BIO

General Manager

Haluk Bayraktar is the CEO of Baykar, Turkey’s premiere autonomous technology company. Haluk began his tenure at Baykar in 2004 as an engineering manager when Baykar’s autonomous technology efforts were still nascent. He has since been involved in every aspect of the business: from engineering to project management to logistics support and business development.

Haluk is also one of the founders of the Turkey Technology Team (T3) Foundation, an initiative intended to foster technology education among Turkish youth through entrepreneurship, competitions, and supplementary technology education.

Additionally, Haluk was one of the founders and a chairman of the board of Turkey’s Aerospace and Defense Cooperative (SAHA Istanbul), which includes over 600 companies.

Haluk Bayraktar took an active role in the private sector in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic that started in 2019 in Turkey. With the SAHA Istanbul Cluster Association, where he remained the Chairman of the Board of Directors, he led the execution of various projects and also took part in domestic intensive care ventilator projects developed by Baykar, Aselsan, Biosys, and Arçelik. Intensive care respirators produced in domestic and national facilities were delivered to the Ministry of Health in as little as a month. Turkey exported these devices to the countries in need, and they donated them to those that did not have enough funds.

Haluk is a graduate of Middle East Technical University in Industrial Engineering and Columbia University in Financial Engineering. He is an avid fisher, frequently appears on Turkish television and at university conferences, but above all he enjoys spending quality time with his wife and three children.