Asim Serdar Yilmaz: more than 20 years across regulated technology businesses
I am Asim Serdar Yilmaz, a senior legal and regulatory affairs leader based in Istanbul. Across more than 20 years of legal and regulatory work, most of it in-house, I have advised global technology, consumer and regulated businesses across Turkey and the Middle East, in retail and marketplace, streaming and media, advertising, payments, data and IP. My work tends to sit where a business wants to move quickly and a regulator wants to move carefully.
I started in private practice at White & Case in Ankara, on cross-border M&A, privatisations and IP in regulated sectors. From there I moved in-house: first into a strict, high-scrutiny compliance environment at a global group in a highly regulated industry across the Middle East, then into e-commerce at eBay's Turkey and MENA business, and from 2019 to 2026 as Legal Director for Amazon Turkey. In 2026 I moved from legal into regulatory affairs, and today I lead the regulatory agenda within the corporate affairs function of a global group in a highly regulated industry.
The thread through all of it is regulated markets. I have spent years turning regulatory ambiguity into paths a business can actually take, and building what I think of as "yes, if" guardrails: controls that let a team move at speed while protecting the enterprise over the long term. Much of that has meant sitting across the table from competition authorities, data protection regulators, media regulators and ministries.
The other current chapter is LEXSAS, the AI legal-tech venture I founded in 2026, focused on legal workflow automation and advisory. It blends what the career built in layers: legal directorship, regulatory affairs, corporate affairs and public policy, now paired with hands-on AI governance. It grew out of years of building generative AI tooling for legal work, on AWS Bedrock among other platforms, and of seeing where adoption succeeds and where it quietly fails. This site is where I write about that intersection of law, regulation and AI, as informational consultancy rather than legal representation.
Career
Founder
LEXSAS, Istanbul
- An AI legal-tech venture focused on legal workflow automation and advisory for legal and regulatory teams.
- Designs and advises on AI-enabled tooling across the legal workflow: intake, document and knowledge management, research and compliance operations.
- Builds privacy, IP and governance guardrails into every tool from the start, pairing 20+ years of legal and regulatory leadership, most of it in-house, with responsible AI adoption.
Regulatory Affairs Director
A global group in a highly regulated consumer industry, Istanbul
- Leads the regulatory agenda within the corporate affairs function, as functional lead in one of the most heavily regulated consumer sectors.
- Regulatory strategy, horizon scanning and regulatory-change analysis for the Turkish market, supporting public policy and government relations work.
- Applies AI governance discipline to regulatory operations: monitoring, analysis and institutional knowledge workflows, with guardrails built in.
Legal Director, Technology, E-Commerce and Media; Board Director
Amazon Turkey, Istanbul
- End-to-end retail and marketplace counsel: commercial contracting, consumer law, advertising, product compliance, supply chain, payments, privacy and disputes.
- Regulatory representation before RTUK, the Turkish Competition Authority, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry and Technology, the KVKK Authority and the Central Bank, including representation in a Ministry of Trade investigation.
- Led the response to a KVKK order on cross-border data transfers: prepared and executed a Data Transfer Undertaking approved by the KVKK Authority.
- Competition and digital markets strategy on parity and MFN, ranking and Buy Box practices, and algorithmic accountability, including leading the Turkey defense strategy on a pricing-algorithms investigation before the Turkish Competition Authority.
- Statutory Board Director for multiple Amazon entities in Turkey, including Prime Video Turkey and Project Kuiper, under Turkish company law. Co-developed GenAI legal tooling on AWS Bedrock to streamline intake and knowledge workflows and reduce outside counsel dependency.
Head of Legal and Business Ethics Officer, Middle East and North Africa
eBay Turkey (GittiGidiyor), Istanbul
- Regional legal leadership for e-commerce marketplace operations across Turkey and MENA: consumer protection, advertising, payments, IP and commercial transactions.
- Head of Public Policy, representing the company before regulators and industry bodies, including the TOBB E-Commerce Assembly.
- Payments and fintech: designed and secured regulator approval for a commercial agent exemption model enabling marketplace payment collection and seller payouts without a full payment institution license.
- Regional Business Ethics Officer under the FCPA and UK Bribery Act: Code of Conduct training, third-party due diligence and internal investigations.
Regional Legal Counsel and Company Secretary, Middle East; Legal Counsel, Global Functions
A global group in a highly regulated industry, Dubai and Lausanne
- Advised commercial teams across 12 Middle East markets under strict advertising bans and Ministry of Health regulations.
- Route-to-market and distribution architecture: distribution, key account and trade marketing arrangements, with templates and controls.
- Company Secretary for regional entities, coordinating external counsel across 12 jurisdictions.
- Global anti-corruption governance from the Lausanne headquarters, including executive risk reporting under the FCPA and UK Bribery Act.
Associate
White & Case LLP, Ankara
- Cross-border M&A and privatisations in regulated sectors including telecoms, energy and banking.
- IP work: trademark clearance, prosecution, cancellations and oppositions, licensing and NDAs.
- Regulated industries advisory across energy and infrastructure, environmental and administrative law.
- Disputes and labor matters before Turkish courts.
Board and governance
Between 2019 and 2026 I served as a Statutory Board Director and authorised representative for multiple Amazon entities in Turkey, including Prime Video Turkey and Project Kuiper, under Turkish company law. Earlier I was a Deputy Board Member of the e-Commerce Commercial Enterprises Association. These roles carried director duties and liability under the Turkish Commercial Code.
Education
- Executive Education Program, Harvard Business School (2018-2019)
- MSc, Internet Business, Mercy College, New York (2002-2004)
- BA in Law, Ankara University School of Law (1995-2001)
Courses and seminars
- AI Law, Policy and Governance, London School of Economics
- WIPO: E-Commerce and IP; Arbitration and Mediation; Trademarks and Designs; Copyright
- Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights Program, Ankara University
Ankara Bar Association. Languages: Turkish (native), English (fluent).