Management Committee - DenizBank Management

Recep Baştuğ completed his undergraduate studies at Çukurova University, Department of Economics and started his career at Garanti BBVA Internal Audit Department in 1989 as Auditor. He later served as Corporate Branch Manager between the years of 1995 and 1999, Commercial Regional Manager between the years of 1999 and 2004 and Commercial Banking Marketing Coordinator between the years of 2004 and 2012 before he assumed the duty of Executive Vice President in charge of Commercial Banking and Consumer Finance from 2012 to 2018 at the same institution. After his brief service as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at a private company, he started working at Garanti BBVA in 2019 again. Besides assuming the role of Garanti BBVA CEO and Board Member between the years of 2019 and 2024, he also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Garanti BBVA Pension and Life. He has been serving as DenizBank CEO and Member of the Board of Directors since January 2025.

Akın Ekici received his bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University and completed his master’s degree in Fiscal Law at the Institute of Social Sciences within the same university. He began his career at a private law firm in 1991. Serving as attorney at Impexbank-Türkiye İthalat ve İhracat Bankası A.Ş. between the years of 1992 and 1995, Ekici then started working at Garanti Bank in 1995, and served as Legal Advisor from 1999 to 2005 and Chief Legal Advisor from 2005 to 2008 at the same institution. Since 2009, Ekici has been working as a Partner at Verdi Law Firm. Between July 2024 and June 2025, he served as an Independent Board Member at Garanti Faktoring A.Ş. As of June 2025, he has taken on the role of Chief Legal Advisor at DenizBank.

Ali Özgür Tüzemen began his career in 1997 at Garanti Bank in the Retail Banking department, following his studies in Economics at Bilkent University. He served as Manager for SME Banking between 1999 and 2002, and as Manager for Customer Relationship Management and Marketing from 2002 to 2004. Between 2004 and 2009, Tüzemen continued his career at DenizBank as Group Manager for SME and Retail Banking. From 2009 to 2018, he served as Head of Business Analysis at Garanti BBVA Technology. Between 2018-2025, he has held the position of Executive Vice President responsible for Data and Advanced Analytics at Garanti BBVA Technology. As of 2025, Tüzemen serves as Executive Vice President for Data and Transformation Group at DenizBank.

Ayşenur Hıçkıran completed her undergraduate studies in English Language and Literature at Ege University, Faculty of Literature in 1992 and completed her master's degree in Business Administration at Bilgi University. She began her career at Citibank in 1996 and served as Executive Vice President responsible for Sales and Alternative Distrubiton Channels in 20007, and as Exexcutive Vice President responsible for Retail Banking in 2012.

Between 2013 and 2021, Hıçkıran held the position of Executive Vice President of Payment Systems and Non-Branch Channels Group at DenizBank. As of 2021, she has been serving as Executive Vice President of the Retail Banking.

Bora Böcügöz completed his undergraduate studies at Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in the field of Business Administration in 1989. He started his career as a Junior Associate at Garanti Bank in 1989. Böcügöz then served as Assistant Manager of Capital Markets Department at Esbank between the years of 1990 and 1994, Assistant Manager at the Bank Ekspres Securities Department in 1994, Securities Department Head at Toprakbank between the years of 1994 and 1997, Treasury Coordinator and Fund, Resource Management and Marketing Department Executive Vice President at Kentbank between the years of 1997 and 2002. From 2002 to 2007, he worked as Executive Vice President in charge of Fund Management Group at DenizBank A.Ş., and starting from 2007, he served as the Executive Vice President in charge of Treasury, Financial Institutions, Private Banking Group at DenizBank A.Ş. As of July 2021, Böcügöz has been serving as the Executive Vice President in charge of Treasury and Financial Institutions Group.

Ilker Yavaş began his career in 1992 as an Inspector at Garanti Bank’s Audit Department following his studies at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences. He served as the Head of the Central Audit Unit between 1997 and 1999, and from 1999 to 2001 held the role of Branch Manager. Between 2001 and 2007, he led the Foreign Trade and Loans division as Director. From 2007 to 2022, Yavaş oversaw all central operations of the bank as Operations Center Coordinator. Between 2023-2025, he served as General Manager of ABACUS, Garanti BBVA. As of 2025, he serves as Executive Vice President responsible for Branch and Central Operations Group at DenizBank.

Murat Atay graduated from the Department of Public Administration at Middle East Technical University in 1993. He completed his master’s degree in Accounting at Yeditepe University and earned his PhD in Finance at Istanbul Okan University. He began his career at Garanti BBVA in 1993 as a Corporate and Credit Analyst. Between 2000 and 2009, he served as Corporate Branch Manager, followed by his role as General Manager of Garanti BBVA Romania from 2009 to 2012. From 2012 to 2020, he held the position of General Manager at Garanti BBVA Mortgage.

