Hatice’s marching to the top begins literally in the bosom of Anatolia. She is a strong woman who built her own path step by step with the opportunities provided by the Republic. As a mother to her two children, a companion to her husband, and a professional who is passionate about her job, she summarises the source of the enormous success she has achieved in her 44 years of life in a single sentence: “The upbringing I received from my family and the love of homeland that penetrates to my bones.” This is not just a career narrative but also the story of a path walked with labour and a life woven with patience..

There are some journeys that are the story of a character, not just a career. This story tells exactly such a journey. This is the story of a woman manager, who entered through the doors of the company as an intern with a notebook in her hand, and is the Group Director of Financial Affairs today… At that day, no one knew that this young intern would one day become the person who would chart the financial course of the company; perhaps even she herself did not know. The only thing she knew was that she would never give up.

Her high school graduate father as her biggest support

 

She was born in Boyabat, Sinop in January 1982 as a child to a typical Anatolian family. She had an older sister and an older brother. Her father was born in 1936 and he graduated from Kastamonu High School. Thinking about the difficulty of graduating from high school in those years, she is still proud of him today. In order to take care of the children of his brother, whom he lost at an early age, he resigned from his job as an officer at Halkbankası and started to work as a tradesman, a self-sacrificing and loyal person with a very high sense of responsibility. Her mother was a housewife who devoted her life to her family. She spent her childhood in the tranquillity of Anatolia. Her father engaged in different jobs and he also started to work as a forwarder for a while. She got acquainted with trucks long before OMSAN, during the trips she had with her father. The trucks they drove were Scania, but they always called them “Vabis”; a detail, which did make sense to her as a child but still leaves a smile on her face when she remembers the past days today. Isn’t that the way life is? Don’t tiny memories often leave small traces that will make sense years later?

 

She stayed in Sinop until high school and then started boarding school at Ordu Science High School. At first it was difficult to be separated from her family but today, she can clearly see the resilience and the ability to stand on her own feet that those years have given her. A person grows up when he/she learns to be self-sufficient.

 

As the years chased each other, she came to Istanbul for studying at the university. She successfully graduated from the Department of Business Administration in English at Marmara University.

From an Intern to a Leader: Journey of 22 years,

During her university years, her path crossed with OMSAN Logistics for summer internship. She worked in the Directorate of Facilities and Administrative Affairs between 19 July – 13 August 2004. The crowded group of trainees, lots of photocopies, carrying files and the meeting with Ergun Arıburnu, Deputy General Manager of Facilities and Administrative Affairs, remained in her memory. One day, Mr. Arıburnu, who recognised the gem in her, made her an offer stating that “If you want, we can send you to France for an internship”. At the time, she thought it was just a kind offer, but it was an amazing opportunity. he said ‘no’. Because it was too good to be true at that moment.

Years later, as she got to know Ergun Arıburnu better, she realised how serious that offer was and when she realised the seriousness of the proposal, it took its place as one of the small but meaningful “regrets” in her life.

During her university years, her dream was to become a bank auditor and she prepared for exams for a long time. Just as she was about to sign with a private bank for an assistant auditor position, the offer from Deloitte changed her direction. She worked in the audit department at Deloitte between 2005 and 2014, which were intense, instructive and disciplined years. It was the period when she not only developed herself technically but also learnt business life in real terms. She worked in Doğuş Holding’s tourism group on the financial affairs side in 2016-2017 and experiencing “other side of the kitchen” after the audit gave her a different perspective. In early 2017, she joined Yıldız Holding’s Internal Audit Department; seven to eight months later, her paths crossed with Ergun Arıburnu again as part of the Alternative Group audit. At the first meeting, with his famous memory, he said, “We have definitely met before “and after thinking for a while, they remembered that they had met during that short internship period at OMSAN. There are some encounters in life; even if years pass, the bond is not broken. That was exactly the moment for Hatice.

In the later years of her career, she worked with international companies; she took responsibility in multinational teams with different cultures and learnt global finance standards in the field. These experiences did not only provide her with technical knowledge; they enlarged her perspective and increased her courage. She combined the solid business discipline she learnt in Turkiye with the culture of speed, transparency and performance of global companies. She has turned into a financial leader who stays at the table in difficult negotiations, does not back down in times of crisis, and reads the story behind the numbers.

On 17 November 2025, she rejoined the OMSAN family. Once a trainee, she has now passed through the door as a manager who will take responsibility for the financial course of the company. She became the Group Finance Director of the company. It was a great excitement and deep happiness for her to be here today and to endeavour to carry OMSAN back to its strong and beautiful days as a team. With a smile on her face, she says, “If the offer of France comes this time, I am ready to accept it without a second thought.” She is married; she has a twelve-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son. When she looks at them, she better understands her own childhood and the values added by her family. When she looks back at the age of forty-four, she sees the institutions and people who have left a mark on her life. She has come from a quiet town in Anatolia to where she is today thanks to the opportunities offered by the Republic and the values of being ethical, to be conscientious, to work hard, to live virtuously and in a decent manner taught by her family. Working under the same roof with Ergun Arıburnu, who took a sincere interest in her during her short internship period, is much more than a coincidence for her. It is one of the meaningful turns of her life. Behind the responsibility she bears today, there is the resilience gained in the corridors of boarding schools, the discipline learnt at the supervisory desks, and the solid values carried from Anatolia.

But perhaps the most special part of Hatice’s story is that while her father was a truck driver, she became a manager in a huge logistics company with hundreds of trucks.

It is not known what dreams she had during her journeys with her father, but today she is in the peace of having realised her dreams.

Of course, there are many more links to be added to the success story. As those who knew her say; “She reaches wherever she wants. Because Hatice never gives up the fight”

Hatice’s story whispers to us this message: your starting point does not determine your destination; it determines how you walk, what you hold on to and where you can reach as long as you do not give up.