ISSUE 33
Hakki Akbulak found out that his brother Erdogan had a malignant tumor. He asked him to come to the U.S. for treatment. When he persuaded him,
A Bless›ng ›n D›sgu›se
ridgeport, CT - “A blessing in disguise,” is the
Bbest phrase to describe Hakki Akbulak’s busi-
ness adventures in the U.S. Akbulak, a Turkish born businessman, left Turkey when he was 17 to attend a college in Germany, become a CPA, then started to work for KMPG, a global network of professional services firms providing audit, tax and advisory services. He moved to the U.S. to work for KMPG’s U.S. branch. While he was building his career, he felt something was missing. When he moved to Germany, his brother Erdogan was 12 years old and they were not able to spend time together as he wished.
he made a promise as well: “If he recovered, I would quit my career as a CPA and start a new company with him.” 62 • TurkofAmerica
Everything started to change in 1990. Hakki Akbulak found out that his brother Erdogan had a malignant tumor. He asked him to come to the U.S. for treatment. When he persuaded him, he made a promise as well: “If he recovered, I would quit my career as a CPA and start a new company with him.” Erdogan survived and Hakki kept his promise and founded AKDO in 1990.
They decided to work together, but what could they do as a business? The Akbulak brothers researched what products they could import from Turkey to the United States. Hakki Akbulak settled on natural stone and within a short while granite, marble, limestone, travertine and slate became the brothers’ passion – imported not only from Turkey but from 25 other countries as well. He remembers those first two years of business by saying that “The stone industry was in the Stone Age and dealing with people was not easy.” (Issue:33, June 2009)!