Burak Cerrahoglu is Vice President and responsible for new rating relationships in CIS region and Turkiye.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Burak was Operations/Risk Manager with European Housing Finance EHF, which is a mortgage finance company based in Istanbul and specializing in the secondary mortgage market in Turkey. Burak was previously with the Mortgage Acceptance Corp. in the U.S., while structuring MBS and mortgage whole loan sales.

Burak holds M.S. in Finance from Boston College and B.S. in Finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Nitish Bhojnagarwala is an Executive Director with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Nitish covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic financial institutions in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.

Nitish joined Moody’s in 2011, and has led sukuk roundtables and conducted workshops on Banking and Islamic finance at various conferences in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Nitish has also authored several research pieces, with a focus on regional banking, credit issues and issuer-in-depths for conventional as well as Islamic banks.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Nitish spent five years at Tamweel in the Treasury function. He has also worked for KPMG in the UAE, where he covered financial institutions. Nitish holds an MBA from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, with a major in Finance (Investment Banking).

Alexander Perjéssy is Senior Vice President at the Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group.

Based in Dubai, he has lead analyst responsibilities for a number of sovereigns in the Middle East, including most of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states and several regional multilateral institutions.

Prior to joining Moody’s in November 2017, Alex worked for two years as economist at the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Before relocating to the Middle East, Alex spent more than 12 years covering macroeconomic developments and sovereign risk assessment in the emerging markets of the EMEA region for AllianceBernstein and The Rohatyn Group, both US-based asset management firms in New York, as well as for Goldman Sachs in London.

Alex holds an MA in Economics from the University of Maryland and a BA in Economics from Middlebury College.

Dr. Kara is a former chief economist (2012-2019) and director of research and monetary policy department (2008-2012) at the Central Bank of Turkey. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University, M.A. in economics from Bilkent University, and B.S. degree from METU Electrical and Electronical Engineering. He played a leading role in the analysis, design, communication, and implementation of monetary and macroprudential policies in Turkey between 2003 and 2020. Hakan Kara has published regularly in peer-reviewed top academic journals, focusing on inflation, monetary policy, and the macrofinancial landscape in emerging markets and Turkey. Dr. Kara taught graduate and undergraduate courses in New York University, Corvinus University, and Middle East Technical University. He was an editor of Central Bank Review, a member of the management committee of the International Journal of Central Banking, and a board of trustee in ODTÜ Parlar Foundation. Kara served as a consultant for various international financial institutions including IMF and World Bank. Since 2020, Mr. Kara is a full time professor at Bilkent University, specialized in central banking, financial institutions, international macroeconomics, Turkish economy and economic policy.

Rehan Akbar is an Executive Director in Moody’s EMEA Corporate Finance Group, based in Dubai. He currently manages the corporate team responsible for rating coverage of companies in the Middle East, Africa, Turkiye, and the CIS region. Prior to joining Moody’s in 2011, Rehan worked as a credit analyst at Mashreq Capital, focusing on emerging market corporates. He began his career as a software engineer and technology consultant.

Rehan holds a Master’s degree in Management Sciences and Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Nevra Özhatay graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Business Administration and completed her MBA program at Exeter University in the UK. Joining Sabancı Group in 1994, Ms. Özhatay worked as Finance Specialist at Akçansa between 1994 and 1998, Strategy and Business Development Specialist between 1998 and 2000, Planning and Control Manager between 2000 and 2004, Strategy and Business Development Manager between 2004 and 2008, and was appointed as Logistics, Strategy and Business Development Director in 2008. In 2009, she started to work as CFO at Çimsa, in 2013 she was appointed Assistant General Manager of Çimsa White Cement and Special Products, and between 2014-2018 she worked as General Manager of Çimsa. Afterwards, he worked as CFO at the Turkish Football Federation. Nevra Özhatay has been serving as CFO at Çimko Cement since September 2022.

Mr. Yüzüak is EVP, Finance & Fleet Management at Pegasus Airlines since March 2012. He started his career as a Business Analyst at Turkish Airlines in 1994 and served as Strategic Planning and Investment Manager between 2001 and 2003. He served as Strategic Planning Manager for Havaş Handling Company between 2004 - 2005. He joined Pegasus as Strategic Planning Manager in 2005 and served as Finance and Strategic Planning Manager between 2009 - 2012. Tamer Yüzüak holds a bachelor’s degree in management engineering granted by Istanbul Technical University in 1994.

