Board of Directors and Committees

 

 

 

Emre TEZMEN graduated with High Academic Honors from the Economics Department of ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles) in 1995. In 1997, he completed his Master’s in Business Administration with High Distinction at VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) in Brussels. He holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) certification and is a Full Member of the CFA Institute.

Since 2022, he has been serving as a Board Member of the DEİK/Digital Technologies Business Council and as Chairman of the Venture Capital Committee.

He started his professional career in 1995, taking on various roles in global companies, including Head of Research, Head of Corporate Sales, and Deputy General Manager responsible for Research. TEZMEN led the 18-month project management of "E-seans", one of Turkey’s first online trading platforms, and established the research and corporate sales departments.

Following his extensive experience in financial markets and leadership roles in various ventures, he founded Tera Yatırım Menkul Değerler A.Ş. in 2005, Arena Finans Faktoring A.Ş. in 2015, Tera Portfolio Management A.Ş., Game Invest & Tech Invest funds, and TRA Bilişim Company in 2020. In 2023, he founded Tera Investment Bank A.Ş., where he continues to serve as Chairman of the Board.

In 2025, he acquired 60% ownership of Barikat Cyber Security and became Chairman of the Board. In the same year, he acquired a 29.5% stake in Pera Yatırım Holding, where he also serves as Chairman of the Board.

On August 3, 2023, he was appointed as a Board Member of the Central Securities Depository of Turkey (MKK - Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş.).

Emre TEZMEN is married with two children and speaks English and French fluently.

He graduated from the Law Faculty of Ankara University in 1988. He became an Administrative Justice Candidate Judge of Ankara in 1989. After working as a Judge at Ankara Administrative Court and a Rapporteur Judge at the Council of State, he departed from the public service in 1997 and started to work as a self-employed lawyer. In this period, he also worked as a contracted lawyer for TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye) and Türk Telekom. In 2006, he was appointed as the Head of the Department of Legal Affairs of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency and returned to public service. He was transferred to the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye as the Head of the Department of Laws, Decisions, and Legal Affairs in 2007 and continued to be in this position until being appointed as a Member of the Public Procurement Authority in 2012. Mr. GÜLEÇ, who was appointed as a Member of the Public Procurement Authority by the Decree of the Council of Ministers dated 16.04.2012, was then appointed as the Chairman of the Public Procurement Authority by the Decree of the Council of Ministers dated 18.04.2016. Mr. Güleç was appointed as the Chairman of the Public Procurement Board by the Decree of the Council of Ministers dated 18.04.2016, and he was reappointed as the Chairman of the Public Procurement Board by the Presidential Decrees numbered 2020/174 and dated April 26, 2020 and numbered 2024/118 and dated May 10, 2024. Mr. GÜLEÇ was elected as a board member of Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş. on 18.09.2017.​

Mehmet ARABACI was born in France in 1977. He graduated from the Department of Public Finance at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University, in 2000. He served as an Assistant Tax Auditor between 2001-2004 and as a Tax Auditor between 2004-2007. He served as the Group Head of Human Resources at the Revenue Administration between 2007-2009, and as a Tax Auditor and Senior Tax Auditor between 2009-2011. In 2009 and 2010, he conducted research and professional studies, and completed an internship in the United States on “Transfer Pricing in Commercial Banks.” 

In 2010-2011, he completed his master's degree in Economics at the University of Illinois in the United States. Between 2011-2012, he served as the Group Head of Ankara Thin Capitalization, Transfer Pricing, and Foreign-Source Income at the Ankara Group Presidency of the Tax Inspection Board.. He served as the Vice President of the Tax Inspection Board between 2012-2014. After serving as the Head of the Revenue Management Department at the Revenue Administration between 2014-2019, he served as the Vice President of the Revenue Administration from April 18, 2019, to May 8, 2026. As of August 3, 2023, he was appointed as a Board Member of Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş. (MKK), and has been serving in this role since then.

Appointed as the President of Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on May 9, 2026, Mr. ARABACI speaks English and is married with two children.

Mustafa TUZCU was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Trade on May 8, 2021. He was born in 1979 in Gebze. He received his bachelor’s degree from Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University. Later received his two master’s degrees in Political Science and International Relations from Boğaziçi University and "International Organizations and Foreign Trade Law" from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Boston, USA, respectively. Subsequently, he continued hi​s Ph.D studies in Regional Studies at the Middle East Technical University.

