About

During his time as corporate secretary in Mercedes Benz, Tansu Akin has turned a one person in-house department into an 11 member team that excels in all areas of its responsibilities. When he first joined the company, all legal functions were generally undertaken by external counsel and there was only one in-house lawyer. The in-house legal department has been reorganised and restructured to be the primary source of legal support for the region. Recently the legal team has acquired the external affairs function and lobbying activities, and as such are very much integrated with the legal mind-set and are relevant with FCPA compliance. Akin considers gaining an exemption from the Turkish Antitrust Authority to maintain an existing qualitative distribution structure, despite a 50% market share, his biggest career achievement. It saved his company several hundred million Turkish liras through avoiding the potential costs for restructuring the distribution system and eliminating the risk of market share loss. Akin faced the biggest challenge of his in-house career during the FCPA compliance investigation by the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission. ‘We had to fight for several bribery accusations, but in the end, we could eliminate most of the accusations’. What he enjoys most about his role is the continuous learning process and he adds that ‘the day I stop learning new things is the time for a change’.