Şekip Karakaya
Şekip Karakaya, Chairman of the Board of Sampas Holding; He was born in Adana in 1953. He completed his primary, secondary and high school education in Adana. At the age of 13, he ran his father's open-air cinema for 10 years.
He graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Economics and Finance in 1974. In 1975-1976, he did a postgraduate study at the Institute of Business Economics. He started his professional career in organizations within the body of Sabancı Holding.
In 1981, he founded Sampaş Bilişim ve İletişim Sistemleri AŞ. When “IBM” was almost the only know brand for computers, Sampaş provided software solutions on top of various hardware solutions in Turkey, as well as training, service and support activities with the aim of customer satisfaction. Starting with the late President Turgut Özal, he perceived the concept of "Entrepreneurship, IT and Localization". He took SAMPAŞ out of business in all other sectors and structured the company to focus only on the "Local Administrations" sector in Turkey.
Between 1984-1994, he personally walked around almost all provinces and districts of Turkey, in order to provide computers and various related solutions and services to more than 1,000 municipalities. He was the President of the Adana Branch of the Mülkiyeliler Union and Adana Güçbirliği Foundation for 3 years.
Returning to his professional life in 2002, Şekip Karakaya launched the "Smart City Automation Project" which has now become a brand in Europe. He won over 35 awards in the last 15 years at home and abroad with the AKOS Project.
Currently Sampaş Holding A.Ş. Chairman of the Board and the Chairman of Smart Cities platform. He also gives lectures on “Urbanisation” in Aydin University Academy of Branding.
He is married and has 2 children.