Reflecting its now dominant role in the international tug building market, Sanmar Shipyards in Türkiye has taken the decision to significantly strengthen its team of executive directors with the appointment of two widely experienced men to bolster the existing board’s range of experience and expertise. Although recruited independently, by some strange coincidence, the two new appointees first met as eleven-year-old boys. They had both been selected for a special training programme preparing students proposing to take entrance examinations for foreign High Schools established in Türkiye.
Kerim Kazgan fancied the American School, following the footsteps of his mother, yet ended up in a French one, whilst Hakki Cek, who had hoped to attend a French school went to an American establishment. Both finally reached an ex-American College in Istanbul but studying different subjects.
Kerim graduated in Business Administration and Hakki in Economics and both joined different companies which today have been absorbed into Ernst & Young. Kerim ventured off to the United States to deepen his academic knowledge whereas Hakki stayed in Europe working in the United Kingdom, France and Austria.
Following the acquisition of a wealth of experience in a variety of companies and industries, now aged 56 and 57, both men saw the opportunity offered by joining Sanmar Marine, one of the most progressive enterprises in Türkiye with a truly international reputation. Fate has determined that the two men can renew their boyhood friendship by joining the Sanmar family.
Hakki Cek (left), HR & IT Director, and Kerim Kazgan, CFO, renew their friendship aboard a vintage German-built tug being restored to its former glory at Sanmar’s Tuzla facility as a hobby exercise by company chairman, Orhan Gurun.
