Mr. Ekrem ARIKAN, CEO and Board Member of MKK

Mr. Ekrem ARIKAN received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Bogazici University and his MBA degree from Yeditepe University. He is currently going on the PhD study in Management program at Istanbul Commerce University. He speaks English, German and beginner level Arabic.

Mr. Arikan started his career in 1997. He worked at Microsoft as Support Engineer in 1998 and Program Specialist in 1999. Then he became Program Manager in 2000 within the Microsoft Windows International Product Group. He has taken responsibilities until 2006 at Microsoft in development of various Windows products in international projects.

In year 2007, he held the position of IT Architecture Manager at Fintek Financial Technology Services Inc. (Ziraat Technology Inc.). Later, Mr. Arikan became the PMO Manager and coordinated many of financial technology projects. Afterwards, he became the CISO and managed IT security and risk domain. He was promoted to Enterprise Development Director position at Ziraat Technology and managed enterprise architecture, IT Security, Quality and Risk Management, as well as Human Resources and Support Services.

In 2014, Mr. Arikan began working at Ziraat Hayat ve Emeklilik A.S. (Life and Pension Insurance) as the IT and Corporate Development Group Manager responsible from Information Technologies, Customer Services and Call Center, HR and Support Services.

In May 2015, he took office as an Advisor to the Chairman and then appointed to the Strategy Development Director in EPIAS (Energy Exchange Istanbul) which was the newly established energy exchange company of Turkey. He held the role during the establishment and structering of the company. After the start of the electricity market operations, he managed development of new projects such as Transparency Platform, EUROPEX membership, first 5-year strategic plan and works for natural gas market.

In June 2016, Mr. Arikan became the Executive Vice President responsible from Information Technologies at Takasbank within the Borsa Istanbul Group. He led leadership in projects such as BISTECH transformation program together with Borsa Istanbul, establishment of Takasbank R&D Center, Check Clearing Service, Gold Transfer System, Natural Gas Market collateral and cash clearing systems, development of SWAP market, corporate mobile applications as well as development of innovative projects with blockchain technology. He also managed corporate development projects such as IT infrastructure development, enterprise architecture planning and establishment of a service-oriented architecture as well as a business process management system.

As of April 2019, Mr. Arikan took office as the CEO and Board Member of Merkezi Kayıt Kurulusu A.S. (MKK), the Central Securities Depository of Turkey.

Main Functions

• Central securities depository, registrar and financial account opening center for the Turkish capital markets.
• Securities settlement system operator and securities settlement agent for FOP and DVP settlements.
• Designated R&D center for development of technology intense post trade and corporate governance solutions to financial markets.
• Issuer services such as issuance, shareholder identification, financial and managerial corporate actions operations.
• Operator of the Electronic General Meeting System (e-GEM) for all listed companies in Turkey. Furthermore, a global service provider for the implementation of e-GEM in other capital markets in the world.
• Operator of the Public Disclosure Platform (PDP), the central information platform for all listed companies in Turkey.
• Information services through e-MKK Information Portal platforms such as e-GOVERNANCE: Corporate Governance and Investor Relations, e-COMPANY: Companies Information Portal and e-DATA: Capital Markets Data Bank.
• Electronic registry center for electronic warehouse receipts on agricultural products.
• Data and reporting center for participants, investors, government agencies, data vendors, rating agencies and other parties.