M. Sani Şener

Mr. Sani Şener is the co-founder of TAV Airports, established in 1997 with the Istanbul Atatürk Airport Build-Operate-Transfer project. He served as CEO for 25 years and as Vice Chairman of the Executive Board for the last two years. Under his leadership, TAV Airports has grown into a global brand, serving approximately 100 million passengers across 15 airports in 8 countries.

As of 2024, Mr. Şener continues his career as Chairman of the Executive Board of TAV Construction.

He graduated from Ankara College in 1973 and from Karadeniz Technical University (KTU), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in 1977. He earned his Master’s degree (M.Phil.) in Fluid Mechanics from the University of Sussex in 1979. He has received Honorary Doctorates from KTU in engineering for his contributions to Turkish engineering at the international level, and from New Hampshire University in Business Administration for his achievements in project and risk management at TAV.

Before TAV Airports, Mr. Şener held various roles in national and international projects, ranging from Project Manager to General Manager. He also studied Complex Systems Management at MIT.

Mr. Şener has served as a member of the Airports Council International (ACI) World Board of Directors, and as Chairman of the Turkey-France, Turkey-Croatia, and Turkey-Kazakhstan Business Councils of DEİK. He has been internationally recognized for his contributions, receiving the Knight's Order of the Legion d’Honneur from France (2016), the Order of Distinguished Service from Georgia (2016), and the Order of Merit from North Macedonia (2019).

The TAV Airports business model has been featured as a Harvard University case study three times and was taught by Mr. Şener to MBA students at Harvard Business School (HBS).

He has been repeatedly recognized for his leadership, being named “Best CEO in Turkey” by Thomson Extel in 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2016, and ranking third in the European Transport Sector in 2014.