Sabancı's family chose a granddaughter as chair in 2004; she led the group for 21 years

Sakıp Sabancı, who had led Sabancı Holding — Turkey's largest industrial group — died in April 2004. On May 17, 2004, his brothers Şevket and Erol Sabancı announced they were passing leadership to the third generation, and the board elected Güler Sabancı as chairperson and managing director.

Güler had been inside the group since 1978, running KordSA from 1985. She became the first woman to chair Sabancı Holding — a group of 60 companies with 30,000 employees and about $7.3 billion in revenue — at a moment when Turkish family firms rarely chose women.

The choice proved durable: Güler held the chair for 21 years, through the 2008 global crisis and Turkey's later shocks, in what the company described as a period of strategic restructuring and global successes. In March 2025 she stepped down, saying the group's reputation had been carried well.

The 60-company, $7.3B group stayed family-controlled for 21 more years while Güler Sabancı led what the holding called strategic restructuring and global successes.

The brothers chose the third generation's best leader, not the nearest male heir.

Two decades of internal experience made the promotion credible to markets.

Passing leadership while the elders lived gave the choice authority and time.

Choose the person, not the title: the Sabancı brothers picked the best of the third generation — a niece, not a son — and the group accepted a woman chair in 2004.

When Güler Sabancı stepped down on March 27, 2025, the holding she had chaired for 21 years was still family-controlled and, under the group's own account, strategically restructured and globally stronger than in 2004 — the rare Turkish family succession that held for two decades.