Bonds, Loans & Sukuk Turkey

Based in London, Philippe is responsible for global geopolitical economic analysis, assessing global risks and their economic implications. After eight years covering the Middle East, he is leveraging his expertise in regional geopolitics to inform his global coverage. Philippe is in regular contact with policy makers and multilateral institutions. He participates in think-tank projects and regularly comments in global media. Before joining the Bank in 2007, Philippe worked for HSBC Asset Management in Paris and New-York, for the French embassy in Washington D.C. and in the US Congress.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s in Business from the University of Paris (Dauphine). He also holds Master’s degrees in International Relations from Sciences-Po (Paris) and the School of International Affairs at Columbia University.

Osman Cevdet Akçay served as the Chief Economist at Koç Financial Services and Yapi Kredi until May 2018. He completed his secondary and high school education at Istanbul American Robert College High School. He received his B.A. in economics from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul, and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Graduate School and University Center at City University of New York. He served at Boğaziçi University as Assistant Professor and as Associate Professor between 1992 and 2001, and was a full-time faculty member at Koç University from 2001 till September 2009. He started as an economist at Koç Yatırım (Investment Bank) in 1998 and became the Chief Economist for Koçbank and Koç Yatırım in 2000. Following the Koçbank-Yapi Kredi merger in 2006, he served as the Chief Economist at Yapi Kredi as well as the umbrella company Koç Financial Services. His research and publication areas mainly include exchange rate determination, debt dynamics, and disinflation with specific emphasis on the Turkish experience in these fields. He currently functions as a freelance economist providing consultancy mostly for foreign banks and their clients regarding their Turkey portfolios as well as for certain state institutions, including the Ministry of Finance and Treasury shortly in 2018.

• Director of research in Is Investment for 20 years.
• Responsible for macro strategy and portfolio allocation for institutional investors and high net worth individuals.
• Prepares a weekly column for daily Dunya for the last 15 years

Erich Arispe is a senior director in Fitch Ratings’ sovereigns group. He is

responsible for analysis and ratings of sovereigns in Emerging Europe.

Previously, Erich was part of Fitch’s team covering Latin America and

Caribbean sovereigns.

Prior to joining Fitch in 2007, Erich was an analyst at American International

Group (AIG) where he covered Latin American sovereigns. He also worked in

macroeconomic and political risk at Zurich Emerging Market Solutions in

Washington DC.

Erich earned a BA in political science and economics from American

University and an MA in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins School of

Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is a fluent Spanish and Portuguese

speaker.

After graduating from TED Ankara College in 1992, Görkem Elverici completed his undergraduate studies in the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at Middle East Technical University in 1996. He went on to obtain his MBA from Bilkent University in 1998. In 2015, Elverici completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is currently working on his Ph.D. dissertation in Banking-Finance at Kadir Has University. He began his professional career at İşbank in 1998. Throughout his career, Elverici served in various middle and senior management positions at İşbank, HSBC Turkey, Deloitte Consulting, and Accenture Consulting. Elverici joined Şişecam on March 01, 2013, as the Financial Affairs Director of the Flat Glass Group. He served as Şişecam's Chief Financial Officer from May 2014 to July 2021 and was appointed as Şişecam CEO as of July 1, 2021.

Tommaso leads Citi’s DCM business for the Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region (CEEMEA) and is a member of Citi’s DCM senior management team.

In this capacity Tommaso leads one of the industry’s top EM bond franchises: a team that structures and executes between 150-200 bond and private placements every year, raising in excess of US$125bn in debt capital financing for corporate, FI and sovereign borrowers from the region in 2021 alone.

Prior to his appointment in June 2021, Tommaso was responsible for Citi’s debt business in Turkey, South Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa and Israel – having previously focused on Russia/CEE and the Middle Eastern region.

