I’m Halilcan Soran, a Senior Business Analyst specializing in Process Optimization at Visa, where I transform complex business workflows through RPA, Power Platform, and Agentic AI solutions. With a unique blend of editorial leadership experience and technical innovation, I bring a storyteller’s clarity to process automation; making the complex simple and the mundane disappear. My mission: empower teams to focus on high-value work by building intelligent systems that handle the rest.

Development

My journey began in Şanlıurfa, Turkey, where I spent my formative 18 years immersed in rich cultural traditions. Later, I expanded my technical capabilities with a Master’s in IT Project Management from WSB University in Gdańsk, Poland, laying the foundation for my process optimization philosophy.

During my university years, I co-founded Magna Carta NGO, a dynamic organization that participated in numerous EU-supported projects and facilitated opportunities for over 150 individuals. This collective endeavor taught me early lessons in project coordination, stakeholder management, and the power of systematic processes and/or skills that would prove invaluable in my future work.

Simultaneously, I launched a company, specializing in digital marketing, content and web development. By assembling teams of skilled freelancers, I learned to orchestrate distributed workflows and deliver seamless content solutions, early training in what I now recognize as Agile team dynamics.

A pivotal chapter opened when I joined Thomson Reuters as a News Reporter, transitioning from independent ventures to enterprise journalism. My contributions earned four Strategic Centers Impact Awards between 2020 and 2024, recognizing performance excellence during critical news cycles. Rising to Team Leader, I managed 15 journalists while pioneering what I called “NewsOps”; applying DevOps principles to journalism workflows. This experience taught me that operational inefficiencies exist everywhere: professionals spending precious hours on repetitive tasks, copy-pasting between systems, and wrestling with fragmented workflows instead of doing meaningful work.

At Reuters, I built automation solutions using Power Automate that eliminated mundane tasks and saved hundreds of hours annually. I championed Agile methodologies in newsrooms traditionally built on waterfall processes, helping teams embrace iterative workflows, daily standups, and continuous improvement. This hands-on experience with citizen development and process automation became the launching pad for my current career.

My approach is grounded in certified methodologies:

• Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I): Bringing Agile frameworks to editorial teams
• ITIL: Aligning IT service management with newsroom operations
• Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt: Applying process optimization to eliminate waste in news production

For more feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile.

Result

Currently serving as Senior Business Analyst – Process Optimization at Visa, I design and implement intelligent automation solutions that streamline deal processes and enhance operational efficiency across the organization. My focus areas include:

• Power Automate & RPA: Building robust workflow automations that eliminate manual bottlenecks
• Power Apps: Creating custom business applications that solve real operational challenges
• Copilot Studio: Developing AI-powered agents that augment human capabilities
• Agentic AI: Architecting intelligent systems that can reason, plan, and execute complex tasks autonomously

My career trajectory includes:

• Senior Business Analyst – Process Optimization, Visa (Current) — Designing intelligent automation solutions using Microsoft Power Platform and Agentic AI
• Team Leader, Thomson Reuters — Led 15 journalists while pioneering NewsOps practices and building automation solutions
• News Reporter/Senior News Reporter, Thomson Reuters — Award-winning journalism across critical news cycles
• Co-founder, Magna Carta NGO — EU project management and youth mobility programs

My journey represents the evolution of business analysis in the age of AI. As organizations face mounting pressure to do more with less, the solution isn’t simply working harder—it’s working smarter. Through RPA, low-code development, and Agentic AI, we can create environments where people thrive, freed from operational friction to pursue strategic and creative work.

I stand at the intersection of business process excellence and intelligent automation, driven by the belief that the future of work depends not just on great ideas, but on the systems that enable them. True transformation requires orchestrating technology, process, and people into a symphony of efficient, impactful operations.