, in his letter, he touched upon many topics ranging from the establishment phase of DenizBank to the significant steps taken over 27 years, and from periods when crises were turned into opportunities to major acquisitions.

Emphasizing that the first words that come to mind when DenizBank is mentioned are 'collective wisdom, teamwork, the ideal of serving the country, investing in emotional bonds alongside stocks, and people first,' Ateş drew attention to the value added to the national economy with the words, “You can be sure that if we were to remove DenizBank's contribution to the economy and its approach of 'benefit banking' that serves production and development from the equation, many areas in our country in need of financing would remain underserved. We have our mark and our labor on every inch of this land in one way or another.”

Evaluating the current state of DenizBank in his letter, Ateş stated; “As of today, we have a share of over 15 percent as a project bank in all the sectors we have embraced for the future of our country; tourism, maritime, education, health, infrastructure, energy, and sports. Our share in total projects and long-term loans is over 10 percent. We are number one in financing tourism, which brings foreign currency to Turkey and provides employment. We are the leader among private banks with a 52 percent market share in agriculture, a sector we embraced during a time when no one else dared, aiming to save farmers from the hands of loan sharks and give them the identity of business people.

Today, all of our subsidiaries, including Deniz Leasing and Deniz Factoring, which are number one in profitability, DenizBank AG, the largest Turkish bank abroad, DenizBank Moscow, one of Russia's important financial institutions, Deniz Yatırım, which is also very far ahead in profitability, Deniz Portföy, which gained great momentum by rising from sixth to second place within a year, Intertech, which exports technology abroad, and our Deniz GYO, are in the position of pioneers in their sectors.

All of these are the embodiment of the 'agile banking' approach, which has been on the global agenda for the last 20 years, through the 'portal strategy' we have implemented since our establishment, and they are our sources of pride,” he said, providing a general summary.