Our Founder

Our founder Zamanhan Can was born in 1935 in Doğu Beyazıt. He started his career in 1950 at the age of 15.

Zamanhan Can
Founder

Our Founder, Mr.  Zamanhan Can was born in Doğubeyazıt in 1935. At the age 15, in 1950, he started his entrepreneurial activities. 

In 1972, he established a trading company bearing the title of "Zamanhan Can" and made his first registration at the chamber of commerce.

Despite the socio-economic challenges of this particular era, Mr Zamanhan Can’ s company was one of the first companies to receive an “export certificate” 

Mr. Can quickly initiated import- export operations with Turkey's neighboring countries, and subsequently started to invest in different sectors, the first one being within the tourism sector, when Mr can started with a single hotel.
Not much later, Mr. Can took a new course by leading his company into the energy sector which is today the main driving force of the Group. By establishing the first fuel station on behalf of his company, he laid the foundations of the “Can Energy Group”.

Under his leadership and visionary approach, Can Group managed to grow steadily and expanded its operations into new regions and became an international player in energy, trade education and tourism sectors. 

The group significantly increased its activities, business volume and development as a large "Family Company" by actively including the second generation in the management since 1986.

In these years, our founder Zamanhan Can, using the advantage of having strong family ties, sent the 2nd generation executives who took an active role in the management of the company to each of the newly established Central Asian countries. This allowed the management in these countries get acquainted with the countries’ dynamics, culture and social structures, allowing the Group to become a significant player in these regions. Due to this local control of investments and by establishing cooperation with local parties on basis of mutual trust, Can Group was able to   strengthen the foundations of its "internationalization" strategy. This same approach has assisted the Group in its direct investments the Middle East countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Our founder, who diversified the Group’s investment areas by prioritizing the creation of ‘ecosystems’, has emphasized the importance of investing in developing technologies at early stage in target industries such as telecommunications. Within that framework Can group has been focusing in investments in innovation, telecom infrastructure and innovative communication technologies. 

Our founder, who still actively determines the basic strategies of the Group, has prioritized the working principles of the Group to work with dedication and discipline.

Following a period of nearly 50 years of intensive professional life, Mr. Zamanhan Can, who places emphasis on charity and active community support, is devoting most of his time to education and healthcare sectors. In line with this mission, he has decided to expand the activities of Zamanhan Can Foundation and Bilgi Education and Culture Foundation by focusing on projects with the aim of providing the best education and training for our children, from kindergarten to higher education.

In this context, currently through foundations, companies, and personal engagement, educational support is given to thousands of school-aged children from low income families.

Our founder has also given great importance to supporting studies and initiatives focusing on “prevention of neonatal deaths''. Within this context, he has set up the first and only Intensive Care Unit for children in Doğubeyazıt within the Eastern Anatolian Region, where all services are provided on a free of charge basis for the good of the community. Besides this ongoing focus on prevention of this important issue in certain regions of Turkey, the charity foundation also actively grants scholarships to children to make education accessible to everyone. 

By combining his vision and forward thinking with the strategic positioning of Doğu Beyazıt on the Silk Road, Mr Zamanhan Can has succeeded in creating a leading company in Turkey and in the world. Mr Zamanhan Can aims to work for the benefit of the society around him by enabling individuals to become a better person for the society and the world, where Zamanhan Can Foundation has been instrumental to extend a helping hand to the masses in need. 

As a Can Holding board of directors, we take it as our directive to go forward with Mr Can Zamanhan’s recommendation to “consider each individual living on earth as our countryman” and make it our group’s shared vision to become a true “citizen of the world’ by respecting different cultures and norms around the globe in our strive to remove all geographical boundaries in our investments within international trade, technology, education and healthcare.