Safiye Ozuygun left Citibank in 2014 after over 20 years that took her through different business environments and countries. Her career started at Citibank Turkey in 1994 where she was a Relationship Manager handling a portfolio of large local corporate and multi nationals. In 2000 she moved to the UK where she was the Global Relationship Banker Branded Consumer and Retail, Senior Banker. During that period she managed a portfolio of global FTSE 100 British Branded Consumer and Retail working closely with global network of subsidiary account managers.

In 2003, Safiye was assigned to the Citi EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) ARR (reviewers) in the UK as a Senior Credit Reviewer – for EMEA. She was responsible for the independent assessment of the effectiveness and implementation of internal controls for credit risk and portfolio credit quality for assigned countries, businesses (Commercial Bank, Industry Portfolios, Private Bank, Real Estate) through participation or leading internal audits.

In 2007, Safiye was promoted to the Regional Head EMEA for Citi Corporate Credit ARR in London. She Led a cross regional/cultural team of 10 senior auditors who execute independent assessment of corporate credit portfolios of Citi Businesses, assign portfolio rating and report up to Audit Committee which is part of the Citi Board. Safiye reported directly to Chief Auditor EMEA.

Amongst her responsibilities were the preparation, resourcing, execution and budgeting of yearly audit plan. She originated and led a key global transformational initiative “Corporate Credit Audit Methodology project “ (assessed as ‘Best in Class’ by regulators) to enhance the portfolio monitoring process in anticipation of market downturn and manage the global rollout. She also was the Bank liaison with external stakeholders KPMG, FSA, OCC and FED and played an advisory role for Asia Pacific region as Global Liaison for corporate credit.

Safiye’s last assignment at Citibank (2009 and 2014) brought her to a completely different business where she became the Business Director of CITIMICROFINANCE, London. She helped to Expand Citi Microfinance’s foot print by successfully structuring landmark funding deals for microfinance institutions and banks across different regions in co-operation with local country teams. She was acting as microfinance ambassador internally and externally by representing Citi Microfinance at various conferences and microfinance network groups.

Safiye holds a BA n Economics from the Bosphorus University in Istanbul (1986) and an MSc in International Banking and Finance from the University of Nottingham in the UK (1993).