Cengiz joined the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine (RFHSM) in 1989. He was appointed as Finance Director in 1993 and then continued as Director of Financial and Business Affairs for the Medical School on its merger with UCL in 1998.

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Cengiz established Freemedic PLC (now known as UCL Business PLC (UCLB)) as the commercial arm of RFHSM (and now UCL)  in 1993 and formally transferred from his UCL role to the position of Managing Director of UCLB in 2004. Over the years he has been involved in many licenses and spin outs including PolyMASC Pharmaceuticals PLC, one of the first university spin outs to float on the London AIM in 1995. Medic to Medic Ltd (creators of the Map of Medicine) founded in 2000 which was sold to Informa PLC in 2005 and Stanmore Implants Worldwide Limited which was acquired by Abingworth and MDY Healthcare in February 2008.

 

In 2016, Cengiz led the creation of  two unique university investment funds to operate alongside UCLB - the £50m UCL Technology Fund and the £40m Apollo Therapeutics collaboration.

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Under his leadership UCLB grew to become one of the most successful and prolific university technology commercialisation companies in the UK with three NASDAQ listings in 2018 and a healthy portfolio of assets to benefit UCL and its associated hospitals.  Cengiz retired from UCLB in 2018 and established Tarhan Associates in 2019.  

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Cengiz has served as NED on numerous UCLB spin outs and now works with investors and funds also acting  as  an external reviewer of technology transfer offices. He continues to speak at events and provide advice to many universities both in the UK and internationally.