Selen Kocabaş is an experienced business leader and independent board director with nearly 35 years of leadership across executive management, transformation, strategy, risk and corporate governance.

She began her career at Koç Group in 1992 as a Management Trainee and subsequently held managerial roles at Arçelik, Marshall Boya, Group Danone and DanoneSa. She joined Turkcell at the end of 2002 and served in a range of C level roles over a 13 year period. Her responsibilities included Human Resources, IT, Legal, Procurement, Strategic Planning and corporate support functions. From 2009 to 2015, she led Turkcell’s Corporate Business with full P&L responsibility across marketing, product, sales and service, contributing to Turkcell’s transformation from a GSM operator into a broader technology and infrastructure company. During her Turkcell tenure, she also served on the boards of several group subsidiaries.

Since 2015, she has served on corporate boards, provided strategic advisory to CEOs, and been a Founding Partner of Mentoro Platform.

Her board experience includes serving as an Independent Board Member at Akiş GYO, where she chaired the Risk Committee and served on the Audit Committee; and at Tekfen Holding, where she chaired the Corporate Governance and Ethics Committees and served on the Audit Committee. She also served on the Board of MultinetUp and held advisory board roles at Simit Sarayı and Yorglass. She currently serves as Independent Board Member and Chair of the Audit Committee at Tat Gıda; Independent Board Member and Chair of the Corporate Governance Committee at Kocaer Çelik; Independent Board Member and Member of the Corporate Governance and Early Detection of Risk Committees at Akmerkez GYO; and Independent Board Member, Chair of the Corporate Governance Committee, and Member of the Audit and Sustainability Committees at Mega Metal. She also serves as an Advisory Board Member at Aydın Perakende and to the Aydın Group Family Council.

Kocabaş was the first female President of PERYÖN, one of Türkiye’s longest established professional associations in people management. Representing her company, she became the first corporate founding member of the Ethics and Reputation Society of Türkiye and has also been a member of TKYD and TÜSİAD. She is a Founding Board Member of Women on Board Association Türkiye and YenidenBiz, and has served as Co-Chair of YenidenBiz since 2024. She has also served as a Board Member of SEDEFED, a Founding Member of Women in Technology Association Türkiye, and as an Advisory Board Member and mentor at Endeavor.

She holds a degree in Economics from Istanbul University and completed postgraduate studies in Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior at Marmara University. She has completed Harvard University Executive Education’s Corporate Strategy Program and the INSEAD International Directors Programme. She speaks English and French.