Mr. Mazhar Zorlu was born in Izmir, in 1923. He completed his primary education in Izmir, and secondary education in Istanbul. The hard and suffering days of war had forced him to leave university and start working to look after his family, a few years after he started to study in Faculty of Law, Istanbul University.
He was employed in Arı Construction Company, worked on projects of Cumaovası Airport and Eregli Seaport Construction. In 1947, he completed his military service as a reserve officer.
In 1948, Mr. Zorlu has established his own company and completed the Manisa-Akhisar Road Construction and the buildings of Manisa Zirai Donanım Kurumu. In 1950, he founded a joint company in Izmir. They accomplished very important construction projects in Izmir such as Piyale Factory, Varyant Road, Izmir Fruit and Vegetable Market, School of Tınaztepe, State Water Affairs Department buildings, Municipality Hall, Alsancak Stadium, Guzelyalı Air Forces Training Premises, Izmir-Bergama Road, numerous construction tenders of State Water Affairs Department and many other public and private housing projects.
In 1958, as he continued his construction business with new investments, he decided to enter the plastics manufacturing sector and accomplished many innovations in profil and pipe production in the following years.
The group has boosted it's development in 1980's and enlarged its scope of business by entering new fields such as textile, cast marble, tourism, trade, insurance and service. The plastics companies of Ege Profil, Ege Pen, Egeplast, Ege Yıldız, Mermerit, Necat Zorlu( NCTR), Tempoplast (Germany), Ege Herkül (Kazakhstan), Ege Polimer Center (Russia), Rom Egeplast (Romania), Ege Bahçesaray were established by Mr. Zorlu.
The Group has major investments in Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia, Romania and Northern Cyprus. In 1997, all of the group companies were gathered under Mazhar Zorlu Holding. Today 45 companies exist in the Holding. 21 of these are under the full command of the Holding while in the other 24, the Holding participates as stakeholder. In these companies, more than 5.000 personnel are employed. Among those, Mazhar Zorlu Holding, Ege Plast, Ege Profil, EGS Holding Companies, Güçbirliği Holding Companies and Kipa are publicly held corporations listed in Istanbul Stock Exchange.
In the course of his business life, Mr. Zorlu was awarded numerous times with many medals and special letters from various governmental and private institutions for his honesty and generosity at paying taxes.
Mr. Zorlu was announced as the "Businessman of the Year 1996" by Turkish National Productivity Center. He is also known for his wide and versatile activities in his social life as well as in his business life.
Mr. Zorlu is a fan of sports. He played football in Muhafız Gücü, Beylerbeyi and Beykoz Sports Clubs. He had been the president of the Altay Sport Club. During his presidency, the team had gifted many remarkable football players to Turkish Football. He had been the president and member of the Football Federation with legendary names of Turkish football such as Hasan Polat and Orhan Şeref Apak.
Mr. Zorlu is an active member of many commercial, intellectual and social institutions, charities and organizations such as TUSIAD, ESIAD, Rotary and others. He contributed to the construction of Izmir Avni Akyol High School. Mazhar Zorlu Plastics Industry Technical High School in Izmir was also completed by Mazhar Zorlu in 1998 as the one and only example of it's kind in Turkey.
Mazhar Zorlu is married to Ayhan Zorlu for 50 years, has two sons named Kemal Zorlu and Nafiz Zorlu and 4 grandchildren.