She graduated from Üsküdar American High School in 1985 and Uludağ University, Department of Business Administration in 1989. Starting her career at Iktisat Bank, Ataünal held various positions from Branch Manager to Customer Relations Management at Körfezbank. She joined Akkök Group in 2000 as Budget and Finance Manager of Akenerji.

Ataünal served as the CFO at Akkök Holding from 2005 to 2022 and was appointed as a Member of the Executive Committee responsible for Finance in 2012. In 2017, he became a Board Member of Akkök Holding AŞ. Over the years, Ataünal has taken on various responsibilities and currently serves as a Board Member of Akkök Holding AŞ and President of the Energy Group. In addition to these roles, he is the Chairman of the Board at AKCEZ, Akenerji and Sepaş Enerji serves on the Boards of other group companies. Ataünal has been a member of TÜSİAD since 2013.