Haluk Bayraktar

Haluk Bayraktar (born 4 October 1978) is a Turkish engineer and executive. He is the CEO of Baykar, TUBITAK Board Member and founder and chairman of the board of Turkey Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) and SAHA Istanbul. He is a pioneer of Turkey for autonomous technology efforts which reshaped battlefields and geopolitics which resulted with a change of future warfare doctrines.

Life
Haluk Bayraktar is the CEO of Baykar, Turkey’s premiere autonomous technology company. Haluk began his tenure at Baykar in 2004 as an engineering manager when Baykar’s autonomous technology efforts were still nascent. He has since been involved in every aspect of the business from engineering to project management to logistics support and business development.

Haluk is also one of the founders of the Turkey Technology Team (T3) Foundation, an initiative intended to foster technology education among Turkish youth through entrepreneurship, competitions, and supplementary technology education.

Additionally, Haluk was one of the founders and chairman of the board of Turkey’s Aerospace and Defense Cooperative (SAHA Istanbul), which includes over 600 companies and 16 universities.

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, he turned his company's engineering expertise to rapidly develop intensive health care ventilators and supported mass serial production.

During 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he took a clear stance with Ukraine when pressed by CNN presenter Julia Chatterley, who repeatedly asked, “Would you supply Russia?”, Bayraktar responded: “We have not delivered or supplied them with anything, [and] we will as well never do such a thing because we support Ukraine, support its sovereignty, its resistance for its independence.”

Bayraktar said he is proud that Bayraktar TB2 has become one of the symbols of the Ukrainian resistance against Russia.

In 2021 and 2022, Haluk Bayraktar is known as the second-highest income taxpayer in Turkey.

Honours and medals
- Haluk was awarded an Order of Merit of 1st Degree of Ukraine by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his service to for significant personal merits in strengthening interstate cooperation, support of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, significant contribution to the popularization of the Ukrainian state in the world on 29 August 2022.

- Haluk was awarded with an Order of Merit of Ukraine at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his service to Ukraine and Ukraine-Turkey relations on 25 August 2020.

- Bayraktar was awarded this high award for his contribution to strengthening fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, developing of cooperation, ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

- Malian President Assimi Goita awarded Turkish drone magnate Baykar’s general manager, Haluk Bayaraktar, and chief technology officer Selçuk Bayraktar along with other two members of their team the country’s “National Order” for their contributions and services to Mali.

- The Ordre de L'etalon Officier medal, the country's highest national honour, by the order of Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traore for his outstanding and exceptional contributions to the West African nation’s peace, security and counter-terrorism activities.

- On October 29, 2023, the State Order of Daneker was awarded to Haluk Bayraktar, the CEO of Baykar, by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Sadır Caparov, in recognition of the support provided to the security and technology of the Kyrgyz Republic through Turkey's indigenous and national UAVs, Bayraktar TB2 and Bayraktar AKINCI.

- Haluk Bayraktar was awarded the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic Honor Medal on December 16, 2023, for his valuable contributions to enhancing and developing the national and air force capabilities of Ethiopia. The medal was presented to Bayraktar during a ceremony in Addis Ababa, as part of the 88th anniversary celebrations of the Ethiopian Air Force, in the presence of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, by Chief of General Staff Marshal Birhanu Jula and Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Yilma Merdasa.

- Haluk Bayraktar became the first civilian to receive the Medal of Superior Service, Kosovo’s highest military honor, from Kosovar Defense Minister Ejup Maqedonci on 6 November 2023.

- Medal for assistance in the protection of the state border by Ukraine State Border Control.

- Ukraine Airforce Medal for skill, honor, and courage by the Ukrainian Air Force Command.

- On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the state company Antonov Aircraft Factory (Ukraine), the Antonov medal was presented for its contributions to the aviation industry.

- The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine awarded the “Star of Military Brotherhood” medal to Haluk Bayraktar. The medals were presented by Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, a war hero and commander of the Ukraine’s Air Force, at a Ukrainian military base on February 2, 2024.