Selcuk Yorgancioglu
Selcuk Yorgancioglu | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 20, 1967 İzmir, Turkey |
| Occupation(s) | Financial expert, private equity investor |
| Known for | Founding partner of Tork Partners; board member of Bluegrove Equity Partners; former partner at The Abraaj Group; CEO of Deutsche Bank Turkey |
Selcuk Yorgancioglu (born 20 May 1967) is a Turkish-British financial expert and founding partner of Tork Partners, an advisory and investment platform established in 2019 aimed at assisting private and institutional investors in Turkey as well as emerging regional markets. He serves on the board of Bluegrove Equity Partners, a fund management company focused on sustainable investments and global expansion opportunities. Between 2020 and 2022, Yorgancioglu provided strategic counsel to GittiGidiyor, an eBay subsidiary, and from 2019 to 2023, he acted as an independent board member and vice chairman of the risk & audit committee at BUPA Acıbadem Insurance, a subsidiary of BUPA UK.
In his capacity as a private equity investor, Yorgancioglu has held leadership positions at notable organizations such as Hepsiburada—the second-largest e-commerce platform in CEMEA and Turkey’s first Nasdaq-listed exit—Fibabanka, a mid-sized banking institution; Acibadem Hospitals, the largest emerging markets hospital group under IHH Singapore; Netlog, a leading logistics provider across CEMEA; and Republika, a premium student housing venture.
Earlier in his career, Yorgancioglu was a partner at The Abraaj Group, a prominent private equity firm operating across growth markets in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Turkey, and Central Asia. During the company’s crisis in 2018 leading to its liquidation, he was appointed Co-CEO of Abraaj Investment Management Limited to manage the divestiture of its fund management business until June 2018 and continued supporting provisional liquidators until October 2019.
Yorgancioglu earned recognition within Turkey’s investment sector for significant transactions including investments in Fibabanka and Hepsiburada.com, alongside Abraaj’s multibillion-dollar exit from Acıbadem Healthcare Group to Khazanah Nasional/IHH—the Malaysian government’s investment vehicle. This transaction combined cash with equity stakes; subsequently, IHH executed one of the largest IPOs globally in 2012 on the Malaysian and Singapore stock exchanges. In July 2017, his team secured a substantial minority ownership in Netlog Lojistik Hizmetleri AS, a Turkish logistics firm with extensive operations throughout Europe and Asia.
Prior to his private equity tenure, Yorgancioglu held senior executive roles at Deutsche Bank (serving as Country CEO for Turkey), Finansbank Group, ABN AMRO Bank, and Rothschild Group from 1992 through 2008. His expertise encompasses structured finance, mergers and acquisitions, as well as debt and equity capital markets concentrated on emerging economies.
He contributed twelve years on the board of TÜSIAD (Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association), including periods as an acting board member. Additionally, Yorgancioglu served on the board of Endeavor Turkey—a global nonprofit dedicated to entrepreneurship—and was part of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on entrepreneurship between 2012 and 2013. Currently, he mentors female leaders via the Women on Board Foundation.
Background
Born in 1967 in İzmir, Turkey, Selcuk Yorgancioglu attended Bornova Anadolu Lisesi during his early education. He earned his degree from Istanbul University’s Faculty of Economics and holds an MBA specializing in Finance from the University of New Haven, Connecticut.
Career
Yorgancioglu launched his professional journey in 1992 at İnterbank in Turkey, starting as a management trainee. Between 1993 and 1998, he was employed by the ABN AMRO Group in Amsterdam and London, working within the Emerging Markets Investment Banking Division. His responsibilities involved managing transactions across Emerging Europe, covering countries such as Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. From 1998 until 2000, he held the position of Executive Vice President and led investment banking at the Finansbank Group in Turkey, also serving on the board of its asset management subsidiary. Subsequently, between 2000 and 2007, Yorgancioglu occupied a senior management role in Emerging Markets Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank based in London. In the period of 2007 to 2008, he was appointed as the CEO of Deutsche Bank Group in Turkey, where he supervised the bank’s operations including banking services, brokerage, asset management, and mortgage units.
In March 2008, Yorgancioglu became a partner at Abraaj with oversight for Turkey and Central Asia. Over the course of 2008 to 2017, he directed investment initiatives and exit processes for the Group’s portfolio in Turkey, notably managing the US$2.4 billion divestment of Acıbadem Healthcare Group to Khazanah Nasional/IHH, which is the Malaysian government’s investment entity.