Board of Directors and Committees

Ali İhsan GÜNGÖR started his career in 1998 as an internal auditor for a private bank in Turkey and joined the Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMB) in 1999. During his charge as a senior, besides his other responsibilities he took part in the professional team organised the establishment of the Central Securities Depository of Turkey (MKK). Besides he led the team for the establishment of  first Turkish Derivatives Exchange of Turkey (Turkdex). He was in charge as the Deputy Head of Market Surveillance and Regulation Department between 2006-2009. After completing his MSc degree in U.S. he joined the Investment Firms Department of CMB in 2011. He represented the CMB in IFIs and other international agencies and took part in assesments. He served as the Head of Investment Firms Department between 2014 and 2021. His areas of responsibilities covered the regulation and surveillance of the investment firms, the regulation of the secondary markets and the financial market institutions such as Borsa İstanbul, Takasbank and MKK. 

In April 2021 he promoted as the Executive Vice Chairman of the CMB and currently assuming the responsibilites of the Investment Fims Department and  Institutional Investors Department. Since 2018 he is also leading the regulation of cyrpto assets in Turkey.

Ali İhsan GÜNGÖR earned his BA degree in Economics from Hacettepe University. He holds a MSc in Econometrics from Gazi University and an MSc in Finance from George Washington University School of Business. He speaks English and French and is married with one child.

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.

Mehmet ARABACI was born in Bordeaux, France in 1977. He graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Finance in 2000.

He worked as a tax inspector at the Board of Tax Inspectors of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Türkiye between 2001-2007. 

Between 2007-2009, he worked as the Head of the Human Resources Group at the Revenue Administration of the Republic of Türkiye.

Between 2009-2011, he worked in the USA as a researcher, examiner and intern on "Transfer Pricing in Commercial Banks"; concurrently he completed his master's degree in Economics at the University of Illinois.

In 2011, he was appointed as Senior Tax Inspector at the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Türkiye.

Between 2011-2012, he was assigned as the Head of Group of the Thin Capitalization, Transfer Pricing and Earnings from Abroad at the Ministry of Finance Tax Inspection Board of Türkiye.

Between 2012-2014, he served as Vice President of the Tax Inspection Board of Türkiye.

Between 2014-2019, he served as the Head of the Revenue Management Department at the Revenue Administration of Türkiye.

In 2019, he was appointed as the Deputy Commissioner of Revenue Administration and is still serving in this position.

Furthermore;

Between 2019-2022, Mr. ARABACI, who served as a member of the board at Türkiye Denizcilik İşletmeleri A.Ş., later on, kept at the same mission the directorate at Çay İşletmeleri A.Ş. in 2022-2023,

As of August 3, 2023, he was appointed as a board member of Central Securities Depository of Türkiye, Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluş A.Ş., and has been serving as such since that date.

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.​​​

Mr. 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 Istanbul 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 Istanbul”. 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.

Mr. ARIKAN worked at Ziraat Teknoloji A.Ş. which provides IT services for Ziraat Finance Group, as the IT Architecture Manager starting in 2007, the Project Management Office Manager starting in 2009, and the IT Security Manager starting in 2011, before being appointed Corporate Development Director in 2013.

As of 2014, he worked at “Ziraat Hayat ve Emeklilik A.Ş” as IT and Corporate Development Group Manager responsible for Information Technologies, Customer Services and Call Center, HR and Support Services.

From 2015, he started to work at the EPİAŞ (Energy Exchange - Enerji Piyasaları İşletme A.Ş.) as a Consultant to Chairman and then he was appointed to the Strategy Development Director role. He led the establishment of the Transparency Platform, the preparation of the company’s first five-year strategic plan, and memberships and relations with the international associations such as EUROPEX. 

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 the General Manager and Board Member at Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu (MKK), the Central Securities Depository of Türkiye. He pioneered the development of numerous new products and services such as; custody services provided to the Turkish Mercantile Exchange, establishment of the Omnibus Account structure and membership of Euroclear Bank and the Azerbaijan CSD (Milli Deposit Merkezi), founding of the Crowdfunding Platform, development of the Electronic Trade Repository, implementation of the Electronic General Meeting system in the Indonesian capital market and acquisition of the MKK GABİM company from the Turkish Association of Appraisers. Moreover, he led development and establishment of the Data Analysis Platform, Investor Information Center (e-YATIRIMCI) application, Bearer Shares Registry System, Investor Risk Monitoring System, Pusula and the GEFAS platform.

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).

Dr. Ekrem ARIKAN, as the CEO and Board Member of MKK, has assumed the Chairmanship of the Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories (AECSD) starting from September 2023. By virtue of this duty, Dr. Ekrem ARIKAN has been working as a Board Member of the World Forum of CSDs (WFC). Since October 2024, he is also a Board Member of Africa & Middle East Depositories Association (AMEDA).