Mehmet Nazif Günal

Mehmet Nazif Günal (born 1948) is a Turkish billionaire property developer who is the founder and sole owner of conglomerate Mapa Group, which he controls through a wholly owned holding company.

Biography

Günal was born in 1948. He worked as a construction worker from 1962 to 1965, and as a subcontractor in construction until 1971. In 1971 he graduated from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, with a master's degree in civil engineering. and has been managing it ever since. Günal owns ten 5-star hotels, the WoW (World of Wonders) Kremlin Palace and the WoW Topkapi Palace, in Antalya, are "architecturally exact replicas" of the Kremlin and Topkapi palaces.

Günal is a former executive of the Fenerbahçe S.K. football club. In July 2015, he bought the majority shares in Swiss football club FC Wil. In November it was announced at the club's general meeting that Günal and the investors had invested over 20 million Swiss francs in the club in the one and a half years since buying the majority shares, with a loss of CHF 11 million.

Controversies

Günal is a controversial figure due to his perceived closeness with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who he once describes as a "second Ataturk". Günal's daughter Merve is an engineer who also works for the MNG group.