Date: 08 APRIL 2021

Time: 10:30 AM Istanbul (GMT+3)

PANELISTS:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mesut KARAKAŞ – Yıldız Technical University

He has undergraduate and master’s degrees from Boğaziçi University. He accomplished PhD studies in economics at Marmara University. He holds capital market activities advanced level license. He worked as an assistant and associate professor in the department of economics at Gebze Technical University. Currently, Dr. Mesut KARAKAŞ works as an associate professor in department of economics at Yıldız Technical University. He is interested in financial markets, economic policy and financial modelling.

Mr. Ökkeş Emin Balçiçek – CTO Architecht Inc.

Mr. Balçiçek is holder of an undergraduate degree from Yıldız Technical University Computer Engineering and an MBA degree from Istanbul Bilgi University. He is a Ph.D. candidate in A.I. at Konya Technical (Selçuk) University. He started his career with developing and managing E-Commerce and ERP systems. Mr. Balçiçek played an essential role in the Core Banking Transformation Program as an Enterprise Architect at Kuveyt Türk Participation Bank and he took the lead in establishing Kuveyt Turk’s Information Technologies R&D Center in Konya.  He worked as V.P. of R&D and Enterprise Architecture Department. He has been serving as CTO at Architecht Inc., which is 100% owned by Kuveyt Turk as a seasoned technology leader with over 16+ years of I.T. experience taking on entire digital organizations and leading them into the next phase of growth. As a digital technology executive, he has focused on modernizing financial technology, driving transformational change, and turning around underperforming organizations and technology strategies. He has been teaching "Fintech Management Class" for six years at Sakarya University.

Dr. Muin S. Öztop, 

Principal 

Business Development, Data and Services at Mastercard

Muin Oztop currently leads Mastercard’s Data & Services Business Development team covering twelve countries including Turkey, CIS and Israel. Muin has 10+ years of experience in sales and delivery of consulting projects across US, Europe and Turkey. He led multiple projects on digital transformation in banking, open banking strategy and developing disruptive strategies in banking. Before joining Mastercard, Muin worked as a project manager at The Boston Consulting Group’s New York and Istanbul offices. Muin holds a PhD. Degree in Engineering from Columbia University and BSc. from Middle East Technical University in Turkey.