As of 2021, Atay assumed the role of Executive Vice President in charge of Credit Risk Management. During the same period, he also served as Vice Chairman of the Boards of Garanti BBVA Leasing and Garanti BBVA Factoring, as well as a Board Member at Garanti Payment Systems Inc., Garanti BBVA Investment, and Garanti BBVA Romania. As of December 2025, Atay has been serving as Chief Credit Officer at DenizBank.

Having graduated from the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Department at Istanbul Technical University, Aktaş completed his MSc degree in Digital Signal Processing at Boğaziçi University, and MBA degree at Marmara University. Aktaş started his career as a R&D Software Test Engineer between 1994 and 1997 in Netas, and served as Business Unit Head in the field of IT Process, Security and Risk Management in Garanti Bank between 1997 and 2014, and as Technology Governance and Security Director at Turkcell between 2014 and 2019. From 2019 to 2025, he served as Executive Vice President in charge of Corporate Security and Information Security at Garanti BBVA Technology. He has served as General Manager of Intertech, a technology subsidiary of DenizBank, as of 2025, and as Executive Vice President in charge of DenizBank Technology Group since April 2026.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from Istanbul Technical University, Industrial Engineering, and his MBA from Yeditepe University, Ağar had various experiences in Commercial Banking sales between the years of 1998 and 2007. He later served at Vakıfbank as Head of Commercial, SME and Public Finance between the years of 2008 and 2011, and, as of 2011, he joined ING as SVP in charge of Commercial Sales and Commercial Sales Marketing Credit Assessment Director. Serving at Corporate Banking Loans at ING Amsterdam for a short term, he returned to the Türkiye entity and assumed the roles of Credits Monitoring, Restructuring and Workout Director, Business Lending and Credit Risk Analytics Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer, and finally, Head of Business Banking. Ağar has been serving as Executive Vice President responsible for SME and Agricultural Banking at DenizBank as of August 2025.

Abil joined DenizBank in 2013 as Senior Vice President with the role of Deputy Chief Financial Officer and concurrent executive position in SberBank Group Finance. He was appointed as Executive Vice President in January 2014 and since April 2017 as Group Chief Financial Officer of DenizBank. Prior to joining DenizBank in 2013, he held managerial position in multinational bank in San Francisco, USA. Abil started his career in 1997 as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and worked in their Istanbul and Los Angeles offices. Abil has a Bachelor of Science degree from Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, graduated in 1997. Abil is Certified Public Accountant in USA. In 2017 he completed executive development program in London Business School.

Tuba Köseoğlu Okçu graduated from the Department of Translation and Interpreting at Boğaziçi University. She started her career as a conference interpreter, and entered the banking industry in 1997 as Performance Consultant at the Training Directorate at Garanti Bankası. Between 2000 and 2003, Köseoğlu Okçu assumed responsibility as Executive Development Manager at Humanitas Doğuş Workforce Management. She then joined Doğuş Holding as Human Resources Director between 2003 and 2008, while concurrently taking on the role of Human Resources Coordinator at Doğuş Otomotiv from 2005 to 2007. She worked as Human Resources and Organizational Development Director at Eastpharma Deva Holding between 2008 and 2012, and also served as Human Resources Director and Member of Executive Committee at Hürriyet Newspaper between 2012 and 2019.

In 2020, Köseoğlu Okçu joined Garanti BBVA; served as Learning and Development Director between 2020 and 2022, and Executive Vice President in charge of Talent and Culture between 2022 and 2025. As of 2026, Köseoğlu Okçu continues to serve as Executive Vice President for Human Resources Group.

Management Board

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Management Board

Recep Baştuğ – CEO – Member of the Board of Directors

Akın Ekici - Legal Affairs Executive Vice President - Chief Legal Advisor

Ali Özgür Tüzemen - Data and Transformation Group Executive Vice President

Ayşenur Hıçkıran - Retail Banking Group Executive Vice President

Bora Böcügöz - Treasury and Financial Institutions Group Executive Vice President

İlker Yavaş - Branch and Central Operations Group Executive Vice President

Murat Atay – Credits Group Executive Vice President

M. Feridun Aktaş – Executive Vice President in charge of Technology Group

Öcal Ağar - SME and Agricultural Banking Group Executive Vice President

Ruslan Abil - Financial Affairs Group Executive Vice President, CFO

Tuba Köseoğlu Okçu - Human Resources Group Executive Vice President

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