Daikin Industries Announces Key Appointment
Daikin Industries announced the appointment of Hasan Önder to the position of President of Daikin Middle East and Africa Region.
Hasan Önder will simultaneously serve as President for Turkey and the CIS countries under his responsibility (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Northern Iraq, Mongolia, and Northern Cyprus), and will continue his efforts to achieve Daikin's global targets across an even larger geography. Hasan Önder began his business career as an entrepreneur, founding the Airfel brand in the heating-cooling market in 1999. Through individual and commercial air conditioning sales, he established approximately 500 sales points, 150 authorized dealers, and 500 authorized service centers across Turkey. Following his merger with Sanko Holding in Turkey in 2001, the Airfel brand gained recognition in the sector. In 2006, he established a factory in Sakarya-Hendek (Turkey) operating on a 95,000 m² site, manufacturing combination boilers, air conditioning units, panel radiators, and air handling units for the heating-cooling market. Since then, he has expanded the capacity of the Sakarya-Hendek facility, positioning it today as an important production center in the region, operating on 163,000 m² under the Daikin Turkey umbrella. With these successful accomplishments, Önder was named Turkey's "Most Successful Young General Manager" in Capital Magazine's "On the Path to Success" competition in 2008. Following Daikin's acquisition of the Airfel brand in 2011, he has continued his position at Daikin for 12 years as CEO of Daikin Turkey and CIS countries. Since July 2012, he has also served as a member of the Executive Committee at Daikin Europe. Since assuming office in 2011, by strengthening the sales network, he has achieved significant success by increasing Daikin Turkey's revenue in Euro terms by 520 percent. Daikin Turkey, which ranked 113th on the "Turkey's 500 Largest Industrial Enterprises List" (ISO 500) for 2022 prepared by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, ranked 151st in Capital Magazine's Turkey's 500 Largest Companies research and 125th in Fortune Magazine's Turkey's 500 Largest Companies ranking. At the same time, Daikin Turkey, which has been the "Brand with the Most Split Air Conditioner Exports" since 2016 according to the Air Conditioning Industry Exporters Association (İSİB), became the sector champion in the 2022 ranking of the top 1,000 exporting companies announced by the Exporters Assembly (TİM) and ranked 70th in the overall ranking, achieving significant accomplishments under Hasan Önder's leadership.
Implementing Daikin's "human-centered management" philosophy and realizing many of Daikin's strategies, such as its goals of adding value to society, Önder made the following remarks regarding his new position:
"With a turnover of EUR 28.2 billion, Daikin is the leading brand in the air conditioning sector. As we all know, environmental and structural changes are occurring worldwide. As Daikin, in line with our 2025 targets, we are preparing and implementing strategies with all our teams to anticipate these changes in advance. Our primary goal is to structure, implement, and carry out our activities in line with these strategies, and to provide our customers with 'better quality indoor air environment' while increasing life comfort for every individual. To achieve this goal, taking into consideration the dynamics of the Middle East and Africa Region, we will reach our targets through new mergers, investments, and strengthening of our team. At the same time, following technological developments in line with our FUSION 25 targets, we will continue to provide our customers with end-to-end solutions with heating-cooling and energy-efficient products in both individual and commercial fields. As the only company in the air conditioning sector that manufactures its own refrigerant and compressor, providing products and services accordingly, we will address this as a strategic objective to produce solutions to societal problems, expand our business volume, and create new value in air and environmental areas. In line with our Environmental Vision targeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, we evaluate the themes of our Daikin FUSION 25 strategy within this framework. We will also continue to take an active role in new projects to address societal problems in the geography we operate in. Building on our commitment to 'becoming a carbon-neutral company,' we will continue to work with our R&D teams for a livable world. We will increase our investments to provide new solutions and products tailored to the geographical location of the Middle East and Africa Region. By living Daikin's 'human-centered management' philosophy more fully with our entire team, we aim to increase employment through all our activities."
