Honours
-
: Chevalier (Knight) of the French Légion d'honneur (1994). [10]
Leyla Alaton is a Turkish businesswoman and art collector, member of the Board of Alarko group of companies. [1] She has been named to that position since 2008. [2] She is also a Board Member of Alvimedica Medical Devices. [3]
Leyla was born in Istanbul. She is the daughter of İshak Alaton, [4] one of the founders of the Alarko Holding, one of the largest business conglomerates in Turkey, listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Her father died on September 11, 2016. [5]
Alaton studied at Şişli Terakki Primary School, Sainte-Pulchérie French Secondary School and Notre Dame de Sion French High School in Istanbul. [6] She also has a degree in Business Administration and Management from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and completed a master's degree in Social Sciences at the New York University. [1]
Alaton started her entrepreneurial career by selling belts [7] while in the United States. She is a founding member of Kadiger, the Turkish Association of Women Entrepreneurs. [8] She is a popular speaker on women's rights issues and on the role of women in modern Turkey, as well as fostering social entrepreneurship. [3] [9]
In 1993, she was one of the first Leaders of the Future named at the Davos World Economic Forum. [1] [6] In 2014, she was made Chevalier of the French Légion d'honneur. [10]
Alaton is known in Turkey for her extensive collection of contemporary art, [6] from artists both from Turkey and abroad. She is a member of Contemporary Art Istanbul Consultative Committee and the Leadership Council of the New Museum in New York City. [11]
: Chevalier (Knight) of the French Légion d'honneur (1994). [10] 
The National Order of the Legion of Honour, formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour, is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil, and currently comprises five classes. Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained by all later French governments and regimes.
Bülent Eczacıbaşı is an esteemed Turkish businessman. He is chairman of the board at Eczacıbaşı Holding, a Turkish conglomerate founded by his father, Nejat Eczacıbaşı.
Ali İsmail Sabancı is a Turkish businessperson and a third generation member of the Sabancı Family. He is the Chairperson of Esas Holding.
Leyla Saz, also called Leyla Hanımefendi (1850–1936), was an Ottoman and later a Turkish composer, poet and writer.
Üzeyir Garih was a Jewish Turkish engineer, businessman, writer and investor.
İshak Alaton was a Turkish businessman and investor. He is a founding partner of the Alarko group of companies.
Giovanna Melandri is an Italian-American politician. She was an MP in the Italian Parliament for 18 years (1994–2012), holding the positions of Minister of Culture (1998–2001) and Minister of Youth and Sport (2006–2008). She was the president of MAXXI, the National Museum of the 21st Century Arts of Rome, until November 1st 2022. She is currently the chairwoman of the Human Foundation.
Suzan Sabancı, CBE, is a Turkish businesswoman and a member of the Sabancı family in third generation. She is currently chairperson of Akbank, as well as board member of Sabancı Holding.
Dorothy Cann Hamilton was the founder and CEO of the International Culinary Center, which she founded as The French Culinary Institute (FCI) in 1984. She was also president of the Friends of the USA Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015. WomanzWorld described her as "one of the most influential forces shaping the American culinary landscape today".
Oya Eczacıbaşı is a Turkish curator. She is the Chair of Board of the Istanbul Modern.
Leyla Gediz is a Turkish artist. Gediz grew up in İstanbul. She studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, the Slade School of Fine Arts, and Goldsmiths College, University of London, receiving an MA in Visual Arts.
Yeşim Ağaoğlu is a Turkish multidisciplinary artist and a poet who works with various mediums, especially concentrating on installation, photography and video. Her family comes from the city of Shusha in the Karabagh region of Azerbaijan. The most important thing for her in art is being interactive. She works on poetry (language) and art relationships, gender and feminism issues, architectural elements and political subjects. Since 1995 Agaoglu has produced nine poetry books that have made her famous as a female poet in the literature scene of Turkey.
Gorgun Taner is the general director of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), a non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in 1973 that organises four international festivals, the Istanbul Biennial, and the Istanbul Design Biennial. He has been working at the foundation since 1983, where he first worked at Istanbul Film Days as coordinator of Kent Movie Theater, and later served as assistant director and program coordinator for foreign relations of Istanbul Festival (1987–1994), director of Istanbul Jazz Festival (1994–2002), before being appointed as General Director in 2002.
Nil Yalter is a Turkish contemporary feminist artist. She attended Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey and currently lives and works in Paris. Her work, which is included in many collections and museums, includes not only drawings and photographs, but also videos and performance art. In fact she is the first Turkish female video artist.
Hanzade Doğan Boyner is a Turkish businesswoman, philanthropist, entrepreneur and e-commerce pioneer. She is the founding chairwoman of Doğan Online Group Companies, the largest online corporation in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and is the founder and chairperson of the e-commerce platform Hepsiburada.com, often called “The Amazon of the East". In July 2019, Forbes called her “one of the most successful women tech entrepreneurs in the world,” and Fortune Turkey has credited her with leading the country’s digital transformation.
Irene Natividad is an American feminist, women's rights activist, corporate director, international advocate for women in leadership positions, President of the GlobeWomen Research and Education Institute, a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC whose lead programs include the annual Global Summit of Women and Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI). She previously served as Chair of the National Women's Political Caucus, Chair of the National Commission on Working Women, Executive Director of the Philippine American Foundation, Founder and President of Asian American Professional Women, and Founding Director of the National Network of Asian-Pacific American Women.
Neşe Aybey, also written Neş'e Aybey, was a Turkish painter, miniaturist and academic in the field of miniature art, one of the Traditional Turkish Arts and part of the Ottoman Book Arts. She was the older sister of sculptor Gürdal Duyar.
Lycée Français Saint-Michel is an international French school located in Istanbul. It is one of the three Lasallian schools in Turkey along with Lycée Saint-Joseph in Istanbul and Lycée Saint-Joseph in Izmir. The Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE) does not include the school in its list of French international schools in Turkey.
Mary Margaretta Fryer Manning (1844–1928) was an American social leader with wide experience in business, social, and philanthropic areas. President William McKinley appointed her commissioner to the Exposition Universelle, and to represent the U.S. and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) at the unveiling of the statue of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in Paris, on July 4, 1900. On July 3, 1900, she assisted in unveiling the statue of George Washington, a gift of the women of the U.S. to France. Among her many roles, Manning served as President-General of the DAR for two terms. During the years that her husband, Daniel Manning held the portfolio of the United States Secretary of the Treasury their home in Washington, D.C. became a center of social and political affairs in Washington. After widowhood in 1887, she spent part of each year in Washington. Her patriotism was shown in her work for the DAR Mohawk Chapter of Albany, New York, of which she was regent.