​Mustafa TUZCU, served as the Chief Trade Counsel and the Chairman of the Committee on Safeguards at the World Trade Organization (WTO), between 2018-2021. He also participated in negotiations of preferential trade agreements with many countries and chaired the meetings of mixed economic commissions previously, besides representing Türkiye in the WTO. He conducted many multilateral negotiations on behalf of Türkiye at WTO, UNCTAD and OECD. He worked as the Co-chair of the Türkiye-Arab League Economy and Investment Committee. He represented Türkiye in the negotiations for the establishment of the OECD Istanbul Competitiveness Center and he worked as the chairman of the trade and investment working group during Türkiye's G20 Presidency.

​Mr. TUZCU worked as the Baghdad Commercial Counselor and as the Deputy General Manager for International Agreements in the Ministry of Trade. He worked as a sector expert in trade relations with the Middle East and Gulf countries, multilateral and regional commercial agreements, foreign contracting and in the Exporters Association.

Mustafa TUZCU is married with three children. He is advanced in English, intermediate in Arabic and French.

Mr. TUZCU elected as a board member of Central Securities Depository of Türkiye, MKK in May 20, 2021.​​​

Dr. Ekrem ARIKAN earned his bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering at Boğaziçi University and his MBA at Yeditepe University. He received his PhD degree from İstanbul Ticaret University in Business Administration with his thesis “Factors Affecting Corporate Governance Maturity Level and Analysis of Digital Maturity Level: A Research on Companies Traded in Borsa İstanbul.” He speaks advance level English and German, also beginner-level Arabic.

At Microsoft, he worked as a Support Engineer starting in 1998, as a Program Specialist starting in 1999, and as a Program Manager in the Windows International Product Development Group starting in 2000. Until 2006, he was responsible for the development of Windows operating systems for the Turkish and Turkish-speaking markets. 

At Ziraat Teknoloji A.Ş., which provides IT services for the Ziraat Finance Group, he served as IT Architecture Manager starting in 2007, as Project Management Office Manager starting in 2009, and as IT Security Manager starting in 2011. In 2013, he was appointed as Corporate Development Director. Starting in 2014, he worked at Ziraat Hayat ve Emeklilik A.Ş. as the IT and Corporate Development Group Manager, managing Information Technologies, Customer Services and Call Center, Human Resources, and Support Services.

From 2015, he started to work at the EPİAŞ (Energy Exchange - Enerji Piyasaları İşletme A.Ş.) as a Consultant to the Chair. After being appointed as Strategy Development Director, he managed the establishment of the Transparency Platform, international memberships and relations, as well as the initial strategic planning activities.

Since 2016, he has been working at Borsa İstanbul Group’s Takasbank as the Executive Vice President for Information Technology. He has led and actively contributed to key projects, including the BISTECH transition, the blockchain-based digital assets project BiGA, establishment and structuring of the Takasbank R&D center, takeover of check clearing system from the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye, establishment of the EPİAŞ Natural Gas Market Clearing and Collateral Management services, opening of the SWAP market, and development of the TEFAS and BES mobile applications. He played a significant role in the implementation and management of various business development and infrastructure transformation projects.

Since April 2019, he has been working as CEO and Board Member at Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş. (MKK). He has led the digital transformation of technological infrastructure, the strengthening of the corporate organizational structure, and the expansion of international presence. He led the development and implementation of numerous innovative products and services, including the provision of ELÜS (Electronic Warehouse Receipt) custody services to TÜRİB, the launch of the Crowdfunding System, and the activation of the Omnibus account structure facilitating the memberships of Euroclear and Clearstream. His leadership also encompassed the establishment of reciprocal Omnibus account links with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the development of the Electronic General Meeting System (e-GKS) in Indonesia, and the acquisition of MKK GABİM from the Turkish Association of Appraisers. Furthermore, he directed the development of key platforms such as e-VEDO, the VAP Data Analysis Platform, e-YATIRIMCI (Investor Information Center), HPKS (Bearer Shares Registry System), YRTS (Investor Risk Monitoring System), GEFAS (Real Estate Based and Developing Financial Instruments Information System), PUSULA (Intermediary Institutions MKK Data Analysis Platform), and KVMKS (Crypto Asset Central Registry System).

He has been the Chair of the Development of Financial Services Commission for the Twelfth Five-Year Development Plan (2024-2028) led by the Presidency of Strategy and Budget of Presidency of Republic of Türkiye. Prior to this, he was a member of the same commission during the Eleventh Five-Year Development Plan (2019-2023).

He has been serving as the Chair of the Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories (AECSD) since September 2023 and as a Board Member of the Africa & Middle East Depositories Association (AMEDA) since October 2024. In September 2025, he was elected as the Chair of the Board of the World Forum of Central Securities Depositories (WFC).