Over the past 15+ years Tommaso has advised a broad range of corporates, financial institution and sovereigns borrowers in both the HY and IG markets in the implementation of their regular debt financing strategy, as well as for bespoke liability management and acquisition & project financing activity.

• Finance Director at Borusan Holding responsible from Treasury, Finance and Investor Relations since 2017
• Started her career as an auditor at Coopers& Lybrand (PWC) in 1995
• Started banking industry as a management trainee at Interbank and then joined HSBC, CIB Division in 1998 until 2008
• Worked at Finansbank, Structured and Project Finance between 2008-2010
• Joined Renault Finance Turkey/RCI Banque as Head of Treasury, Finance and Investor Relations in 2010

• Graduate from American Collegiate Institute, Izmir and holds BSc in Economics from Middle East Technical University

Murat Şeker earned his undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from Marmara University in 2000, followed by a Master's Degree in Economics from Sabancı University in 2002. Then, he earned a PhD in Economics from University of Minnesota, USA in 2008. Dr. Şeker worked at the Financial and Private Sector Development Senior Vice Presidency of World Bank, USA as an analyst at Global Indicators Analysis department between 2008 - 2011, and as an economist at Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship department between 2011 - 2013.

Dr. Şeker returned to Turkey in 2013 and worked at Ziraat Bank as Senior Vice President of Financial Institutions and Investor Relations Department until 2016. During his tenure at Ziraat Bank, Dr. Şeker served as board members of Ziraat Investment, Ziraat Private Pension and Ziraat Insurance subsidiaries. In July 2016, Dr. Şeker was assigned as the Chief Financial Officer of Turkish Airlines and in March 2021, he was additionally appointed as a Member of the Board and the Executive Committee of Turkish Airlines. Dr. Şeker also serves as a Board Member of Sun Express.

Between 2015 and 2018, Dr. Şeker lectured as a part-time professor at Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences and he received Associate Professorship title in October 2018.

Over 16 years of banking experience of which 3 years in Corporate Banking, 5 years in Project and Structured Finance and 8 years in Corporate Finance (Corporate Loans, Acquisition Finance, LBOs, Contracting Finance, Loan Repos, Loans to FIs) with a target market of MENA, South East Asia and Africa (FI). Walid is actively involved across the corporate finance spectrum (loan origination, structuring, execution and distribution), both on conventional and Islamic structures. He has joined Mashreq in 2004 after 3 years with Citibank Tunisia where he was involved in relationship management and then remedial management. Walid holds a BSc from ESCT (Ecole Superieure de Commerce) and a Masters in Sociology applied to Corporates.

Mashreq has provided banking and financial services to millions of customers and businesses since 1967.

They are one of UAE's leading financial institutions with a growing retail presence in the region including Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. They focus on providing customers access to a wide range of innovative products and services.

Ozgur Kutay is the Country Manager for Turkey, Eastern Europe and Central Asia at UK Export Finance (UKEF). In this role, Ozgur manages the UKEF relationships for a number of project sponsors, contractors, governments and financial institutions in the region along with supporting UK exporters to win contracts backed by the UKEF financing offer.

Prior to this position, Kutay served in Citigroup for over two decades with a variety of responsibilities. His roles included running Citibank in Kuwait as the chief executive, managing credit and risk for a region including Turkey, Israel, Caucasus, Central Asia, and leading Citibank’s corporate, financial institutions, and public sector relationships for the same region.

Mr. Demirhan was appointed Vice President Banking of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank for a period of four years. He took up his duties on July 17, 2018.

Mr. Demirhan is a Turkish national, born in 1964. He graduated from the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences of the Hacettepe University in Ankara and holds an MBA degree in Banking Administration from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom and an PhD degree in Finance from Ankara University, Turkey.

