Che Sidanius is the Global Head of Financial Crime & Industry Affairs at Refinitiv (an LSEG business). His role is to identify regulatory changes and lead programs of action with the sole purpose of enhancing the fight against financial crime more effective and delivering the best possible outcome for the industry. Together with the World Economic Forum and Europol, he’s the founder of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime and Co-Chair of the B20’s Integrity and Compliance Taskforce.

Prior to joining Refinitiv, his work experiences include being a Senior Advisor to the Bank of England's Financial Stability Directorate and previously a Senior Bank Examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. His most notable awards included receiving the Presidential Award for managing the 2007-09 Financial Crisis and a driving force behind Refinitiv’s Impact Company of the year award in 2019 and contributor to the same award in 2021.

Che received his Master’s in International Affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University and undergraduate degree in Political Science from UC Berkeley in California

Mr. Berik started his banking career as a Management Trainee in Ziraat Bank Banking School. After16 years of banking experience in Turkey, Kazakhstan and Germany, he took on the role of Chief Compliance Officer of Ziraat Bank in 2006.

In 2009, he earned his CAMS(Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist) certification as well as ICA’s Certificate in Financial Crime Prevention. In the same year, he was invited to the “Combatting International Crime” program by the US Department of State under International Visitors Leadership Exchange Program. 

In 2014, he took on the role of Compliance Director at Türkiye Finans Bank (a subsidiary of National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia). Since October 2018, he has been offering consultancy services to domestic and international companies.  Mr. Berik has extensive experience in mitigating risks that are associated with AML/CTF, international sanctions and in ethics investigations. In 2019, he obtained his CGSS (Certified Global Sanctions Specialist) certification."

After graduating from Boğaziçi University, Department of Business Administration, Mrs. Yildiz began her career at the Industrial Development Bank of Turkey in 1998. She held various managerial positions at Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG, UniCredit Invesment Securities and ING Bank where she assumed wide variety of investment banking roles. Mrs. Yildiz joined to the Development and Investment Bank of Türkiye in 2019 as the Executive Vice President, responsible from Investment Banking, Project Evaluation, Corporate Communications and Sustainability and Environmental Social Impact Management. Mrs. Yildiz is also chair of Development Asset Leasing Companies and board member of Turkey Securitization Company and Development Venture Capital Portfolio Management Company.

She graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Law and Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of International Relations. She had a short-term education at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

She started her professional life in an international law firm working on capital markets and banking, working with the Steel Exporters' Association and Yatırım Finansman Menkul Değerler A.Ş. and Finans Yatırım Menkul Değerler A.Ş., as a Company lawyer. She is currently working as the Chief Legal Counselor/Board Member at the BtcTurk Group.

She is also executivw board of the Banking and Finance Law Commission at the Istanbul Bar Association, a member of the TUSIAD Capital Markets working group and a member of the Blockchain Turkey Legislation and Public Relations Group. She has over 10 years of experience in the financial sector and a Capital Markets License.

Emre Özbek is a compliance executive with 26 years of banking experience.

He is born and raised in Ankara, graduated from TED Ankara College and Ankara University – Business Administration Faculty respectively. Started his career at Ziraat  Bankası in 1998 and moved to Garanti Bankası in 1999 as an Assistant Internal Auditor.  

Prior to his current role in Garanti BBVA as the Chief Compliance Officer which he is holding for the last 9 years, he leaded the Internal Audit Department for 1,5 years and the Internal Control Department for 5 years at Garanti BBVA. Özbek, holds CIA and CBRM certificates. He is among the founding members of the Compliance Association, of which he continues as a Board Member.

Mr. Ural began his professional career at the Borusan Group in 2005. He held various managerial positions at Otis Elevator Company, Corning Inc and DowAksa where he assumed wide variety of sustainability roles.

Mr. Ural joined to the Interaktif Cevre, JV of the Kibar Holding and the Heritage Group,  in 2016 as the founding General Manager. He is also a board member at the Business and Sustainable Development Council (BCSD Türkiye) and holds various different roles in many NGOs.

