Born in 1945, Akın Öngör graduated from the Faculty of Administrative Sciences of the Middle East Technical University in 1967. He played basketball for Ankara Kolejliler club and then, for Fenerbahçe club.

After working as a marketing executive at various industrial companies, he entered into the banking sector as a senior executive at Pamukbank in 1981.

He joined Garanti Bank as the Executive Vice President responsible for Corporate and Commercial Banking, Marketing and External Affairs in 1987. He served as Garanti Bank General Manager and CEO from 1991 to 2000 and led the major transformation of Garanti. He worked as an instructor at Harvard Business School and London Business School where this transformation is lectured as a case study.

Being also a mariner, Akın Öngör sailed across Atlantic Ocean in 2003 and Pacific Ocean in 2006. He then wrote a book titled “ia orana” (Have a good day) on his memories on the Pacific.

Akın Öngör wrote his second book titled “Benden Sonra Devam” (Continue Down the Road after Me) on his extraordinary success story as Garanti Bank General Manager. In his third book titled “Güçten Sonra Devam” (“Continuing My Life After I Left Power”), he wrote about why he step down from power at the peak of his career as an executive and what he did afterwards.

He started to produce “château-produced” quality wine as a hobby on the vineyards in Akhisar with his family. Selendi brand wines produced by him became a well-loved wine by the wine lovers in a short period of time and one of the best quality wines of Türkiye and the world.

Placing great importance on education, Akın Öngör established Gülin Öngör Technical and Vocational High School for Girls in Akhisar providing education for 1000 girls and donated the school to the Ministry of National Education.

Akın and Gülin Öngör has two children and three grandchildren.