Istanbul, Türkiye
QUOTE In 2008, MAN Germany has celebrated its 250th anniversary and has published 250 stories. Below follows story number 66: “MAN's Turkish-German Jack of All Trades” Semih Pala MAN Financial Services AG | Ankara | Turkey Semih Pala went an unusual path: His career led him from Germany to Turkey, rather than the other way round. All the better for MAN: This allrounder proved an asset to the company in all sorts of areas. He was born in Bremerhaven in 1972 and went to elementary school there. But he has been living in Turkey since he is eleven. After graduating from Middle East University, he began working as internal auditor for ISBANK in 1995. He joined MAN in 1999. That's when he founded the "Sales Finance" department in Ankara for the firm and began running it. In the meantime he found documents on the financing and building of MAN's Galata Bridge in Istanbul-1912, in the archives of Deutsche Bank, and discovered that the company's first shipments to Turkey began in 1874, as documented in the MAN archives in Augsburg. The history of MAN in Turkey had to be rewritten. After initiating various projects, including the “Rudolf Diesel Prize” plus scholarship, establishment of an MAN research and development office at Middle East Technical University and obtaining a 250.000 € grant from TUBITAK for an R&D Project of MAN; his pet project was greenlighted by MAN Germany in 2005 (which had been rejected in 2003): "MAN Financial Services Turkey". For the first time in the firm's history, an MAN employee became shareholder, founder and manager of his own company in one. Fortunately, he was able to live up to the confidence placed in him. MAN Financial Services Turkey became the first daughter company within MAN Group to make an operating profit within six months, and reach an EBT of one million € within 15 months. Engineering the Future - since 1758. MAN Group UNQUOTE