Ebru Koksal, CFA
Ebru Koksal, CFA is a respected leading figure in international football and a speaker on leadership, diversity and inclusion and resilience.
Ebru Köksal began her professional career in New York, as a financial analyst in Corporate Finance at Morgan Stanley, before moving back to Turkey to serve as a senior manager at Citibank between 1992 and 1999. In 1999, Ms. Köksal joined private equity fund of AIG as a VP, before joining Galatasaray Sports Club in 2001.
Ebru Koksal has held several senior positions at Galatasaray including, Galatasaray Marketing General Manager (2001 – 2006), Galatasaray SC Marketing and Finance Group Head (2006 – 2009), Galatasaray Stadium General Manager (2009 – 2010). Following the merger of football, stadium and marketing companies in 2010, she was appointed as the General Manager of the merged entity, Galatasaray Sportif A.Ş.
Ms. Köksal was the first woman to be elected to the Executive Board of European Club Association in September 2010 and she served as the vice chairwoman of Institutional Relations Working Group.
In October 2011, she was appointed as the first ever General Secretary of Turkish Football Federation and led a restructuring and corporate efficiency project, which was higly praised by FIFA.
She was the recipient of the Executive of the Year Award 2011 by Stadium Business Awards and the 1st ever recipient of HBS Executive Education Making a Difference Award in 2018.
Ms. Köksal served as a Board Member at Galatasaray Sports Club between June 2013 – May 2015 and besides assuming the role of General Secretary for the Board, she was responsible from Foreign Relations, Stadium and Football Academy.
She is currently a NED at the Australian Professional Leagues, an independent non-executive director at the Professional Footballer’s Association, senior adviser at J Stern & Co, Chair of Women in Football, UK, Advisory Board Member at Sportotal AG and a Board Member at Doublepass BV.
Ms. Köksal is a graduate of Brown University, with dual degree in Economics and International Relations and graduate of Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Speaking topics
Ebru is regularly asked to speak at conferences across the world. Some of her speaking themes include –
- Leadership Development
- Diversity, Equality & Inclusion
- Motivation & Inspiration
- Football Business
Each of her speaking events are tailored to each client and examples of recent talks include –
- Power to Shape
- Personal Resilience & Leadership
- Decision Making and Negotiating
- Rebellion against Myself
- The Future of Football in Europe
- Female Leadership in sport
- A Seat at the Table: Delivering More Decision-Makers
- Being Bold For Change
- Women Decision Making and Gender Equality
“Ebru made clear, in a very impressive way, that even the most senior executives are humans after all. And that great leaders should not only be sharing the bright sides of life, but also drawbacks. Honesty & authenticity are leadership skills.”
— Deloitte Consulting
“Ebru’s storytelling skills, weave practical advice into her personal life-story. Captivating and inspirational, her talk touched on important topics such as embracing diversity of thoughts & backgrounds, seeing challenges as opportunities and daring to be different”
— Unicredit
Ebru attended our Women Empowerment initiative meeting as a key note speaker. Based on her own life and leadership experience as a woman in fields mostly dominated by men, she eloquently conveyed very important key messages needed for success and resilience to lead. Her authentic, well curated presentation and inspirational style touched and moved the audience.
— Mc Kinsey/Zain
