Ümit Leblebici, born in 1967 in İstanbul, Turkey.
Education
Mr Leblebici, who graduated from the Faculty of Business Administration at İstanbul University, got his Master’s degree from the Department of Finance at the same university in 1994.
Experience
Ümit Leblebici began his business career in the finance sector and worked in various financial institutions between 1991-1997. In 1999, he joined Türk Ekonomi Bankası (TEB) as Director of Treasury Group and became Assistant General Manager of Asset-Liability Management and Treasury Group in 2002. After being appointed as Deputy General Manager of TEB in February 2013, he became CEO of TEB in September 2013. Ümit Leblebici is also Vice-President of the Executive Board of the Banks Association of Turkey.
Areas of Expertise
Finance, fixed income, asset & liability management, and treasury.
What have been the main lessons you have learned in your career and how do you implement them in your management?
My main lesson in management is it is not important how tough or how easy going you are as a manager; but it is all about BEING FAIR…
When you talk, express your thoughts and make comments, people just care about not what you say but how FAIR you are. Therefore I believe FAIRNESS is the key success factor.
Besides, I believe RESPECT is crucial. People would like to be listened. So listening to people and their opinions is one the best ways to show RESPECT.
In conclusion, I value FAIRNESS and RESPECT in life and always keep those in mind in management.
Mentors
I believe every single person in life is another experience. Thus, indeed, my answer for “mentors” would be about “what” rather than “who”.
The first thing that I would say is: MISTAKES! I like mistakes, because each and every one of them gives me a chance to evaluate myself and learn something new. I ask myself “What did I do wrong and why?” Whenever I make mistakes, I carry out a deep analysis of it and at the end what I usually discover is the lack of knowledge and empathy. The outcome is mostly the same; it does not matter if it is business oriented or to do with social relations.
Secondly and lastly, I would say chasing KNOWLEDGE is crucial. Therefore, I try to be open to new ideas, new people and to chase knowledge… I love to discover … I love to read books about history to understand societies and people’s behavior.
Quotes
“As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears…” Rumi
“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance…” Socrates
