Cansen Başaran-Symes

A dedicated, goal-oriented, and visionary businessperson having a wide range of experience and leading roles in multi-national organizations as well as being an active participant in the activities of a number of NGOs in Turkey and Europe alike. The 17th president of TÜSİAD and the third woman to hold this position in its history, and concurrently a member of BusinessEurope, she has been the chair of the board of directors at Allianz Turkey since 2014, and a member of international advisory board of Allianz SE since 2015. Over the course of her career starting at Price Waterhouse (PW), she held numerous positions at various levels at the company's Copenhagen, London, and Istanbul offices. Appointed as the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Turkey leader and senior partner in charge of country operations immediately after the PwC & Lybrand merger, she subsequently held her position as a member of the board of directors of PwC Central and Eastern Europe Region and board member in PwC Eurofirm, respectively. Subsequent to her career at PwC, aside from her roles at Allianz, Başaran-Symes served as an independent member of the board of directors at Nokia Turkey in 2014-2020, and as senior advisor at McKinsey & Company in 2018-2020. Named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2000, and being the leader of the Europe 2050 Task Force which developed “The Readiness for the Future Index” as a part of GLT programme, Başaran-Symes has achieved numerous successes throughout her professional life such as Executive of the Year, Most Powerful 50 Businesswomen, Leaders of the Civil Society, and so on. Holding various positions at TÜSİAD currently, Başaran-Symes is the advisory board co-president of TÜSİAD’s Berlin Bosphorus Initiative (BBI) since 2019. She has also been a member of the advisory board of Harvard Business School MENA and Central Asia, and a member of the advisory council of Global Shapers Community Istanbul since 2016. As the founding member, she is a board member of Endeavor (High-Impact Entrepreneurship) Turkey as well as being the senior advisory board member of British Chamber of Commerce Turkey (BCCT). Having served as a member of the board of directors at YASED, FODER, TEGV, TBCSD, TMUD, BDD, DEIK, and Corporate Governance Association of Turkey, Başaran-Symes is the former advisory board member at KAGİDER and at TİDE. Also being a member of TÜRMOB, she holds the accountant certificate of the Expert Accountants Association of Turkey and the license of the Turkish Independent Accountant and Financial Consultant.