Mr. Hakan Bulgurlu, KH07 (Class of 2005)

CEO,

Arcelik

The Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program is proud to recognize Hakan Bulgurlu amongst its alumni and celebrate his extraordinary professional achievements and his dedication to sustainability by presenting him with a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Bulgurlu was born in Oslo, Norway and lives in Istanbul, Turkey. Not only native in Turkish and English, but he also speaks Norwegian, German and French. He graduated from the University of Texas, Austin, with a double major in Economics and Mechanical Engineering.

Bulgurlu began his career with Koç Holding, a Fortune 500 company and Turkey’s largest industrial conglomerate. Koç is the mother company of Arçelik, the company he is currently leading. In 1995, Koç sent him to Hong Kong to explore the possibilities of doing business here and in the mainland.

With Bulgurlu’s help, the company decided on having a long-term presence and expanded their operations. Through sheer hard work, imagination, as well as his excellent networking and interpersonal skills, Bulgurlu singlehandedly built up a USD 240 million business volume in 7 years. He gave a lot of attention to establishing and nurturing relations between the company and local and national authorities, and worked on building a bridge between China and Turkey. He personally initiated the idea of bringing the mayor of Shanghai to Turkey on a business development trip in 2001. As a direct result, they were able to open doors to Shanghai. He was assigned to key senior management positions in Asia and lived for 13 years in Hong Kong where he led Koç Holding’s Asia-Pacific trading and outsourcing operations.

Bulgurlu is now the Chief Executive of Arçelik, Europe’s leading home appliances company. He has been leading the firm’s 30,000 employees since 2015. Arçelik has annual revenues of five billion euros and is listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

Under his leadership, the company has generated solid top line growth, with its operations now expanded to 145 countries, and has grown its global manufacturing network to 20 plants in 8 countries.

Bulgurlu is known globally for his leadership in innovation and sustainability. His commitment to the environment and sustainability has seen Arçelik included in the leading sustainability indices compiled by FTSE, Dow Jones and MSCI as well as CDP. He was a speaker at one of the most important events on climate change and sustainability, the Climate Action and Green Competitiveness, organized by the World Bank in Washington D.C. In his address, Bulgurlu underlined the importance of new and sustainable business models.

He is also a well-rounded positive individual who conquered the Himalayas and enjoys scuba diving, high altitude skiing, competitive sailing and motorcycle racing.

Bulgurlu is married with three children.