About

Nominated during the research process by a private practice source, renowned country legal counsel for Citibank in Turkey Süreyya Uğurses is a highly accomplished banking in-house lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in the field. Also included on the GC Powerlist: Turkey in 2015 and GC Powerlist: Turkey Teams in 2016, Uğurses has worked for some of the country’s biggest local and global banks, including İşbank, HSBC and Eurobank. She joined Citibank in 2011 as the country legal counsel, company secretary and assistant general manager reporting to the CEO. A true leader, she has created an environment where lawyers have a strong sense of purpose. She strongly feels that building a legal team is about being talent makers, rather than talent takers. Uğurses also believes a legal counsel should be a connected business leader with high integrity and sound judgment, whose effectiveness depends as much on their soft skills as their technical expertise. Working during an era of speed, technology, innovation and regulatory scrutiny, she led the work to ensure the balance between local and global legal requirements. Uğurses says that close cooperation and transparency between the legal team and the business is the key to success.