Two Turkish Ceos Make List Of Most Powerful Women

Turkey's Güler Sabancı and Serpil Timuray took the third and 15th spots, respectively, on Fortune magazine's "Most Powerful Women of Europe, the Middle East and Africa" list, which was published on Thursday by the leading business publication.

According to the magazine, for 16 years Fortune has ranked the most powerful businesswomen inside and outside of America, adding that this year it tried a new system of creating two categories for their rankings of the businesswomen who have been making the most progress. The first category includes Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the second includes the Asia-Pacific region.

Sabancı took third place on the list as the chairwoman and managing director of Turkey's Sabancı Holding, while Timuray -- the former CEO of Vodafone Turkey and recently appointed CEO of Vodafone's Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific operations -- ranked 15th.

Ana Botin -- chairwoman of Banco Santander, the most prominent Spanish bank in the world -- took first place on the list. Botin took over the post in early September this year following the sudden death of Emilio Botin, her father and the former chairman of the bank.

Emilio Botin had led the bank since 1986, a time during which he turned the bank into Spain's largest private lender. (Cihan/TZ)