From finance to entrepreneurship, from the court to AI

I began my career in 2003 in external audit at Deloitte, then joined the Transaction Services team at Ernst & Young, where I worked on financial due diligence for acquisitions. Those Big Four years taught me to read the story behind a company’s numbers.

In 2006 I moved into investment banking. Over seven years at QNB Finansinvest I worked on mergers and acquisitions, privatisations, public offerings and debt issues, advising and preparing valuations across sectors from aviation and shipping to petrochemicals and fuel distribution.

From 2014 to 2016 I was Director of Corporate Finance at Ata Yatırım, responsible for originating and executing new mandates.

In 2016 I crossed to the investor side, co-founding Mora Capital to invest in promising start-ups and SMEs. As Board Member and CFO I ran the investment process and worked on the growth of portfolio companies, sitting on the boards of the renewable energy, asset management, logistics, technology and insurance companies we invested in. Mora Capital has completed its investment period; I remain on its board.

Between 2017 and 2019 I was General Manager and Board Member of Feronia Girişim Sermayesi Portföy Yönetimi. The company’s first fund, Troya Yenilenebilir Enerji GSYF, was established in August 2017 as Turkey’s first renewable-energy-focused venture capital investment fund, and through it I led the acquisition of a 51% stake in the 24 MW Beştepeler Enerji geothermal power plant. After the acquisition I served as CFO and Board Member of Beştepeler Enerji until 2021, leading the company’s reorganisation.

Since 2021 I have been Managing Partner at Fideas, advising institutions, start-ups and SMEs on strategy, financing, valuation and M&A. I work with the founding teams of technology companies on business models, investment readiness and international growth, stepping in as interim CFO or head of strategy when needed.

I also serve on the boards of Mundi Portföy Yönetimi and SDS Prestij Sigorta ve Reasürans Brokerliği, and I am an angel investor in a number of technology start-ups.

My connection to sport goes back to childhood; I played basketball until I went to university. In 2021 I turned that athlete’s identity, combined with what I had learned in business, into work: I am one of the co-founders of Max Potential, Turkey’s first athlete incubator.

Max Potential was set up so that young people with athletic talent but without financial or professional support can succeed on the international stage. We support high-potential young athletes not only technically but also in their mental, financial and social development. For the financial side I created Paranın İlk Adımları, a financial literacy programme that I teach to Max Potential athletes and to other young people who ask for it.

In recent years artificial intelligence has become the field I am most curious about. Rather than watching these tools from a distance, I prefer to learn by using them: I build prototypes around questions from my own fields and share what worked and what did not in the AI Lab.