Koç, Rahmi M(ustafa)

In 1960, he moved to Koç Ticaret AŞ, which represented the Koç Group in Ankara. Rahmi M. Koç moved to Istanbul when the Ankara headquarters of Koç Holding were moved there in 1964, a year after its founding. In December 1969, he took over the role of general coordinator of Koç Holding from Hulki Alisbah. In 1970, he was made the chair of an executive committee formed of Suna Kıraç, İsak de Eskinazis, Bernar Nahum and Ziya Bengü, which was established to carry out the principle decisions of the holding’s board of directors, to follow the results and to manage relationships between the companies and the holding. In 1975, he began serving as vice president of the Koç Holding Board. In 1980, he became the chair of the managing committee set up to coordinate relations between the Automotive Group and the Industrial and Trade Group and ensure intra-group communication between high-level directors.

On March 30, 1984, Rahmi M. Koç was elected as chair of the board of directors of Koç Holding in place of his father, Vehbi Koç, who had stood down from the position and become honorary chair. In 1988, he became the chair of the newly-established Koç Holding Executive Committee. On April 4, 2003, he retired, handing his role on the board of directors over to his oldest son Mustafa V. Koç and becoming the holding company’s honorary chair.

Rahmi M. Koç took on important roles at national and international institutions representing the business world. In 1961, he joined the Administrative Council of the Turkish National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), becoming a member of the board of directors and chair of the executive committee in 1987. The same year, he was elected member of the Business Advisory Council, newly set up by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). At a meeting in Paris in November 1994, Koç was elected president of the ICC, where he served for two years.

Koç was one of the Turkish Industry and Business Association’s (TÜSİAD) honorary presidents, and between 1990 and 1994 he was chair of the Supreme Consultative Council. He has also been president of the Turkish-Greek Business Council, the co-chair of the Business Advisory Council for South Eastern Europe (BAC SEE) and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations. Rahmi Koç is currently the honorary president of the Global Relations Forum (GRF).

U nder his mother’s influence, Rahmi M. Koç became interested in collecting from his childhood onwards and over many years has amassed a large personal collection of objects. In 1991, he began to work towards the establishment of Turkey’s first industrial museum, aiming to protect, promote and nurture industrial culture. Construction began in 1992 in a historical building known as the Lengerhane in Hasköy on the Golden Horn. Rahmi M. Koç became lifetime president of the Rahmi M. Koç Museology and Culture Foundation established in 1993 and the Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum opened the following year in 1994. This was followed by the foundation of the Ankara Rahmi M. Koç Museum (2005), Sevim and Necdet Kent Library in Ayvalık (2007) and the Ayvalık Rahmi M. Koç Museum (2014) under the auspices of the Rahmi M. Koç Museology and Culture Foundation.

Rahmi M. Koç, who is known for his passion for the sea, was a leading figure in the establishment of the DenizTemiz Association/TURMEPA in 1994 and its first president. The organization was founded to “make the protection of (Turkey’s) beaches and shores a national priority and to ensure a more habitable Turkey with clean seas is left for future generations”. In 2001, he passed on the presidency and became the honorary president.

Between 2004 and 2006, Rahmi M. Koç fulfilled his childhood ambition of traveling around the world in a sailing boat. During the 657-day tour made on the Nazenin IV sailboat, he covered 28,250 nautical miles and visited five continents. A compilation of his travel memoirs and notes, titled Sergüzeşttir Seyahatnamem (My Travelogue is an Adventure) and Nazenin IV ile Devr-i Âlem (Around the World with the Nazenin IV) were published by American Hospital Publications in 2009. After his trip to Alaska in 2013, his memoirs were published in the book Alaska (2013).

 Rahmi M. Koç has been voted the year’s most successful business person or industrialist on countless occasions by various institutions and groups, and he has received numerous taxpayer’s awards, certificates of appreciation and plaques. His accolades include: the German Federal Republic Order of High Merit (1982), the Turkish Republic State Outstanding Service Medal (1997), the ICC Turkey National Committee and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) International Success Award (2000), the Republic of Italy Order of High Merit (2001), the Republic of Austria Order of Major Service (2003), the Republic of Italy’s Commendatore Medal (2006), the British Empire Order of Excellence (Commander’s Medal) (2011) and French Officier dans l'Ordre National de la Legion D'Honneur.

In addition, Rahmi M. Koç has been awarded with honorary doctorates by Johns Hopkins University (1998), Eskişehir Anadolu University (1998), Izmir Ege University (1999), Ankara Bilkent University (2000), Constanta Ovidius University (2001) and Aydın Adnan Menderes University (2008).

He took a close interest in the American Hospital, joining the board of directors in 1966. A heart and vascular surgery intensive care unit opened in 1991 was named in his honor, as well as the Rahmi M. Koç Üçağız Elementary School in Kekova, which opened in 1987. In 2016, Koç University began the Rahmi M. Koç Science Medal of Science award program to reward leading scientists with Turkish backgrounds who have contributed to universal knowledge either inside or outside the country.

Rahmi M. Koç was president of the Rotary Club in Turkey between 1976 and 1977, a Beşiktaş J.K. Congress member, and a member of the Istanbul/Turkey Open Seas Yacht Club and the yacht clubs in New York, Monaco and Biscayne Bay.

He married Çiğdem Meserretçioğlu (later Simavi) in 1960 and the couple had three sons—Mustafa V. Koç (b. 1960 – d. 2016), Ömer M. Koç (b. 1962) and Ali Y. Koç (b. 1967)—and four grandchildren (see Koç family).