About

A well-known and widely respected lawyer, Meltem Azbazdar has had an impressive career spanning in-house and in private practice. She started her career in the Istanbul offices of Denton Wilde Sapte. She then moved to the leading Turkish law firm Herguner Bilgen Ozeke, where she worked as commercial group head, before assuming her first in-house role as Carrefour Group Turkey’s legal director. During her time in Carrefour, she was promoted to real estate investments and business development director; she managed a team of 40 people and she led major acquisitions, including Carrefour Turkey’s IPO to the ISE. Before assuming her current role in Mey İçki in 2013, Azbazdar had worked as the founding partner of a boutique law firm. Since joining Mey İçki, she has introduced important reforms in the workings of the legal function. One of her defining tasks was the implementation of a law-firm structure within the legal department, where the team members are organised in line with their expertise. Mey İçki is the leading spirits company in Turkey that was acquired by Diageo in 2011. During the last few years Turkey has introduced very strict regulation on the advertisement and sales of alcohol. Meltem Azbazdar concedes that operating in such a highly regulated area has been a major challenge for her. ‘We are working on a slippery ground as the eye and control of the regulatory body is always on our company. We have learnt to become more commercially minded and created innovative legal solutions, whilst protecting the business’.