Soner Canko, Successful Businessman from Turkey

Soner Canko was born on June 15, 1969. He received his undergraduate education in the Department of Public Administration at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Istanbul University. Graduated in 1990, Canko completed his master's degree in Economics at Istanbul University in 1993. In 2003, he did his doctorate in Economics at the same university, the Faculty of Economics.

Canko's career began in 1990, after graduating from his undergraduate education. Procter & Gamble, Citibank, Hewlett-Packard, Bileş A.Ş. and First Data. He took managerial positions in leading international companies in their fields.

By 2010, Soner Canko joined Ziraat Bank staff. He was appointed as the Executive Vice President responsible for Retail Banking, Operations and Technology. A year after that, he became the general manager of the Interbank Card Center department.

Soner Canko Launched Turkey's First Digital Wallet

After becoming the general manager of the Interbank Card Center, Canko brought a breath of fresh air to the card payments market in Turkey. With its advanced technology and increasing service understanding, Ziraat Bank took steps to popularize cashless shopping in Turkish society, with Canko becoming the general manager of the relevant department. Soner Canko, while leading these efforts, helped launch Turkey's first digital wallet called BKM Express. Apart from this, Canko also contributed to the launch of TROY, Turkey's Payment Method.

Canko was a very active person in social assistance as well as in his business life. In particular, he carried out many studies to raise awareness of society in terms of social responsibility. To this end, he also pioneered a digital donation campaign. Thus, he enabled the transfer of large funds with small amounts to non-governmental organizations.

Soner Canko, together with the BKM team, of which he is the leader, has developed campaigns and projects to prevent the increasing fraud problem. Raised awareness of the society about credit card fraudsters.

Canko resigned from his position at BKM on 30 April 2020. After his resignation, he continued his career by providing management consultancy services to finance and technology companies.

Worked in Many Institutions and Organizations

After his resignation, Canko became a Member of the KOBIL International Innovation Committee on May 1, 2020. He also served as FinTech Istanbul Founding Member and Board Member of Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV).

Canko became the co-chairman of the non-profit Blockchain Turkey Platform, which was established for the creation of the blockchain ecosystem in Turkey.

Soner Canko is known for his work on financial technology. His achievements in this field enabled him to be invited to the White House in 2015, along with the world's most renowned FinTech (Financial Technologies) experts.

The successful businessman's articles have been published in important publications that take the pulse of the business world, such as Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg Business Week. He has produced and continues to produce content on topics such as the business world, leadership, financial technologies and management.

Canko, which attracts the attention of the public with its videos, articles, and social media content, is known by the public as the Digital CEO.