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BAR UK Elects New Vice Chairman

The Directors of the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK) have elected Mr Yavuz Sökmen, Director UK & Ireland for Turkish Airlines, as a Vice Chairman of the trade association.

Mr Sökmen was born in Istanbul, graduated from Ankara University with a BSc in Electrical Engineering and gained an MSc in Automatic Control from the University of Manchester in 1971. He lectured at the University of Sussex from 1972 to 1974 and joined Turkish Airlines in 1975. Since then, he has held the posts of Corporate Planning Director and Marketing Director at Turkish Airlines' Head Office and has also been Country Manager in both France and Switzerland. He took up his current post in London in July 1996. Mr Sökmen is married and has three children.

BAR UK has two Vice Chairmen - one is permanent in the role and represents a British-based carrier (currently British Airways), the other is from an overseas-based carrier and will succeed as Chairman of the trade association. The current Chairman is Mark Schwab of United Airlines.

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For further information contact:
Peter North,
Chief Executive,
BAR UK
Tel: 020 7707 4147
Fax 020 7707 4182