Turkey’s Premier Angel Network

Ömer Aras

omer aras

Dr. Omer Aras is the Chairman of Finansbank, Turkey – a position he has been holding since 2010. Finansbank was founded in 1987 as a corporate bank. Along with the founding major shareholder, Dr. Aras was the founding manager of the bank. He was the Assistant General Manager in charge of Corporate & Investment Banking and Treasury until 1989. He worked as the General Manager (CEO) between 1989 and 1995 and served as the Executive Board Member between 1995 and 2006. During this period, he also served as the Vice Chairman of Fiba Holding; Board member of Finansbank’s international subsidiaries in Switzerland, France, Holland, Romania and Russia; Chairman of Marks & Spencer& Spencer in Turkey and Board member of Gima, a food retailer. In 2006, upon the acquisition of Finansbank by the National Bank of Greece (NBG), Dr. Aras became the Vice Chairman and Group CEO of the bank. In 2008 he joined the Executive Committee of NBG being responsible for the international subsidiaries. In 2010 he became the Chairman ofChairman of Finansbank. Dr. Aras has also been serving as the Chairman of Cigna Finans Life and Pension, Finansbank’s partnership company in Turkey with Cigna Corporation since 2012. Prior to his career at Finansbank, Omer Aras has worked for Citibank (1984-87) and Yapı Kredi Bank (1987) in Turkey. He has also served on the Board of TUSIAD (Turkish Businessmen Association) between 2003 and 2007. Dr. Aras received his MBA and PhD (81) degrees from Syracuse University School of Management and served 3 years (81-84) at the business school faculty at the Ohio State University. Currently he is serving as the Vice President of the High Advisory Council of TUSIAD and a Member of the Board of Trustee’s of Ozyegin University. He is married, has 2 sons.