Dr. Suat İrfan Günsel is a Turkish Cypriot entrepreneur, businessman and founder of the Near East University

Near East University

Near East University is a private university where over 17 thousand students from Cyprus and 55 overseas countries carry out undergraduate and postgraduate studies...

. In 2011, Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

 ranked him as the 2nd richest person in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

 and the 1,140th richest person in the world

Forbes list of billionaires

Forbes list of billionaires is based on an annual assessment of wealth and assets compiled and published by Forbes magazine on March 10, 2011.-Forbes list of billionaires :...

 with a net worth

Net worth

In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. For a company, this is called shareholders' preference and may be referred to as book value. Net worth is stated as at a particular year in time...

 of $1 billion.

Personal and Business life

Günsel, the Founding Rector of the Near East University, is married with three children.

Honorary doctorates

Günsel received honorary doctorates from following universities

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

:

• 2010 Komrat University, Moldovia
• 2010 Azerbaijan State University, Azerbaijan
  Azerbaijan
  Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
  
  
• 2011 Izhevsk International Eastern European University of Republic of Udmurtia, Udmurt Republic

Awards and Prizes

Some awards and prizes given to Dr. Suat Günsel are as follows;

• August 2009, awarded with the “Honorary Medal of Gagauzian Land” and honoured with the “Title of Notable Person” at the II. World Gagauzians Conference by the President of Gagauzia, His Excellency Mihail Formuzal.
• December 2009, honoured with Golden Honour Medal by Gagauzia Autonomous Republic for his precious contributions to educational sector of Gagauzia Autonomous Republic.
• March 2010, awarded with “Outstanding Success” by the National Assembly of TRNC for his contributions and worldwidely renowned investments made for educational systems and health sectors of TRNC.
• October 2010, awarded for his contributions to Turkish speaking countries' culture and education with “Türksoy Golden Medal of Honour” in accordance with the decision taken at the conference of Organization of Common Directorate of International Turkish Culture and Arts by the Permanent Council of Ministers of Culture of Member Countries of TÜRKSOY (The International Organization of Turkic Culture).
• November 2010, appointed the “Plenary Ambassador of TRNC” through the common decision of the President Dr. Derviş Eroğlu and the National Assembly of TRNC.
• November 2010, awarded with the “Golden Honorary Plaquet” by the Centre of Islam, History, Art and Culture for his contributions to Islamic Conference Organization.
• February 2011, honoured with a “Medal of Commemoration” for 60th anniversary of invention of Avtomat Kalashnikova 47 (AK 47), one of the most important patents of 20th century, by the legendary designer of this gun, General Mihail Kalashnikov.
• July 2011, awarded with “Friendship Order”, the highest order of the state given to foreigners, by the President of Azerbaijan, His Excellency İlham Aliyev, for his outstanding contributions to develop the relations between TRNC and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and for his contributions to Azerbaijan Diaspora.