Hasan Demirhan started his professional career in the banking sector in 1987 as Internal Auditor at Etibank in Ankara, Turkey. In 1997 he became General Manager at the Kalkinma Investment and Securities Company in Istanbul. Mr. Demirhan joined the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Jeddah in 1999 as Senior Internal Auditor and made his career at the Treasury Department to become Director of the Department in 2009, overseeing IsDB’s extensive funding, investment, financial management, and corresponding banking relationships. In 2016 he took the duties of Director for Financial Policies and Planning Analytics responsible for Bank’s strategic financial planning and financial policies development. Mr. Demirhan was a member of IsDB’s Committees on Assets and Liabilities, Investment, and Risk Management, and represented IsDB on the Supervisory Board of Bosna Bank International in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Hasan Demirhan speaks Turkish, English, and Arabic.

He is married and has three children.

Emre Hatem works at Garanti BBVA as Director of Investment Banking and Finance. He has more than 20 years hands-on experience in project and structured finance, investment banking and restructurings.

He also leads the Sustainability Team of the bank and is the Board Member representing Garanti Bank at LYY Telekom. He is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Turkish Wind Energy Association (TÜREB).

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Boğaziçi University, along with a Master’s degree in Management from Marmara University and completed Columbia Business School Emerging Leader Development and Maine University Business Administration Programs.

Rizwan Kanji’s practice focuses on debt capital markets, finance and securitizations using both conventional and Islamic finance structures.

He advises investment banks, financial institutions, multilateral development banks, sovereign states, insurance companies and multinational regional corporations on high-profile transactions across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Widely considered one of the leading lawyers within Islamic finance, Rizwan has earned a reputation for advising on “first of its kind” transactions.

Global directories, Chambers and Partners have consecutively ranked Mr. Kanji as one of the world's leading Islamic finance and debt capital markets lawyers. Clients are highly impressed with his breadth of expertise, elaborating: "His problem-solving skills and pragmatic approach to transactions are invaluable” and “He has a lot of attention to detail and is very attentive to his clients.”

Aditya has responsibility for Mashreqbank’s debt capital markets activities. With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Aditya has led and worked across origination and execution platforms at Trussbridge, ADIB, Nomura, Lehman Brothers, E&Y and Arthur Andersen. He worked in London, Dubai and Mumbai. He has bookrun deals in excess of several billions of dollars of landmark financings, across the conventional and Islamic space, for governments, supra-nationals, corporates and financial institutions worldwide.

Aditya is a ranking Chartered Accountant from India and has a MBA from London Business School.

Erdal started his career in 1996 as an auditor at PwC. He is currently the CFO of Er-Bakır A.Ş. which is amongst the largest manufacturing corporations in Turkey. Prior to joining the firm in Fall 2019, he was the CFO of IC İçtaş İnşaat, a leading international contractor and infrastructure investor where he extensively practiced EPC and project finance for more than 5 years on various mega projects.

Previously, he worked as a country manager and business controller for almost 6 years at Duni AB, a leading European company listed on NASDAQ Stockholm. Before working at Duni AB, he was working as a financial reporting and accounting manager at Uzel Makina which was operating in the automotive industry and was listed on İstanbul Stock Exchange.

Erdal holds a BS degree in Economics and has a CPA/CFA license. In 2019, he was awarded by Fortune Turkey magazine as one of the top 50 CFO in Turkey.

Alex joined Fitch in London in 2005 as a corporate analyst, and has held a number of different roles, most recently as Fitch’s Credit Policy Group with responsibility for monitoring the quality of global corporate ratings. He started at Fitch as an analyst specialising in Telecoms, Media and Technology, then became Head of Research for EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Between 2012 and 2016 he ran the EMEA Natural Resources team.

Prior to this, Alex spent eight years with Deloitte's audit practice, where he gained experience ranging from transaction services work to audit, IFRS transitions, expert witness assignments and sector research.

