The Attorney Meltem Azbazdar Has Been Appointed

04 July 2023

The attorney Meltem Azbazdar has been appointed as the General Counsel, Diageo Northern and Eastern Europe.

The attorney Meltem Azbazdar, the Director, Legal and Regulations at Mey|Diageo, has been appointed as the General Counsel, Diageo Northern and Eastern Europe. Azbazdar is going to be responsible for Legal, in more than 50 countries, including MENA.

The attorney Meltem Azbazdar, who has been serving as the Director, Legal and Regulations, leading the Legal at Mey|Diageo since 2013, has been appointed as the General Counsel, Diageo Northern and Eastern Europe, as of July 1, 2023. As part of her new position, Azbazdar is going to be responsible for Legal, in more than 50 countries, including MENA.

After graduating from the Faculty of Law of Ankara University, Meltem Azbazdar started her professional career at the office of Fox&Gibbons in Istanbul. In 1999, she moved to Herguner, Bilgen & Ozeke Avukatlik Ortakligi, where she worked for long years. In 2005, she started to serve at Carrefour Group Türkiye as the Director, Legal, and a Board Member, and then moved to the commercial side of the Group, and served as the Director, Real Estate Investment and Business Development. In 2012, she started to serve as the Founding Partner at Legal Partner, a boutique law firm, to move towards new directions in her career.

In 2013, Meltem Azbazdar was transferred to Mey|Diageo, and appointed as the Director, Regulations and Legal, while also serving as the Executive Board Member and Leader of the Inclusion and Diversity Committee of the company, where she and her team brought into life projects that have made a difference through local and global practices. Having paved the way for the establishment of the department of Corporate Relations and achieved effective results within a short period of time, while she was serving in her existing position between 2019 and 2022, Meltem Azbazdar started her duty as the General Counsel, Diageo Northern and Eastern Europe, in Hamburg, in July 1, 2023.

Meltem Azbazdar, who has been at the top of the list of the best lawyers in Türkiye several times, is a Board Member of the Ethics and Reputation Society (TEID) and leads the Inclusion and Diversity Committee of the society.

About Mey|Diageo

Mey|Diageo is one of the largest companies in the alcoholic beverage industry in Türkiye. It has been incorporated in 2004 upon the privatization of the alcoholic beverages department of Tekel. Since 2011, it has been operating under the umbrella of Diageo the alcoholic beverage producer trading in approximately 180 countries with regional offices in 80 countries. Mey|Diageo, the present representative of the legacy, dating back to the General Directorate of Monopolies that was established in 1862, is a company that is engaged in viticulture on its own land and holds a farming license. It continues to operate in Türkiye as two separate companies, one for production and the other for sales and marketing. It has become one of the largest companies in Türkiye, thanks to its more than 2 thousand employees, including its distributor and sales teams, by combining the talents of its employees with the power of its brands. Thanks to the employment opportunities it provides, as well as its significant contributions to the economy of the country, its approach to social responsibility and its premium brands, it holds a market-leading position in every field.

For information

Selim Zeytinoglu / BN Strategic Communication / [email protected]