Rahmi Koç


Rahmi Mustafa Koç is a Turkish businessman. In 2016, Forbes ranked him No. 906 richest person in the world with a net worth of $2.6 billion. In 2013, he is the Turkish person who paid the most income taxes in his country, totalling 37.5 million liras.

Biography

Early life

Rahmi Koç was the only son of one of Turkey's wealthiest man Vehbi Koç. He attended high school at Robert College in Istanbul after his primary education in Ankara. Rahmi Koç then studied at the Johns Hopkins University in the US and received his BA in industrial management.

Career

Following his military service, he started actively working for the Koç Group in 1958, joining the Otokoç Company in Ankara. In 1960, he transferred to Koç Ticaret, which represented the Koç Group in Ankara. Following the relocation of the Koç Holding headquarters from Ankara to Istanbul in 1964, which was established a year earlier, he became general coordinator of Koç Holding A.Ş. and moved to Istanbul.
Thereafter in 1970, he became chairman of the executive committee and in 1975 deputy chairman of the board of management. Rahmi Koç was appointed chairman of the Koç Holding management committee in 1980. His father Vehbi Koç transferred his chairmanship to his son on 30 March 1984. Rahmi Koç retired from this duty on 4 April 2003, transferring his chair to his eldest son Mustafa Koç. Rahmi Koç is currently Honorary Chairman of the Koç Holding.
A visit to Henry Ford Museum in Michigan inspired him to create the Rahmi M Koç Museum in Istanbul, which is dedicated to the history of transport, industry and communications exhibiting trains, submarines and autos.
In 2013, he bought the Merrill-Stevens Drydock & Repair Co., Florida's oldest boatyard, and renamed it RMK Merrill-Stevens. He is the owner of a 171-foot yacht, the Nazenin V.

Other mandates and memberships

Rahmi Koç received honorary doctorates from the following universities:
Rahmi Koç was awarded by various national and international institutions as listed below:
Rahmi Koç has three sons: Mustafa Vehbi, Ömer Mehmet and Ali Yıldırım from his previous marriage to Çiğdem Simavi. His son Mustafa died on 21 January 2016, of a heart attack, at the age of 55.

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