Cumhur İnan BİLEN

Curriculum Vitae of Founding Partner Cumhur İnan BİLEN

He was born on October 26, 1982 in Ankara. He graduated from Gazi Anatolian High School in 1999. He earned his bachelor from the Public Finance Department of Political Sciences Faculty of Ankara University in 2003 and Master’s Degree (MA) in Public Finance of Gazi University in 2010 and International MBA at Vlerick Business School in Leuven-Belgium in 2012.

In 2004, he started his professional career as an Assistant Tax Auditor after having succeeded the career exam  which had been opened by the Ministry of Finance of Turkey. In 2007, he was appointed as an Tax Auditor after passing the proficiency exam.

Between 2004-2009, as a tax inspector, he carried out several tax fraud and money laundering investigations and tax inspections in numerous large taxpayers and multinational enterprises with the assignment of Financial Crimes Investigation Board of Turkey and Tax Inspection Board of Turkey.

He coordinated a special project on “International Accounting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards Compliance with Turkish Tax Legislation” and served as the rapporteur for the decisions of the Advisory Commission of Tax Inspectors Board on “Taxation of Construction Industry”, “Responsibility Agency for VAT”, “Taxation on Financial Leasing Transactions”. He also participated in many academic-level conferences as a lecturer and moderator.

He prepared a proficiency thesis on “The Flat Tax System and Discussion of Applicability of This System in Turkey In The Light of Examples in the World”.  Due to his outstanding work performance shown in 2007, he was awarded the outstanding service award in 2008 by the Minister of Finance of Turkey.

Between 2009 and 2011, he worked as a Tax Consultant in Center for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) of the Paris-based international economic organization -Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)- for two years and gave contribution to the various reports and working papers concerning Auditing of Multinational Enterprises, Auditing of Large Taxpayers, Transfer Pricing, Comparative Statistics on Tax Administrations, Fighting Against Off-Shore Tax Evasion, Aggressive Tax Planning, İnternational Tax Audits (Joint Audits, Multilateral Controls, etc.), Exchange of Taxpayer İnformation, Electronic Audits and Controls, Taxation of Electronic Commerce, Reorganization of Tax Administrations and Tax Reforms in Advanced Economies and Developing Countries.

He participated as a spokesperson to the conferences organized in OECD tax centers such as Vienna, Ankara and Dubai on International Tax Planning and Transfer Pricing. He coordinated between the OECD and the Turkish Revenue Administration the preparations of International Tax Administrations Conference within the participation of more than 50 countries in September 2010 in İstanbul.

In 2012, He conducted a feasibility study for Procter&Gamble European Central Office concerning a new manufacturing facility investment in Africa. Within same year, he also executed a project for Belgian Development Agency (BTC) for the new business intelligence tools which will set forth compliant with BTC’s new corporate strategy.

Between September 2012-April 2014, as tax inspector, he participated the foundation studies of Risk Analysis Center of Turkish Tax Inspection Board (TTIB) and managed the studies on the risk analysis software produced for the selection of risky taxpayers for tax audits and on the detection of risky areas in tax audits. In the same time interval, he coordinated the bilateral and multilateral projects of TTIB and related European Commission, OECD and HMRC, Dutch Tax Authority, German Federal Tax Authority. He also coordinated all planning and preparation of an international tax conference hosted by TTIB with the collaboration of OECD and European Commission in İstanbul on 23-24 May 2013. During his tenure in TTIB, he made several lectures and conferences on transfer pricing, thin capitalization, international tax audits, new risk analysis system of TTIB and exchange of taxpayer information.

On May 2014, he resigned from his post in public sector voluntarily and he started to work as “Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)” for one of the biggest conglomerates of Turkey, YDA Group which operates in construction&contracting, real estate development, airport management, PPP healthcare, medical, services (facility management, catering, security), IT, smart digital/outdoor advertising, insurance brokerage and mining. On March 2017, he has been assigned as “Group CFO” and performed this duty until the end of December 2017. Within the scope of his work, BILEN;

• coordinated all processes and preliminary studies of 4 successful corporate bond issuances of Group to the qualified investors (including the longest tenor, first green&sustainable and first local currency issuance of the local bond market with EBRD participation), 3 credit rating process (including rating update studies) and built up and enhance investor relations of the Group regarding the bond issuances.
• coordinated all relationship of YDA Group with local banks and international banks (EBRD, IFC, Islamic Development Bank, Unicredit, SiemensBank, Credit Europe, OFID, ICD)
• coordinated and monitored all relationship with independent auditors for the preparation of IFRS based consolidated and solo independent audit reports,
• prepared consolidated budgets and financial projections of the Group for due diligence and credit updates,
• contributed the processes of the preparation of annual and quarter corporate income tax returns of Group companies, of lawsuit petitions for tax litigations, the tax optimisation of Group by benefiting from tax incentives effectively, representation of Group companies in tax judiciary,
• managed the negotiations of M&A and company restructurings,
• evaluated the financial, tax&accounting and business related risks for all substantial contracts of the Group,
• coordinated the consultancy study performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) concerning the evaluation of IPO alternatives, reforming and restructuring all central support units of the Company and the preparation of Family Constitution.
• managed the financial and legal due diligence processes of business development projects of the Group.

He also served as Board Member and General Manager in several Group companies and contributed to the managerial decisions of these companies at Board level.

He has several articles on tax, accounting, finance, public finance, capital markets and project finance published in local tax magazines such as Vergi Dünyası, Yaklaşım, Maliye Postası and international finance magazines (World Finance, Bonds&Loans Magazine), unpublished master thesis on “Taxation of Controlled Foreign Corporations” and unpublished academic studies on “Exchange of Taxpayer Information and International Tax Audits” and “Flat Tax Regime and Evaluation of its Applicability in Turkish Tax System”.

BILEN has Sworn-in Certified Public Accountant (issued by Union of Chambers of Certified Public Accountants of Turkey-TÜRMOB) and Independent Auditor (issued by Public Oversight Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority of Turkey-KGK) certificates and Advanced (Level 3) and Corporate Governance licences issued by Capital Markets Board of Turkey.

He is fluent in English and good command of French. He is married, has one daughter.