Iker is an Assistant Vice President in the Moody’s EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in Dubai. He covers a diversified industry portfolio, with exposure in Turkey, Africa, and the Middle East.

He joined Moody’s Dubai office in 2022, and previously worked as an associate analyst in the Moody’s London office covering the leveraged finance industry with exposure to Business and Consumer Services, Healthcare, Airlines and Aerospace & Defense. Before that, he spent 2 years working in the consulting industry in Spain.

Iker holds a Masters Degree in Investment Management from Henley Business School. He also holds a BSc in Business Management from the University of Deusto and is a CFA charterholder since 2018.

Stephen is a Managing Director and Global Co-Head of banking. He is co-responsible for global bank ratings and is based in London where he primarily focuses on banks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

From 2022-2025 he was the Managing Director and Regional Head of EMEA, Stephen also served as the Country Manager for the United Kingdom for Moody’s Ratings. He was responsible for core business strategy, governance and oversight in the EMEA region.

Before relocating to London, Stephen held the position as Global Co-Head of Banking from 2010 to 2022, based in Hong Kong. In this role, he was responsible for global bank ratings with a primary focus on banks across the Asia-Pacific region.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Stephen worked at J.P. Morgan in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong in various senior credit, research and rating advisory positions. From 1990-1996 he was a bank analyst at S&P Global in London and Paris.

Stephen began his career as a banking regulator at the Bank of England. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Badis Shubailat is a Vice President with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Badis covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic banks in the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Morocco. He is the lead analyst responsible for the Bahraini and Tunisian banking systems and also covered in the past financial institutions in Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey. Since joining Moody’s in March 2014, Badis has authored research publications focusing on GCC and North African credits as well as Islamic Banking. Badis holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from John Cabot University (Rome, Italy) and an MSc in Finance from EADA Business School (Barcelona, Spain). Badis speaks English, French, Arabic and Italian.

Lynn Merhi is an Assistant Vice President with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group and is based in London, covering a portfolio of Turkish and other emerging market banks. She joined Moody's in 2022.

Prior to joining Moody's, Lynn held positions as a risk analyst at Byblos Bank and Lebanon and Gulf Bank in Lebanon. She holds a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis on Finance from the American University of Beirut, a Masters in International Trade and Business from ESIC and is a certified Financial Risk Manager from the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Neil Griffiths-Lambeth is an Executive Director in Moody’s Infrastructure Finance team, based in London, and responsible for the rating agency’s coverage of regulated and unregulated utilities across EMEA. Over the course of his career at Moody’s, Neil has acted as lead analyst for a broad range of utilities and transport infrastructure companies. He has followed the UK water sector since 2008, writing extensively on regulatory and other developments and playing a key role in developing the rating agency’s strong reputation in the sector. As an authoritative independent commentator, Neil is a frequent speaker at conferences and other events. Moody’s has a leading global Infrastructure Finance franchise, rating some US$2 trillion of corporate and project finance securities, representing more than 90% of all public bonds issued globally in the sector. 140 analytical sector staff cover more than 1,000 infrastructure issuers globally. Moody’s EMEA team of 50 specialists is responsible for rating around 416 issuers. The rating agency covers more than 11,000 corporate issuers and 135 sovereign nations. Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Neil spent 15 years at Lazard. Over this period he advised a broad range of clients on raising finance in the public and private markets. Notable transactions included advising the UK Government on support and funding for Network Rail, Veolia on the acquisition and highly-leveraged financing of Southern Water, and Wind Telecommunicazioni on funding for its network roll-out. Neil read Mathematics at the University of Sussex and pursued postgraduate research at Imperial College, London.

After graduating from Middle East Technical University (METU) with a degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Kerem Güzel completed his Master’s in Engineering and MBA programs at Sabancı University. He is currently pursuing his doctoral thesis studies at Marmara University in the Department of Banking and Insurance. Serving as the Corporate Finance Director at Limak Group, he executes mergers and acquisitions (M&A), capital market issuances, investment analysis, and strategy development activities across the group.

