Pürnur Üner Becomes CEO of Ajinomoto Turkey

Pürnur Üner Öbek Appointed CEO of Ajinomoto Turkey Ajinomoto, Japan's largest food company founded in 1909 with a sales network spanning 130 countries, 120 factories in 36 countries and more than 34,000 employees, has appointed Pürnur Üner Öbek as its Turkey CEO. Ajinomoto, which continues to grow through strong investments in Turkey, acquired 50 percent of Kükre Gıda A.Ş. in 2013 and became the full owner of the remaining shares through a contract signed on 17 August 2017. Ajinomoto also acquired Örgen Gıda, the manufacturer of Bizim Mutfak products, one of Turkey's leading food brands, from Yıldız Holding in 2017, thereby strengthening its investments in Turkey. With these acquisitions, Sinan Altun, who served as Chairman of the Executive Board of Ajinomoto Turkey since April 2017, handed over his position to Pürnur Üner Öbek with this change. Pürnur Üner Öbek, who served as CFO at Ajinomoto Turkey, became the new Chairman of the Executive Board of Ajinomoto Turkey as of April.

Who is Pürnur Üner Öbek?

A graduate of Boğaziçi University's Business Administration program, Pürnur Üner Öbek began her career in the banking sector. Throughout her career, she has held various positions at multiple levels in multinational and local companies operating in fast-moving consumer goods, elevators and escalators, entertainment and healthcare sectors. She held senior management positions in finance, operations and general management at Unilever, Philip Morris, Uno, Schindler, Mars Entertainment and Eczacıbaşı-Baxter in their domestic and international operations. Most recently, in 2017, she joined the group as CFO when Ajinomoto, the global food and amino-science giant of Japanese origin, acquired Örgen and Kükre Gıda, the manufacturers of the Bizim Mutfak and Kemal Kükrer brands. She took on leadership roles in structural projects aimed at the integration of the two companies under the Ajinomoto Istanbul umbrella; subsequently their transformation and performance improvement. Areas defining her expertise and experience include crisis and change management in uncertain environments, corporate and organizational restructuring, technology transformation projects and corporate acquisitions and mergers. Pürnur Üner Öbek is a graduate of the University of Washington Foster Business School Executive Program. She also holds an AOEC executive coaching certificate and participates in mentoring programs. She is married and mother to one daughter.