Three interconnected areas of practice. One consistent standard.
Phaida’s work has bridged emerging markets to Europe, the UK, and the USA, connecting ventures to the international partners, capital, and standards they need. From listed companies to those on the journey to IPO, venture capital and private equity funds, and acceleration labs, the challenge goes beyond the business plan: governance structures built to scale, cross border expansion, access to international capital, and regulatory complexity across jurisdictions. Phaida advises on the disciplines and practices companies need to accomplish their goals and succeed.
01
Board & Governance
Boards today face a widening scope of oversight, from financial and governance fundamentals to AI, cybersecurity, and regulatory complexity across jurisdictions. Phaida advises boards to be more impactful across stakeholder groups: board mandates for listed and private companies, bringing deep emerging markets, financial services, and governance expertise to strengthen board effectiveness.
02
Growth & Development
Guidance for investors and corporates on sustainability, growth, and governance. ESG integration into investment decision making and sustainable investing strategy, strategic counsel on inorganic growth including M&A rationale, strategy, and integration planning, and corporate governance frameworks built on best practice across stakeholder groups.
03
Impact & Strategy
Consulting for investors and institutions working at the intersection of capital, sustainability, and purpose. Where Phaida began, and where impact strategy meets the question of what capital will actually fund.
Not a practice area. An area of collaboration and contribution.
Board level AI oversight sits inside Board & Governance, above, because it runs through machinery boards already have: the audit, risk, and governance committees, and the internal control systems beneath them.
The wider question of how AI is governed across institutions, markets, and borders is where Phaida contributes and keeps learning: through lecturing, collaboration with academic, non profit, and multilateral partners, and participation in multilateral processes as an accredited private sector stakeholder. A board practitioner’s contribution, not a technical authority’s.
The same credentials, calibrated to 4 very different rooms.
01
Private sector companies
Listed and private companies seeking senior governance advisory, AI readiness, strategic support in cross border M&A, or guidance on expansion into and across emerging markets and regions. Family owned groups navigating succession and internationalisation, and proactive companies building sustainability into their operations ahead of regulation, positioned for the risks and the opportunities before the market prices them in.
Experience spans from startups to large corporates, across every stage of their growth and governance journey, drawn from independent board and audit committee chair roles alongside chief executive mandates at some of Türkiye’s leading institutions.
That experience is grounded in an early career at Japanese, European, and US financial institutions, and project work across the CIS.
Sector depth in regulated industries: financial services, fintech, telecommunications, renewable energy, natural resources, and food and beverage, among others.
02
NGOs, think tanks, and multilateral bodies
Governance frameworks, ESG and impact strategy, and a contribution to responsible AI practice, for organisations built on values rather than profit, from NGOs and multilateral bodies to public bodies, regulators, and digital governance working groups.
A board practitioner’s perspective, not a technologist’s, brought to the committees, think tanks, and multilateral bodies working through what AI governance means in institutional practice, the kind of work debated at venues like the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, informed by ongoing learning and a growing stewardship role in that ecosystem.
Particular interest in the Sustainable Development Goals, emerging market inclusion, the digital divide, and data governance, and in what global governance standards addressing all of it will need to look like.
03
Universities and academic institutions
Curriculum advisory, cross country research partnerships, and executive education design offered by the firm, alongside guest lecturing and visiting practitioner arrangements offered by Didem Gordon personally.
04
International financial institutions
Governance advisory mandates and development projects with portfolio companies in Türkiye and the wider region. Board level and former C level work in banking and investment management brings an institutional investor’s standpoint to every mandate, including leading international equity offerings for financial institutions alongside global investment banks.
