Atlantic Council

Biography

Orhan Taner

Orhan Taner is the Istanbul-based director of the Atlantic Council Energy and Economic Summit.

A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Orhan Taner graduated with honors from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he majored in economics and mathematics.

He received his master's degree in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.

Orhan Taner spent fourteen years with Bankers Trust Company in New York City, where he completed pioneering work in the bank's capital markets, treasury, emerging markets, and venture capital divisions, eventually rising to the position of managing director.

While at Bankers Trust, he established Turk Merchant Bank, a Istanbul-based joint-venture investment bank in late 1980s.

In mid-1990s, he developed an interest in the new economy, which led him to start-up the Bankers Trust Internet Division in 1995, and eventually the bank's first Corporate Venture Capital Group in 1997.

Following his successful career on Wall Street, Orhan Taner co-founded and later served as the chairman of the "Turkish American Business Forum", a not-for-profit business association headquartered in New York City.

In 2002, after having lived and worked for twenty-five years in the US, Orhan Taner returned to his hometown and founded "Contemporary Istanbul", the very first and internationally acclaimed contemporary art fair in Turkey.

He was a partner in and acted the fair's founding director during its initial two years, until he was appointed as the vice chairman and CEO of a Turkish conglomerate, with companies operating in the technology, finance, social media, and real estate sectors.

Orhan Taner is married with a six-year old son.