Currently the Chairman of Bakioğlu Holding, Cem Bakioğlu was born in Izmir in 1945. He studied at the Izmir Financial and Commercial Sciences Academy. In 1973 he founded Bak Packaging Industry and Trade Co.
He is the chairman and member of the boards of directors of a series of companies mainly in the packaging business but also in media, construction, insurance, IT and logistics that are mostly concentrated in the Izmir Ataturk Organised Industrial Zone. In 2017 Bakioğlu entered the food industry after completing investments in Turkey’s first freeze drying fruit and vegetable processing plant.
Bakioğlu was briefly in the media sector as the owner of Ege TV and Radio Ege before donating all the equipment to Ege University’s Faculty of Communication. In 1995, he planted 70,000 trees in the Bakioğlu Forest, in close proximity to Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport. Known for his passion for nature and the wellbeing of the environment, Cem Bakioğlu founded the Aegean Forest Foundation in 1995 and contributed to the afforestation of the Aegean Region by organising the planting of nearly 10 million saplings with donations, and to the environmental future of the country with educational activities and lasting projects.
In 1995, Bakioğlu financed the completion and opened the Cem Bakioğlu Anatolian High School in Bornova with 24 classrooms.
He founded Çiğli Kent Hospital in 2002 and opened Kent Medical Centres in Alsancak in 2008 and Bayraklı in 2018.
Bakioğlu is a member of TÜSİAD and ESİAD, has managed Kipa, Asad and Güçbirliği, and is the Chairman of the Boards of Enda and Egenda.
Married and a father of two, Cem Bakioğlu is fluent in English and French.