The New Chairman of the Export Family is Mustafa Gültepe

The excitement of the presidential election at the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), the only umbrella organization of more than 100 thousand exporters, is over. At the 29th Ordinary General Assembly of the Turkish Exporters Assembly, where only one candidate competed, Mustafa Gültepe received 273 of the 273 valid votes. So, Mustafa Gültepe, who has been serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of İHKİB since 2018, has become the new chairman of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM).

Stating that they set out with the aim of making Türkiye a brand country in export, Mustafa Gültepe said, “We will bring TİM to an identity that undertakes strategy and vision leadership and sets an agenda. Information flow and projects from our unions, with whom we will work more actively, and synchronously, will be our most important data source. We will contribute to the development of our export by maturing the projects and carrying them to the economic management.”

Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), which is the only umbrella organization of more than 100 thousand exporters with 61 Exporters' Associations and 27 sectors, held its 29th Ordinary General Assembly and the 2021 Export Champions Award Ceremony at İstanbul Haliç Congress Center. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Trade Mehmet Muş, representatives of the Top 1000 Exporter companies, Non-Governmental Organizations, Associations, and related stakeholder institutions Presidents, TİM Delegates, Members and Delegates of the Board of Directors and Auditors of Exporters' Unions, and TİM Council Members attended the '2021 Export Champions Award Ceremony and TİM 29th Ordinary General Assembly'. At the General Assembly held after the Champions of Exports Award Ceremony, the new chairman of the export family was also announced. Mustafa Gültepe, whose name was agreed upon by most of the union and sector presidents before, participated in the presidential election in the General Assembly as the only candidate. Mustafa Gültepe, who received 273 of the 274 votes, became the 5th Chairman of the Board of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM).

In his speech, Gültepe underlined that the sectors and unions displayed exemplary solidarity during the election process of the TİM Presidency. Gültepe thanked everyone who trusted and supported him in the leadership of more than 100 thousand exporter families and said:

WE CAN INCREASE OUR SHARE OF GLOBAL EXPORTS BY 50 PERCENT

“Export is the future and indispensable of Türkiye. We set out with the goal of making Türkiye a brand country in export. We have to complete scientific and technological transformation in all our sectors. We have to build a Türkiye, that exports with high value-added, has a strong transportation and logistics infrastructure, turns threats into opportunities, and has highly competitive power. We will work to be a country that determines the trends in the world, not follows them. The share of our country in global export is around 1 percent. I believe that we have the potential to increase this share by 50 percent. We should be able to catch at least $2 in export per kilogram. I know that the goal is difficult and the process is arduous. But with common sense, with the active participation of our 27 sectors and 61 unions, I believe that there is no problem that we cannot overcome. In the new period, we will bring TİM to an identity that leads strategy and vision and sets an agenda. The projects and information flow from our unions, where we will work more actively and synchronously, will be our most important data source. We will contribute to the development of our export by maturing the projects and carrying them to the economic management.”

Gültepe added that they will keep an equal distance from everyone in all works and that they will not get lost in vicious discussions.

Who is Mustafa Gültepe?

Born in 1968 in Tonya-Trabzon, Mustafa Gültepe graduated from Dokuz Eylül University, Department of Industrial Engineering in 1990. Gültepe completed her MBA at İstanbul University in 1997 and entered the sector at Taha Tekstil in 1992 after graduation. Mustafa Gültepe, who is the Founding Partner and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Talu Tekstil company, which was founded in 1994 as a part of Taha Group, has been operating in the ready-to-wear sector for 25 years. Gültepe has production facilities in İstanbul, Sakarya, and Malatya and employs approximately 1800 people.

Mustafa Gültepe, who joined the Board of Directors of İHKİB in 2010, served as the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of İHKİB between 2014 and 2018. Mustafa Gültepe, who was elected as the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Ordinary General Assembly of the İstanbul Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters' Association in April 2018, was elected as the Chairman of the Board of Directors once again in the İHKİB elections held in 2022. Also serving as the Chairman of the Board of the 1st Organized Industrial Zone of Sakarya, Mustafa Gültepe is married, has three children, and can speak English.