Mr. Ural has a bachelor degree from Istanbul Technical University and MBA degree from Istanbul Bilgi University. Recently he finished the Sustainability Leadership program of the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. 

Dr. Nilay Akgerman was appointed as the Global Head of Compliance for the Group in June 2023. Dr. Akgerman has more than 20 years of compliance experience across a variety of different industries and geographies including North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, China, Australia & New Zealand.

She has previously held senior compliance professional roles at Livanova Plc, Teva Pharmaceutical Ltd. and Mercedes-Benz.

Ms Akgerman holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and an MSc from Galatasaray University.

Business professional with 20 years of management experience in the fields of blockchain, emerging technologies, fintech, business development, marketing and sales. She received her bachelor's degree in economics from Istanbul University and her master's degree in marketing communications management from Galatasaray University, as well as her executive MBA from Ozyegin University.

She entered the tech sector after working in national and multinational companies as a marketing director, country manager, and many other roles. Aysegul is country manager of Fuze Finance, an AbuDabi based licensed fintech providing embedded digital asset capabilities for financial institutions.

She was the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at XYZ Teknoloji, a blockchain-focused FinTech company based in Istanbul. Aysegul is a chairwoman and founding member of Istanbul Blockchain Woman, a non-profit association dedicated to empowering women in the blockchain ecosystem. The community's purpose is to organize social responsibility projects that will provide women with positive discrimination in terms of technology and blockchain. She is also a co-founder of the SOS Chain initiative, partners with needsmap.coop, which is a blockchain infrastructure fund for disasters and rapid humanitarian crises worldwide.

Aysegul is leading Euthenia community in Turkey which is Madrid based organization aiming to increase C-level gender equity both in Mediterranean and Mena countries. Besides she is the co-founder of Haqq Donate which aims to serve a transparent dApp, allows Muslim faithful to make their Zakat contributions crypto assets

İstanbul merkezli HERDEM Avukatlık Bürosu'nun kurucu ve yönetici ortağı olan Şafak Herdem, havacılık ve savunma, uluslararası ticaret özel çalışma alanında ekonomik yaptırımlar ve sınai işbirlikleri üzerine yoğunlukla çalışmakla, ülkemizde faaliyet gösteren birçok ABD, Asya, Kanada, Orta Doğu merkezli şirkete hukuki danışmanlık faaliyeti vermektedir.

Şafak Herdem kariyerine Kanada merkezli Eldorado Gold Corpoation'ın Türkiye'deki altın madenciliği faaliyetlerini yürüten Ankara merkezli iştiraki Tüprag Metal Madencilik'te başlamıştır. Gelinen süreç içerisinde Herdem, sanayi katılım projeleri ve savunma alımlarında kamu otoritelerine mevzuat yapımı konusunda hukuki destek sağlamak dahil Fortune500 listesinde yer alan birçok çok uluslu şirketin Türkiye'de uluslararası ticaret konularında danışmanlığını yürütmektedir. Herdem, Türkiye'de havacılık ve savunma alımlarının hukuki mevzuatına ilişkin ilk hukuk kitabının yazarı olmakla aynı zamanda ABD İhracat Kontrol Düzenlemeleri'nden ITAR'ye ilişkin olarak ilk Türkçe kaynak kitabın da yazarıdır.

Mesleki kariyerinde Thomson Reuters ve Bloomberg gibi çeşitli mecralarda birçok makalesi yayımlanan Herdem aynı zamanda geçtiğimiz yıllarda Thomson Reuters hukuku yayını olan Lexology'de üç yıl üst üste havacılık ve savunma hukuku Türkiye uzmanı olarak tanımlanmıştır.

Şafak Herdem çeşitli ve farklı konularda uluslararası ticaret, ticarileştirme ve regülasyon etkileşimli uluslararası platformlarda sıklıkla konuşmalar yapmakla, Kaliforniye Üniversitesi, OECD, Drexel Üniversitesi, Beyrut Amerikan Üniversitesi'nde bu kapsamda çeşitli eğitimler ve seminerler vermiş, paneller yönetmiştir.

