Koç, Ömer M(ehmet) (b. March 24, 1962, Ankara), businessman and collector. In addition to being chair and/or member in the board of directors of various Koç Group companies, he has served as chair of the
Koç Holding Board of Directors, as a member of the Vehbi Koç Foundation Board of Directors, as the chair of
Koç University Board of Trustees and the Turkish Education Foundation (TEV), as the chair of the executive committee of the Sadberk Hanım Museum and as the president of the Geyre Foundation.
Ömer M.Koç, who was the middle son of Rahmi M. Koç and Çiğdem Koç (later Simavi) and the second grandson of
Vehbi Koç and Sadberk Koç, went to high school at Robert College. During his second year at high school, he went to Britain and spent two years at Millfield School. Later he went to the USA for higher education, first to Georgetown University, and then to Columbia College, which is linked to Columbia University. In 1985, he completed his undergraduate education there in Ancient Greek Language and Culture. In 1989, he was awarded a masters from the Columbia University Business School.
Ömer M. Koç began his career as a sales clerk at the Kofisa Trading Company in Switzerland in 1985 and worked in the same role at the New York-based Ramerica International Inc. between 1989 and 1990. On returning to Turkey, he became a manager at Gazal AŞ, a Koç Holding company, between 1991 and 1992. From 1992 to 1996, he served as finance coordinator at Koç Holding and later as vice chair (1996-2000) and chair (2000-04) of the Holding’s Energy Group. In 2004, he became a member of the Koç Holding Board of Directors. In May 2008, he was appointed vice chair of the board. The same year, he became the chair of the board of directors of TÜPRAŞ, Turkey’s biggest industrial institution, which controls all the country’s oil refineries. In 2016, when his older brother Mustafa V. Koç passed away, he took on the role of chair of the Koç Holding Board of Directors.
He is currently chair of the board of directors of several Koç Holding companies including TÜPRAŞ and Tofaş and the vice chair of Aygaz and Arçelik.
An enthusiastic collector of the plastic arts and antique books, Koç has one of the most siginificant private libraries in Turkey. The library, which contains travelogues, memoirs, atlases, gravures and photographs of Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire, Turkey and the Middle East, is one of the most comprehensive of its kind. Ömer M. Koç's collection contains autographed original copies of books by renowned nineteenth and twentieth century authors. He also has other extensive collections including Iznik tiles, self-portraits, and the latest works of contemporary art.