He was born in 1964 in Gaziantep's Oğuzeli district. Completing his primary, secondary and high school education in Gaziantep, ŞİMŞEK graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of the Middle East Technical University in 1987. After working at Unilever Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. in 1988, he started to work as Assistant Manager in Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone Directorate in 1989. He continued to work successfully as the Regional Manager at the same workplace from 1993 to 2013. He joined the OIZ Board of Directors from GASIAD between 2013-2019 and served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of GAOSB until 2019. He was elected as the Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2019 and continues his duty.