Dr. Ekrem ARIKAN
Chief Executive Officer, Board Member
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).
He started his carreer at Citibank in 1995 working in the treasury and securities operations then moved to AFinance Plc Dublin in Ireland as the country manager for three years. He re-joined Citibank in 2002 and managed securities services, treasury, cash services, import and export and brokerage operations as the group manager until 2018.
During his tenure at Citibank he successfully led many local and international projects and took active roles in the Banks Association, Takasbank and MKK working groups. The integration of SWIFT messaging between Takasbank, MKK and intermediary institution, establishing capital gain tax processes on securities transactions, implementation of securities dematerialization process, holding fixed income instruments at beneficial owner level at MKK and elimination of “three zeros” from securities nominals are some of the critical projects that he led.
Before joining MKK he worked at few of the major capital markets solution provider companies where he managed business and product development, operational excellence and project management units in addition to advisor and trainer roles.
He holds Capital Markets Level 3 and derivatives instruments licenses as well as business intelligence tools certificates.
Mr. KIZILTOPRAK assigned as the Executive Vice President responsible for Market Operations at Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş. on 07.10.2020.
He began his professional career at BIS Solutions where he developed financial solutions for Intermediary Institutions and Participation Banks, and in addition to providing advisory for CRM and ERP solutions until 2001.
In 2001, Mr. HAKYEMEZ started working as a Technical Project Manager at CarrefourSA, during his tenure he was the responsible Technical Project Manager for the establishment of the company's ERP system and integration with Carrefour France Projects.
He continued his career as a Lead Software Architect in Türkiye Finans Katılım Bankası and took part in the merger of Anadolu and Family Finans institutions. While working as the solutions manager he led many projects on loan applications of the company. In 2009, he was then assigned on the project establishment of the Project Management Office (PMO) and managed the Office until 2014.
He worked as the Head of Project Management in Medipol Health and Education Group in 2014.
He was in the founding team of Ziraat Katılım Bankası as the Head of Information Technologies Department in order to carry out the organization and processes of Information Technologies and the establishment of IT infrastructure in 2015.
In 2018, he joined Ziraat Technology as the Group Manager responsible for Participation Banking to establish and organize software development processes as well as to coordinate software development activities of the bank. In addition to these duties, he also managed Core Banking, Digital Banking, Business Intelligence and Project Management and IT Governance activities of the bank.
He was then assigned as the Head of Information Technologies in Ziraat Katılım Bankası in July 2019 and accomplished the migration of the Bank to open source client and central management systems with his team.
Mr. HAKYEMEZ assigned as the Executive Vice President responsible for Information Technologies at Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş. on 07.10.2020.
He started his career as a research analyst in 1996. He served as Foreign Exchange Position Executive and Treasury Customer Sales and Marketing Manager within Conventional, Participation Banks and Intermediary Institution Business Families, between 1996 and 2020.
Mr. DENİZCİ, who took office in the Strategy and Business Development, Finance and Accounting Directorates at Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş. in 2020, was assigned as the Executive Vice President responsible for Finance, Human Resources and Strategy at MKK as of February 2022.
