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.

Tim is currently an emerging market sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, working in the emerging market debt team. Tim was previously Head of CEEMEA Credit Strategy at Nomura. He has also previously held positions as Head of EM Research at ICBC-Standard Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bear Sterns.

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

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.”

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.

Based out of Singapore, Rahul Sheth is an Executive Director in Standard Chartered’s Capital Solutions team, housed within its Capital Markets franchise. In his role as a solutions specialist, he globally heads the green bonds product and has been responsible for leading pioneering green bond transactions for clients across the bank’s footprint including the New Development Bank, Axis Bank, TSKB, Agricultural Bank of China, NTPC, IDBI, Bank of China amongst others. He maintains an active dialogue with investors, regulators and organisations such as the Climate Bonds Initiative and the Green Bond Principles.