Hakan Akbas

Hakan Akbas is a Senior Advisor at ASG, where he draws on his extensive background to assist clients with government affairs, market access, advocacy, reputation and crisis management, strategy development, and global business development including SPACs, mergers and acquisitions, public-private partnerships, and joint ventures.

He is also a Founding Partner of Strategic Advisory Services, a business advisory firm focused on public relations, strategic media communication, crisis management, global business development, and digital transformation.

From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Akbas was Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Business Development, and Insurance Businesses of the Sabanci Group, and advised Güler Sabanci, chairperson of Sabanci Group. Previously, Mr. Akbas was the Co-founder and Managing Director of Business Development Operations for Xerox Global Services with sales of $10 billion. He led the Incubation and Commercialization Services business of Xerox Global Services in partnership with Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and leading technology players and executives such as Scott McNeal and Bill McDermott.

He serves on the boards of several public and private companies. Hakan is a Turkish Treasury-certified angel investor with ongoing investments.

Mr. Akbas is a regular guest on Turkish television news outlets, including CNN Türk, Haberturk, and NTV, where he discusses U.S.-Turkey relations and bilateral investment and trade dynamics.

He earned an MBA from the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester and a B.A. in Industrial Engineering from Boğaziçi University in Turkey. He graduated first in his class from Galatasaray Lycee. He is fluent in Turkish, English, and French.

He is based in Istanbul, Turkey, and Washington, D.C.