Alex read economics at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Jojo is a Director in Standard Chartered Sustainable Bonds team and focuses on the advisory of ESG bonds for clients in Europe, Americas and Africa. Her expertise includes the structuring of ESG bonds and frameworks, as well as sustainable finance market and regulatory updates. Prior to Standard Chartered, Jojo led the EMEA Sustainable DCM efforts in Mizuho London and had roles within FIG Capital Solutions and Origination. Jojo is a CFA Charterholder and has obtained the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.

Irina Sfeir is a Director in SMBC Nikko's DCM team, responsible for Turkish, Central Eastern European and CIS international bond issuances. Irina has a range of experience across industries and geographies having executed dozens of transactions across multiple currencies and capital structures. She has over 10 years’ experience in the financial sector, having previously worked at MUFG, Rothschild and HSBC prior to joining SMBC Nikko. Irina graduated from the London School of Economics with a BA in Government and Economics.

Mr. Tufan joined Akbank in September 2020 as Head of International Banking and Institutional Clients. Under this role, he is responsible for correspondent banking, international wholesale funding as well as coverage and secondary market activities with institutional clients.

Previously, he was Director of Financial Institutions and Public Sector at Garanti BBVA where he started his career in 2004.

He is a graduate of Management from Bilkent University, Ankara. He holds a Master’s degree from University of Bocconi, Milan and is currently pursuing a second Master’s degree from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Sera Somay is the partner heading the banking and finance practice at Paksoy.

Ms Somay’s practice covers a broad range of financing transactions including; club loans, syndicated loans, regulatory capital, ECA covered loans, acquisition financing, various forms of secured financing and other structured financings. She has been representing international and local lenders as well as Turkish borrowers including the Republic of Turkey. She worked on the first AT1 issuance by a Turkish bank.

Ms Somay is also working on financial restructuring of debt and on debt collection proceedings and bankruptcy proceedings.

Ms Somay also advises on regulatory M&As across a variety of sectors with a focus on Banking M&As.

She is a member of the International Bar Association.

In 2018, in 2019, in 2020 and in 2021, Sera Somay is named as a Women Leader by IFLR 1000, which is the guide to the world’s leading financial law firms recognising 300 female lawyers globally and 13 from Turkey, that consider to be among the best transactional specialists in their markets and practice areas.

Sule Topcu Kilic is the Deputy Head, Turkey at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). She has been with EBRD since 2014 and reports directly to the Managing Director, assisting him to deliver the country strategy with a specific focus on sustainable infrastructure and energy sectors and deputize him for the Bank’s operations (administration and budgeting) and lead the policy initiatives in Turkey for infrastructure and energy sectors.

Sule Kilic has over 27 years of experience working on a variety of projects in project finance, financial advisory, M&A, private equity, bank acquisition.

During the last 17 years of her career, she took an active leading role in the development of BOT and PPP models in Turkish Transportation and Social Infrastructure Projects in Turkey, by taking a leading role in the preparation of legal framework and introduction of financing related regulations as well as the structuring and negotiations of the template Project Agreements with the relevant governmental authorities (including Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Health and Turkish Treasury). She also took an active role in the coordination of various stakeholders’ efforts to develop the project financing models to achieve the successful finalization of the projects in Turkish PPP Healthcare Programme as well as Transportation BOT programme.

Before joining the EBRD, Sule has spent six and half years at Unicredit Group, most recently as Managing Director leading project finance activities for the Investment Banking Platform in Turkey.

Prior to Unicredit, Sule held an array of Directorships and Vice Presidencies in project and structured finance, private equity in organisations such as Bayerische Hypo und Vereinsbank (Istanbul), Garanti Bank (Istanbul), Emporiki Private Equity (Athens & Istanbul), CitiBank (Istanbul) and Privatisation Administration (Ankara).

Sule is a Turkish national with a PhD in Finance from Boğaziçi (Bosphorus) University, a Master’s (MBA and MSc) degree from Manchester School of Management (UMIST) (with distinction degree) and BSc in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) (with distinction degree). She is born in 1970 in Gaziantep. She is married and has 2 children.