University Governance

Today, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Acıbadem Healthcare Group, which operates 18 hospitals and 13 medical centers, along with several support companies in the healthcare sector. Since 2012, he has also been a Board Member of Integrated Healthcare Holdings Berhad and Parkway Pantai Limited. In addition, he continues to serve as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Acıbadem University, a foundation university.

Mehmet Ali Aydınlar has received numerous awards for his outstanding achievements. In 1998, he was honored with the Excellence in Management Award at the World Young Entrepreneur Businessman Competition. In 2006, Ekonomist magazine named him Entrepreneur of the Year, and in the same year, he received the Businessman of the Year award from Istanbul University’s Faculty of Business Administration and Dünya Newspaper.

In 2007, the Health Volunteers Association recognized him as the individual who made the most significant voluntary contributions to healthcare as part of the Social Responsibility Awards in Healthcare. In 2009, he was presented with the TAF Special Award at the 4th Turkish-Arab Forum. In 2010, he was awarded the Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s Distinguished Service Medal and Certificate in recognition of his contributions to the country.

In 2010, he received the Namık Sevik Special Award from Milliyet Newspaper and was included in Capital Magazine’s Most Generous Businesspeople in Turkey list for two consecutive years, ranking 5th in 2014. In 2013, Boğaziçi University, one of Turkey’s most prestigious educational institutions, named him Businessman of the Year, and in 2015, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the same university.

Beyond his business and philanthropic achievements, Mehmet Ali Aydınlar has made significant contributions to sports and civil society organizations. He served as a board member of Fenerbahçe Sports Club for five years and held the presidency of the Healthcare Institutions Association for two terms. He is also the President of the Association of Accredited Hospitals and has served two terms on the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD, the Turkish Industry and Business Association. Additionally, he was the 64th President of the Turkish Football Federation. Since 2015, he has been a Board Member of DEİK (Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey).

During this period, he spent three months as an observer at Georgetown University Hospital. In 1995, he joined the Department of Urology at the University of Pennsylvania as a Visiting Faculty Member. Upon returning to Turkey in 1996, he resumed his academic career at Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Urology, where he was awarded the title of Associate Professor in 1998 and Professor in 2005. Since 2012, Prof. Dr. Soyupak has been serving as the Medical Director and Chief Physician at Acıbadem Adana Hospital. He is married and has two children.

Throughout his tenure, he has successfully navigated the company through critical transitions, including its acquisitions by Khazanah in 2013 and Bupa in 2019. Under his leadership, Bupa Acıbadem Sigorta has introduced groundbreaking services and products, positioning itself as a pioneering and leading company in the health insurance sector.

With 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, Gürcan has held various leadership positions at Allianz and Ergo. He is a graduate of Harvard’s GMP and Koç University’s MDP programs. Additionally, he holds an MBA from Yeditepe University and a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems and Business Administration from Marmara University.
 

In 2004, he completed the Health Institutions Management Master's Program at the Marmara University Institute of Health Sciences.

Since starting his career in 1989, he has held various management positions. He worked for 4 years at International Hospital-Istanbul, most recently serving as the Marketing Manager. After 1.5 years as the Assistant General Manager at German Hospital, he worked as a consultant in the healthcare sector for 4 years.

In 1997, he started working at Acıbadem Hospital as the General Coordinator. He has held various administrative roles within Acıbadem Healthcare Group. During this time, he worked as a responsible manager on special projects such as corporate development, public offering, and matters related to the group’s investments. In 2004, he became a founding partner of Acıbadem Project Management Inc., which began operations under Acıbadem Holding. He currently serves as the General Manager of Acıbadem Project Management and as a member of the Executive Committee of Acıbadem Healthcare Group.

From 2000 to 2008, he held key administrative roles at Hacettepe Adult Hospital, serving as Deputy Chief Physician and later as Chief Physician. In 2008, he joined Acıbadem Healthcare Group, where he served as Director of Medical Services from 2008 to 2012. Since May 2012, he has been the Chairman of the Medical Executive Board at Acıbadem Healthcare Group, and as of August 2012, he has been serving as the Rector of Acıbadem University.

The first is the desire to pass on the wealth of knowledge and expertise gained through Acıbadem Healthcare Group’s longstanding commitment to providing high-quality healthcare services. The second is the passion of the distinguished academics within our group, who are eager to contribute to health sciences through research and by educating future generations of professionals.

Our university’s primary mission is to cultivate well-informed, inquisitive, and research-oriented professionals in every area of healthcare through student-centered, innovative, and contemporary educational programs.

In pursuit of this goal, we place great emphasis on building a strong educational infrastructure that meets global standards. A prime example of this is our state-of-the-art simulation center, which offers students an invaluable learning experience by allowing them to engage in a wide array of clinical scenarios before encountering real patients. We are well aware that the standards in healthcare education have been redefined, and Acıbadem has set the bar higher than ever before.

We persistently pursue every innovation that enhances education, and we will continue to do so. Learning what we do not yet know is essential to us, but we are already experts in teaching what we know best. Our journey toward excellence will never cease; with strength, confidence, and unwavering hope, we will always look toward the future.