Şafak Herdem, uluslararası platformda Avrupa Uluslararası Ticaret ve Yatırım Kontrolü Derneği Türkiye temsilciğini görevini de yürütmekle Uluslararası Barolar Birliği, Amerikan Barolar Birliği, İsviçre-Çin Hukuk Derneği üyesi olup ülkemizde de TÜSİAD, DEİK, Türkiye Kurumsal Yönetim Derneği, Etik ve İtibar Derneği, Türkiye Kalite Derneği üyesidir.

Herdem, aynı zamanda Amerikan Uluslararası Ticaret Tahkim Mahkemesi kayıtlı hakemidir.

Etkin Özen currently serves as the Acting Program Leader for the Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group (EFI) for Turkiye at The World Bank, where he also holds the position of Senior Financial Sector Specialist. Etkin leads economic policy dialogues with government counterparts, coordinates macroeconomic discussions, advises EFI teams on economic policy and institutional reforms, and oversees the preparation of strategic documents.

With over five years at The World Bank, Etkin has been the focal point of the financial sector program in Turkiye, which includes lending operations, advisory services, and analytical work focused on financial stability and resilience, climate finance, financial diversification, and inclusion.

Before joining The World Bank, he served at the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkiye for almost 20 years. He is a Chevening Alumnus with degrees from the London School of Economics, the University of Nottingham, and Hacettepe University.

Hale Özsoy Bıyıklı is a partner at Turkven Private Equity and has over twenty years of experience in private equity. She is also a board member and Treasurer at EYDK, the Impact Investing Advisory Board in Turkey.

Prior to Turkven, she worked at Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Division in London, the Boston Consulting Group and Andersen Business Consulting in Istanbul and Amsterdam.

She holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and MSc and BSc degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Mr.ALP began his professional journey at the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) in 1999, dedicating over two decades to advancing financial compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) initiatives. Rising through the ranks to serve as Expert, Department Head, and finally, Vice President, he played a pivotal role in shaping the FIU’s AML strategies.

During his tenure, ALP led the development and implementation of the e-Suspicious Transaction Reporting (e-STR) infrastructure and MASAK's AML software as part of an EU-funded project to enhance the agency’s technological capabilities. His expertise significantly contributed to the agency achieving ISO 27001 certification and transitioning to a paperless office environment.

As Vice President from 2015 to 2020, ALP managed various departments including Analysis, Money Laundering Investigations, Sanctions, and Information Technologies. He spearheaded the automation of analysis processes, harmonization of AML scenarios across financial institutions, and the development of standardized information flows and sector-specific STR Guides.

In 2021, after a distinguished career at MASAK, ALP chose to resign from public service and founded AMLTHINK Compliance. He provides AML compliance consultancy services to a wide range of sectors.  Throughout his career, ALP has contributed to various journals, utilizing his deep knowledge to share insights on enhancing organizational compliance capabilities.

Kenan Güneş Kalyoncu is a legal professional with almost 20 years of experience in various sectors. He holds a Law degree from Bilgi University and a LLM degree from Galatasaray University where he is also a PhD candidate.

Following his 9 year tenure as a Research Assistant/Lecturer at Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Law, he has worked both as a lawyer and a legal leader in different international companies .

He is currently the Head of Legal of one of the biggest crypto exchange platforms in Turkey, Bitexen, since June 2023. 

He is married and he has a son

Hikmet Mazmanoğlu completed his B.Sc. degree in Computer Science at Galatasaray University, Istanbul, in 2009. He continued his education with an M.Sc. degree in Computer Science at Pierre and Marie Curie University (now Sorbonne University), Paris, in 2011, focusing on Decisional Models, Optimization, and Machine Learning.

Since graduating, he has been active as a Data Scientist, garnering over a decade of experience in FinTech, AdTech, and RegTech. He is currently working as Chief Data Scientist, responsible for Data Science Products & Services at H3M Analytics.

Mehmet Erdem Yasar is currently serving as the Deputy Head of Turkiye at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), responsible for the Bank’s investments in corporates.

Prior to this role, Mehmet Erdem was in charge of EBRD's power and renewable energy initiatives in Turkiye.      

He holds an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics from Koc University, both achieved with high honours and supported by prestigious scholarships like the British Chevening.