Murat Ülker, Chairman of Yıldız Holding

Murat Ülker is a Turkish billionaire businessman, and the chairman of Yıldız Holding, the largest food company in the CEEMEA Region. Yıldız owns businesses including Godiva Chocolatier, pladis, and Sok. Murat Ulker owns 63% of Yildiz Holding, which produces a wide range of food products and non-alcoholic beverages. Yildiz spent $850 million to buy Belgian chocolatier Godiva in 2007 and $3.2 billion to buy United Biscuits of the U.K. in 2014. To establish a more global structure, he merged United Biscuit, Ulker Biscuit and DeMet's Candy under the roof of London-based Pladis Foods. In early 2019, Godiva announced the sale of parts of its Asia-Pacific business, along with a production facility in Belgium, to PE firm MBK Partners. Yildiz is using some of the proceeds from the sale to expand Godiva's cafe business from 20 stores to more than 2,000 globally by 2025.