In a brief statement on Wednesday Genel confirmed Mehmet Sepil, 62, would be retiring.
"The history of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq's oil industry cannot be written without Mehmet featuring prominently, and it has been a great pleasure to work with him to establish the company he founded as a respected London-listed oil and gas company,” said Genel chairman Tony Hayward.
“While Mehmet leaves a legacy of a management team with unsurpassed relationships in the region, his expertise will remain on hand as he supports the business as a major shareholder."
Sepil founded Genel, then named Genel Enerji, in 2001 with fellow Turkish billionaire Mehmet Karamehmet to extract oil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
