Osman Okyay

Born in Istanbul in 1966, Osman Okyay completed his primary, secondary and high school education in İzmir and went on to study in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Boğaziçi University. Doing masters degree in mechanical engineering in the University of Hampshire in the United States of America, Okyay worked in the Istanbul Office of Digital Equipment Corporation in 1990-1993 first as technical service engineer and then technical service planning administrator following his military service. During the time he worked in Digital, he served for establishment and maintenance of hardware infrastructure of Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) system among banks.

Okyay, who joined Kale Group in 1994, took courses from the Business Administration Graduate Program opened for Executives in the Koç University in the same year. 

Starting to work in Kale Group as the Deputy General Manager of KalekalıpA.Ş. in 1994 Okyay rose to General Manager of  KalekalıpA.Ş. in 1997 and Head of Kale Group Technical Department in 2000. He still works as the Deputy Chairman of Kale Group. 

After joining Kale Group, OKyay exerted efforts to direct the group to high technology fields and led and managed its investments in fields such as Robotics and Automation, Industrial Energy Equipments, software and simulation, high technology ceramics and defense and aviation industry. 

Okyay enabled the Kale Group to establish partnerships with giant companies of the world such as General Electric and Pratt&Whitney and played a role in its becoming directly the sub-producer of leader companies of the sector in Defense and Aviation industry such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Airbus, and NorthropGrumman.

He again led establishment of partnership between Kale Group and Rolls-Royse in May of 2017 for development, production and maintenance of aircraft engines in Turkey.

Apart from his roles in Kale Group, Okyay executes active duties in some other organizations and NGOs. 

Elected the head of Turkish side of Turkey-US Business Council in 2013-2015, which was founded in the leadership of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Turkey with a view to supporting establishment of a model economic partnership by Turkey and the US, Okyay continues his roles as the President of Foreign Economic Relations Council Turkey-Canada Business Council, President of Turkey-United Kingdom Business Council, Member of Executive Board of Turkey-US Business Council, Member of YASED Executive Board, Member of TOBB High Coordination Council, Chairperson of Council of Çanakkale Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Association of Aviation and Space Grouping, member of OYAK Executive Board, member of Boğaziçi University Foundation and Executive Board of Fatih Sultan Mehmet University Foundation.

Okyay is married with one child.