M.KEMAL COŞKUNÖZ
The founder of Coşkunöz Holding and its subsidiaries, M. Kemal Coşkunöz began his career in 1946 as a technical high school teacher at the Tophane Art School.
His entrepreneurial spirit came into play in the early years of his work life, and in 1949, he established his own workshop to produce cutlery using molds for the first time in Turkey. He devoted himself to producing as much as he did to learning and teaching. He put his mark on many first-of-their-kind projects in the difficult times of Turkish industry, and produced Turkey’s first patented textile marking machine. He also realized the mass production of accumulator tongs, and took part in production of the first oil seal, the first steel body and the first driver’s cabin.
Adopting the approach of “IF I DO A JOB, I MUST BE THE BEST” as a principle of his entire professional life, Teacher Kemal pursued the goal of growing together with the national economy when he established the first joint stock company of Coşkunöz Holding in 1973. He made great contributions in terms of helping the Turkish automotive industry develop and move away from foreign dependency. He believed that every individual had a responsibility in solving social problems. He founded the Bursa Coşkunöz Education Foundation in 1988 to address the shortcomings of vocational education - which he saw as one of Turkey’s biggest problems, to meet the need for a qualified workforce in the production industry and to equip unemployed young people with the necessary skills to obtain jobs. The Coşkunöz Education Foundation, one of the first social responsibility projects developed in Turkey, continues to support vocational education by building on the solid foundations laid by him, in a way that he always dreamed of."