With his extensive experience in international financial markets, he possesses deep expertise in mergers and acquisitions, partnership negotiations, qualified investor relations, capital market transactions, initial public offerings (IPOs), the formulation of sustainability-linked financing strategies, and the end-to-end management of green bond issuance processes, as well as the integration of climate and sustainability risks into financial risk management frameworks. He holds board of directors and executive committee memberships across various Limak Group companies.

Yasmina Serghini is a Managing Director in Moody’s Rating's Corporate Finance Group. She manages the teams in Madrid, Milan and Paris that are responsible for investment grade and high yield companies primarily in the TMT, retail, pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, packaged goods, railways and postal services industries.

Since joining Moody’s in 2005, Yasmina has been in charge of the credit ratings of automotive and truck manufacturers, retail, consumer packaged goods companies, including beverages and business services companies. Prior to joining Moody’s, Yasmina worked for Caisse Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne as a credit risk analyst where she had responsibilities for the analysis of companies mainly in the airlines, telecoms and real estate industries as well as aircraft and shipping financings. Yasmina is a CFA charterholder. 

She holds a Postgraduate Diploma (“DESS”) in Finance from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and has a university degree (majoring in Finance) from Dauphine University (Paris). She is fluent in English, French and Moroccan.

Eda has been working in Corporate and Investment Banking for seven years, with expertise in Project Finance and Sustainable Finance. Combining her experience across these two areas, she has developed a strong understanding of complex financing structures and the integration of sustainability considerations into corporate financing.

Eda is currently Sustainable Finance Senior Lead at Garanti BBVA, where she structures and executes sustainable finance transactions for large corporate clients and contributes to the development of new sustainable finance products and solutions for the Bank. Her work spans sustainable lending and capital markets, the integration of sustainability into risk management products, transition finance, ESG advisory and carbon markets, with a focus on embedding sustainability considerations into clients’ financing strategies. She has also played a coordinating role in some of Garanti BBVA’s major sustainability-linked transactions, from origination and structuring through execution. In 2025, she worked at BBVA’s headquarters in Madrid, focusing on sustainable finance within Corporate and Investment Banking.

Throughout her career, Eda has worked across a broad range of sectors and financing structures, including major energy and infrastructure projects. Her combined expertise in project finance and sustainable finance gives her a broad perspective on complex corporate financing and the evolving role of finance in the sustainability transition.

Having spent a significant part of her education in the United States, Eda studied at UCLA and Leiden University and graduated from Bilkent University with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations. She also completed the Executive MBA Certificate Program at Koç University. She is a native speaker of both English and Turkish.

Tom has been working in the field of Sustainable Development for five years. He is an experienced analyst who has been involved in 100+ green, social, sustainable and sustainability-linked Second Party Opinion (SPOs) and net-zero assessments, with a particular focus on the energy sector and the decarbonization of hard-to-abate industries. Tom worked in Moody’s research department as an analyst in the Energy & Utilities sector.

Tom holds a Master’s degree in Corporate Finance specialised in the green bond market from Neoma Business School, and a Master’s degree in Economics in Université Grenobles Alpes where he wrote his master’s thesis about the economics of the French future electric system. He also has been giving lectures about Sustainable Finance and helped build the bachelor on transitions at ESSEC business School for three years.

Nitish Bhojnagarwala is an Executive Director with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Nitish covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic financial institutions in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.

Nitish joined Moody’s in 2011, and has led sukuk roundtables and conducted workshops on Banking and Islamic finance at various conferences in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Nitish has also authored several research pieces, with a focus on regional banking, credit issues and issuer-in-depths for conventional as well as Islamic banks.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Nitish spent five years at Tamweel in the Treasury function. He has also worked for KPMG in the UAE, where he covered financial institutions. Nitish holds an MBA from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, with a major in Finance (Investment Banking).

Burak Cerrahoglu is Vice President and responsible for new rating relationships in CIS region and Turkiye.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Burak was Operations/Risk Manager with European Housing Finance EHF, which is a mortgage finance company based in Istanbul and specializing in the secondary mortgage market in Turkey. Burak was previously with the Mortgage Acceptance Corp. in the U.S., while structuring MBS and mortgage whole loan sales.

Burak holds M.S. in Finance from Boston College and B.S. in Finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.