Mehmet Nejat Ferit Eczacıbaşı (; January 5, 1913–October 6, 1993) was a chemist, industrialist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, and a second-generation member of the notable Turkish Eczacıbaşı family. He was the founder of Eczacıbaşı, a prominent Turkish industrial group with investments in pharmaceuticals, personal care products, consumer products, building products and financial services. Early life and education He was born on January 5, 1913, in Izmir, Ottoman Empire, to Süleyman Ferit Eczacıbaşı (1885–April 18, 1973) and his wife Saffet Hanım as their first of seven sons, Vedat (1916–1961), Sedat (1917–ca. 1950), Kemal (1918–1996), Haluk (1921–1996), Melih (1923–2004), Şakir (1929–2010). His father was the first university-educated pharmacist in the city of Izmir, who, while working at a hospital in his home town, was appointed "chief pharmacist" (. The city council awarded him later in 1909 the honorific title "Eczacıbaşı" for his fruitful and successful work. Süleyman Ferit ran in later years his own pharmacy in İzmir. With the introduction of the Surname Law in 1934, Süleyman Ferit adopted his title "Eczacıbaşı" as family name. Nejat Eczacıbaşı completed his primary and secondary education in İzmir. After finishing the high school at Robert College in Istanbul, he went on to study in chemistry at Heidelberg University. He made then his master's degree at Chicago University and his doctorate in 1937 at Berlin University. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı conducted post-doctoral scientific works on hormones and vitamins at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany. These studies contributed to Eczacıbaşı's scientific, systematic and universal approach to life and business, and reinforced his belief that the right to private enterprise ought to be tempered by social responsibility. This belief was first put forward by his father, whose maxim was "give back to your country what you take from it. Career After returning home, he settled in Istanbul, and started in 1942 with the production of vitamin drugs and baby food in a small laboratory. In 1952, he founded the country's first modern pharmaceutical plant. Like his father, he sought to uphold the aspirations of Turkey's founding fathers by contributing to the development of Turkish industry. Between 1950 and 1990, he oversaw the expansion of the Eczacıbaşı Group's activities from pharmaceuticals to building materials, tissue paper, personal health care, capital markets, foreign trade and information technology. He became a leading industrialist in branches such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, consumer products, building products and financial services. In every one of