Veysi Kurt took office as Director General and Chair of the Board of TCDD on 23 February 2024 with a Presidential Decree.

Veysi Kurt has held the roles of:

• Director General and Chair of the Board of TCDD Transport JSC from 13 May 2016 to 20 September 2019;
• Member of the Board of Türk Telekom International from 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2019;
• Member of the Board of Türk Telekom Innova from 13 May 2016 to 31 December 2018;
• Deputy Director General of TCDD from 5 November 2004 to 13 May 2016;
• Member of the Board of TÜLOMSAŞ from 1 October 2015 to 30 May 2016;
• Acting Director General and Chair of the Board of TÜDEMSAŞ from 5 April 2006 to 21 July 2006;
• Deputy Director General and Member of the Board of TCDD from 5 November 2004 to 13 November 2013;
• Head of Freight Department at TCDD between 2003 and 2004;
• Deputy Head of Freight Department at TCDD from 4 March 2003 to 5 November 2003;
• Division Manager in Freight Department at TCDD between 1993 and 2003;
• Deputy Division Manager in Freight Department at TCDD between 1991 and 1992;
• Engineer in Freight Department between 1989 and 1991;
• Engineer in Research, Planning and Coordination Department between 1987 and 1989.

Born in 1964 in Kocasırt, Veysi Kurt completed his primary education in 1975, his secondary education in 1982 and started his higher education in 1983. He graduated as an Industrial Engineer in the summer term of 1987.

He started work at the Directorate General of Turkish State Railways in Ankara the same year. During his time at TCDD, he worked in the Planning and Coordination, Personnel, and Logistics Departments, covering important specialised areas such as investment planning, personnel regime, railway operations, freight and passenger transport, and logistics and traffic. He received training on marketing, planning, management, total quality, transportation and logistics through in-service training sessions and other organisations.

He started the first freight transport block train in the Turkish railway sector and completed the establishment of logistics centre projects. He managed the planning, procurement, construction and commissioning of infrastructure, superstructure and electromechanical projects for the Ankara-Istanbul, Ankara-Konya and Konya-Istanbul lines, which were the first high-speed rail corridors in Turkey. He managed the design, procurement and testing processes for high-speed train sets at a senior level. He worked as a senior manager on the design, procurement, construction and management of the Ankara-Sivas, Ankara-Bursa, Ankara-İzmir high-speed train projects and commuter vehicles in Ankara.

He conducted the planning and construction for signalling, electrification and telecommunication projects for 3,500 km of conventional lines. He completed some of them and he brought some of them to the completion stage.

He took part in and managed the localisation of TCDD locomotives, wagons and construction equipment and expansion of the fleet projects. He worked on and managed projects for making TCDD ports more active and utilising the operating rights in cooperation with the private sector, restructuring TCDD and preparing the sector law. He worked as a senior manager in conducting the 18 billion USD investment in railway logistics, traffic, infrastructure, superstructure, electromechanical, vehicle and port sub-sectors of high-speed and conventional lines.

With the liberalisation of the railway sector, he was the founding Director General and Chair of the Board of TCDD Transport JSC, the only publicly owned railway company, and achieved the highest production of all time in railway transport in 2017-2018, taking part in establishing the private sector.

With the inauguration of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line in 2017, he started direct freight transport from China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to Turkey and from Turkey to Russia for the first time. Similarly, block trains with wagons with Turkish flags started to run from Turkey to European cities such as Vienna, Bratislava, Sofia and Duisburg. Doğu Ekspresi (the Eastern Express) passenger transport was raised to fourth place among 10 important destinations in the world.

Duties in non-governmental organisations:

• 2009: Chair of the Board of TCDD Foundation
• 2009: Member of Board of Trustees of TCDD Foundation
• 2010: Chief Advisor to President of Ice Hockey Federation of Türkiye
• 2010: Member of Board of Ice Hockey Federation of Türkiye
• 2018-2019: Member of Board Trans-Caspian International Transport Route

He is the father of four children, all of whom are doctors. He speaks English and Arabic.

(Source: TCDD)