John Ilhan
| John Ilhan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mustafa İlhan 23 January 1965 Yozgat, Turkey |
| Died | 23 October 2007 (aged 42) Brighton, Victoria, Australia |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Founder of Crazy John's |
John Ilhan (born Mustafa İlhan; 23 January 1965 – 23 October 2007) was an Australian businessman. He was the founder of Crazy John's mobile phone retail chain and the richest Australian under 40 years of age in 2003. He was an Australian Muslim of Turkish origin.
Ilhan was born in 1965 in Yozgat, Turkey and migrated to Australia with his family when he was five. He grew up in working-class Broadmeadows in Melbourne's north-west. Here he attended Jacana Primary School and then Broadmeadows High School. Whilst at Jacana Primary he played in the school football, soccer and basketball teams.
After just one year at university and a short time as a salesman at Ford, Ilhan took a sales job at the phone and electrical retailer Strathfield Car Radio. He left in 1991 to set up his own mobile-phone shop, right across the road from Strathfield's store in inner-city Brunswick. After expanding the business into Australia's biggest Telstra mobile dealership, with 18 stores in Victoria, Ilhan opened a handful of stores in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.
He was ranked first in Business Review Weekly's Australia's Young Rich List 2003, with a fortune of $200 million. In the 2007 Rich List, he came in as the 126th-richest man in Australia with a fortune of $310 million.
In 2006 Ilhan founded the Ilhan Food Allergy Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to promoting research and educating the public about the issues and causes surrounding anaphylaxis.
Ilhan was a vocal supporter of the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League. He made bids for the board and even offered to buy out Terry Wallace's contract in a bid to improve the team's performance by recruiting Kevin Sheedy.
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