About

What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

I’ve been assigned to lead the legal affairs of MENA organization in addition to my role as the Legal Director of Turkey, Caucasus and Central Asia. I’ve started managing a team of twelve while seven of them being remote. I had to focus on knowing about my team, high level regulations of our key markets to supervise them in quality. The engagement of the team has always been my priority. That’s why in order to increase the level of engagement , I tried to allow my team members continuously growing in their roles and being more efficient, I’ve re-organized the team as ONE team to share learnings and support each other in charter projects. I have worked on compliance matters and went through two Company internal audits. Based on our learnings I’ve initiated the version 2.0 of our Compliance and Governance Framework., The other key area was to support the right stakeholders around the new taxations introduced in our main geographies. Introducing efficiency projects were also key achievements with the aim of increasing the level of agility. We have leveraged the level of our risk appetite. We managed to allow business to take their decisions based on informed risks. We have introduced new forms and traffic lights to be used in our assessments. There are several M&A projects that I worked on which I cannot disclose due to confidentiality. The other impactful project was worked on signing a naming rights agreement for four years for Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai which is the biggest indoor multipurpose sports and entertainment venue of its kind in the geography between Istanbul to Singapore We have also signed several agreements for the song rights of the Coke Studio that has its 12th season in Pakistan which was also introduced in Iraq this year.

What challenges do you face in covering legal operations for a foreign multinational in multiple jurisdictions?

The macro dynamics and regulations differ from country to country. Not speaking all the local languages forces you to rely on others. This is not a trust issue, but more about agility. The local realities and global principles might not be in line from time to time, so there is no one solution fits for all. Balancing the importance, contributing value add and ensuring compliance together is essential. Sometimes there is a need for adaptation of the tools that Global owns that we cannot edit which needs to be in order to comply with regulations.

Have any particular new laws, regulations or judicial decisions greatly impacted your company’s business or your legal practice?

In line with GDPR, within the 34 countries that I am responsible of most of them have introduced regulations in Data Privacy or drafts of similar acts. We have worked on hard to ensure being compliant with the local regulations and being proactive as much as possible to the future plans of the business to be live especially when we are providing legal counselling on consumer promotions that are run on digital platforms. Also there are other developments around water and packaging taxation introduced in some of our markets which have a direct impact on our business.

What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how does the team intend to assist with this?

The Coca-Cola Company will continue to refresh the world and make a difference as part of its purpose by expanding its portfolio within total beverages for life. We need to have the growth mindset to be curious and inclusive as well as open to experiment and tend to track the developments in other categories and the potential impact on our business. The Company will definitely focus on digitization, so we need to be ready for future to do business differently. The other focus are will be sustainability mainly by reducing sugar and make packaging a circular economy. The Company and its leaders for sure will think bigger, so we need to think bigger.

How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a culture within a legal department?

Positioning our role as strategic business partner rather than being a lawyer only. We need to continuously develop ourselves to be the lawyer of future. We need to be curious to understand better, continue asking “what if” to provide input beyond our area. We should act as owners and be inclusive. Everything starts with internalizing and role modelling. Our values and behaviors shape the culture. Inspire and continuously develop others to put the culture in the center. We should all be aware of business acumen, be true courageous business partners in accepting increased risk and in making decisions, innovating and prioritizing. We should embed the team culture, back up each other and understand that individual optimization will not take us there but group optimization will. If we lead it right, there is no doubt that the rest will follow. Be crystal clear in the direction and what we aspire for. I aim to create a safe envireonment to allow team members to speak up. Celebrating success and learnings from failures is also crucial .

What do you feel is the best way to get more women into in-house legal leadership positions?

It can be achieved by making them feel they are empowered and work in flexible hours and even promote working from home. I believe coaching given by a working mother would be definitely inspiring and support to get their best. Showing vulnerability will help them that we are all humans.

FOCUS ON: I Am Fluid

What I like about being an in-house counsel rather than a lawyer working in a law firm or a litigator who smells the courtrooms is because of being part of the business that I can act as a business leader beyond my expertise. I am not specializing on what I know only, but continue growing myself. I learn every day from others how to shift the mindset. I provide legal advice in a volatile geographies, so being flexible to have adaptability is crucial, like water. I am transparent like water. I am resilient, not possible to bend like water. I am curious, and find a spot to go down like water. So I am fluid. I expect the outside counsels that I work with demonstrate the same behaviours. I believe in the winning mentality by collective genius and collective success. If I can identify what work that matters the most and prioritize and shift my and team’s focus accordingly within the limited resources we have help me to be more fluid. I am open to embrace the change. I learned to push for progress not for perfection. Being fluid and resilient is key to survive and be successful in today’s corporate life. I am fluid.