Okan Baş

Okan Baş earned his undergraduate degree in business administration from Bilkent University in 2004, followed by a master’s degree from Boğaziçi University on financial engineering in 2006. He currently continues his academic life at Okan University for a Ph.D. in economics.
After a short term banking experience as inspector, Mr. Baş started his aviation career at Turkish Airlines Treasury department in 2004. During his 18-year tenure in the aviation finance sector, he served as the founding manager of Financial Risk Management department at Turkish Airlines, developing the fundamentals of the financial risk management strategies and their implementation in the company between 2008 and 2011. In 2011, he was promoted to Treasury Manager at Turkish Airlines, where he was in charge of cash flow analysis, foreign exchange transactions and securitization processes.
Between 2018 and February 2022, he served as Vice President of Treasury, in charge of all account and cash management activities, payments, collection of revenues, payment systems and treasury reporting activities of Turkish Airlines. Also, he served as chair of the IATA Treasury Working Group between 2007 and 2022.
Mr. Baş continues his career as Senior Vice President of Finance since February 2022, responsibilities including meeting fleet and other financing needs of the company, hedging interest rate, currency and fuel risks, managing company’s cash portfolio overseeing risk and return balance, managing company’s fleet and all insurance requirements for all group companies, following and adapting FinTech and payment services industry trends while assessing the impacts of policy and regulation at the company.
Mr. Baş also serves as a Board Member of THY Finansal Teknolojiler Anonim Şirketi (THY Financial Technologies Inc.), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, which is an electronic money and payment services corporation established on August 2023.