Garanti BBVA Managers Gather for Annual Executives Meeting
On November 6-8, 2025, 1,600 senior and middle managers from across Türkiye met in Antalya for the annual Executives Meeting, with the theme “We are ready for the future: we will make it happen together.” The 2025 event focused on the bank’s strategic goals, underscored its accomplishments and analyzed the areas of growth that will shape the future. BBVA CEO Onur Genç joined the meeting, where he discussed the group’s global vision and the strategic role Garanti BBVA plays in making this vision a reality.
Strategic priorities are the key to success
Garanti BBVA CEO Mahmut Akten delivered the opening remarks for the event. He focused his presentation on the bank’s strong financial performance in the first nine months of 2025, the Turkish and global economies, and the strategic priorities for 2026.
The CEO also emphasized that teamwork is Garanti BBVA’s key to success. “Our strength comes from our ability to think and act as a team. Every employee does their part to carry Garanti BBVA into the future,” he said. He also noted that customer expectations are rapidly evolving: “Life is changing, generations are changing. Therefore, we are changing the way we work.”
In the coming period, Mahmut Akten explained that Garanti BBVA will continue to move forward in alignment with the BBVA Group's six strategic priorities. Most importantly, the bank’s top priority is to adopt a ‘Radical Client Perspective’ that puts customers at the heart of everything – in all areas and from start to finish. “We have to listen to our customers and understand them,” he said. Part of this understanding comes from the bank surveying 13 million customers to determine their level of satisfaction. Using artificial intelligence, the bank then develops a Customer Satisfaction Index to track its progress.
Other critical strategic priorities include integrating sustainability into the bank’s activities as a lever of growth, scaling up all corporate banking segments, and creating value and capital to boost sustainable, profitable growth. The CEO also underlined the importance of accelerating innovation and improving data-based decision-making through data, artificial intelligence and next-generation technologies. “Now, we can easily produce solutions like UGI that simplify our customers’ lives,” he stated. UGI is a generative AI-powered tool that communicates with an average of 1.4 million customers, 6 million times per month, providing support for over 300 topics. “With artificial intelligence, we can work more quickly and save our teams time,” he added.
He also underscored the strategic priorities regarding empathy and teamwork, which he called “the cornerstones of our success.” Garanti BBVA is working to reinforce its corporate culture around these priorities, which the CEO believes are the foundation of a winning team.
BBVA CEO Onur Genç and Garanti BBVA CEO Mahmut Akten during the event.
“Putting the customer at the center is in our DNA”
BBVA CEO Onur Genç also participated in the meeting, where he stressed the bank’s efforts to put customers at the forefront by truly listening to them and understanding them. “We work so that customers can say, ‘I really love this bank.’ It’s an approach that defines our Group, and Garanti BBVA is based on the same understanding. It’s in our DNA,” he said. The CEO also noted the importance of sustainability, corporate banking, capital profitability and artificial intelligence.
In addition, Onur Genç praised the Garanti BBVA employees for their critical contributions to the bank’s impressive financial results. “We have brilliant people on our team who work with honesty and transparency, giving their all to bring their country to the level of modern civilization envisioned by Atatürk. I think you are a very valuable team. I want all of you to know that," he said.
Learning together, growing together
Throughout the event, managers participated in various sessions, workshops and activities designed to strengthen open communication – one of the most important aspects of Garanti BBVA’s culture. Participants had the opportunity to engage directly with senior management, both to hear the organization's strategic goals firsthand and to share their own ideas. This strong sense of unity was celebrated with concerts and a Gala Night.
The Executives Meeting was more than a platform for sharing strategy; it was also a gathering that reaffirmed employee commitment, shared values, and a deep sense of belonging. The message that resonated throughout the event was clear: “Together, we can achieve anything.”
Looking ahead, Garanti BBVA will continue to strengthen its people-centered approach through technology – banking that makes sense of data, personalizes experiences with artificial intelligence and connects with people on a human level to share the future of banking.