Inside Corporate Finance: What Makes a Career in M&A Powerful?
What makes corporate finance powerful? For Gizem Uzuner, Partner at Danista Capital Partners - IMAP Turkey, it's the opportunity to be at the center of decisions that shape how companies grow and change direction.
In the third episode of Inside Corporate Finance, Gizem reflects on what she has learned through her career in M&A, from turning complexity into clarity to building trusted client relationships - and why understanding a business beyond the numbers is so important.
What Makes a Career in M&A Rewarding?
For Gizem, one of the most rewarding aspects of M&A is seeing real transformation.
Advisors are not simply analyzing a business. They are working closely with clients as important decisions are made and seeing what happens when a transaction closes and a company moves into a new phase.
That proximity to both the business and the people behind it is a defining part of the experience.
Why Does Trust Matter in M&A Advisory?
Working closely with clients throughout a transaction creates the opportunity to build strong relationships based on trust.
For Gizem, one of the most meaningful outcomes is when a client returns after a transaction and wants to continue working together - turning an individual deal into a longer-term relationship.
What Skills Set M&A Professionals Apart?
Gizem describes one of her biggest strengths as turning complexity into clarity.
Her advice to anyone considering a career in M&A is not to focus only on the numbers. Understanding what a business does, why it matters, and where it is going is equally important.
Over time, she believes what really sets an M&A professional apart is not analysis, but insight.
Click HERE to Watch Gizem Uzuner share her perspective in the latest episode of Inside Corporate Finance.
Jurgis V. Oniunas
IMAP Chairman
At the start of the year, the outlook for Q1 was highly optimistic, with expectations of slowing inflation, lower interest rates, and improving growth projections. Unfortunately, we live in interesting times. Early in the year, speculation around the disruptive impact of AI on traditional SaaS business models triggered a significant revaluation in parts of the Software sector. More recently, escalation in the Middle East conflict has introduced fresh volatility – pushing oil prices higher, adding upward pressure on inflation, and creating supply-chain uncertainties. While it is too early to tell how these new shocks will eventually affect the global M&A market, we can be sure that our dealmakers around the world are on the ground every day – negotiating, re-evaluating, adjusting positions, and adapting to whatever the environment throws at them to deliver the best outcomes for their clients. They’ve done it for over 50 years, and that’s exactly what they’ll continue to do, no matter the conditions.
