Slim Carlos

Date of Birth: 28.01.1940

Carlos Slim Helu - Mexican businessman of Lebanese descent, son of Lebanese Maronite immigrants. Billionaire, one of the richest men in the world.

From 2010 to 2013, he was according to Forbes the richest man in the world. In the billionaire ranking of 2016, Carlos Slim Helu took second place, and his wealth was estimated at 50 billion US dollars, although he lost 27 billion dollars during that year. The entrepreneur's main business is the holding company Grupo Carso, which controls a number of leading Mexican companies.

Place of Birth. Education. Born on January 28, 1940, in Mexico City as the fifth child of a Lebanese refugee and the daughter of a successful Lebanese merchant. His father, Khalil Salim Haddad, came to Mexico in 1902 to escape military service in the Ottoman army and changed his name to Julián Slim. His mother's surname is Helu.

Julián was a businessman and started a business in his new place of residence, buying real estate in the business district of Mexico City in 1920 and opening a department store. He managed to build a successful trading business. All six of Julián's children began working in this business, with him demanding 'commitment, talent, and diligence' from them. In return, the children were not given money similar to child benefits that they had to 'learn to handle' from the first grade. Carlos was fortunate to have entrepreneurial talent. With the blessing of his father, he began to engage in stock market investments, and at the age of seventeen, he made his first million fortune thanks to investment rules.

Carlos successfully focused on investments and studied civil engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In the last years of his studies, he even taught linear programming and algebra to other student groups. After graduating in 1961, Carlos Slim did not work in his field.

Business. Carlos Slim began his entrepreneurial engagement in retail, paying attention to ensuring that prices for mass consumer goods were affordable for poor Mexican buyers. In the 1980s, he began to buy up the remains of his father's destroyed companies, hoping that their values would rise in the future. At that time, he also founded his holding company Group Carso, which got its name from the combination of his name Carlos and that of his wife Soumaya.

His trading company Carso now competes with the American giant Wal-Mart.

Then Carlos expanded his business areas to mining and coal production, and today his company Frisco is one of the leading companies in the national mining and chemical industry.

In 1990, Carlos Slim devoted his attention to the telecommunications sector. He acquired the company Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), which under his leadership became the market leader in the communications industry and a leading provider of modern telecommunications services with international recognition.

In 1996, the Group Carso was renamed Carso Global Telecom Holding, whose main task was to coordinate the organizational, financial, and technical resources of the Helu group. Later, Condumex (manufacturing telecommunications equipment) and Prodigy (the first Mexican provider and pioneer of commercial Internet activities) were included in the holding.

In 1999, Carlos Slim invested 1.5 billion US dollars to gain control over several American companies operating fiber optic networks and cellular centers in Florida and Puerto Rico.

In February 2000, he became co-owner of the well-known Internet service provider Network Access Solutions along with SBC. A joint project with Microsoft tripled the number of Internet users, leading to an increase in sales of computer technology.

By profession an engineer, Carlos Slim held many important positions throughout his career, being the first president of the Latin America Committee at the New York Stock Exchange. In 1984 he was one of the initiators of the founding of the association of leading industrialists of the country 'Freedom of Entrepreneurship', aimed at partially denationalizing certain state enterprises to achieve adequate profitability and subsequent complete transfer to private ownership.

He is a board member of the Altira Group (formerly Philip Morris) and holds a senior position at Alcatel.

By investing in politics, Carlos Slim ensured long-term support from the Mexican government for his company.

Although Carlos Slim conducts his business through trading companies, the entire management of the business is carried out by a group of close associates and family. After a heart operation in 1997, Carlos Slim Helu gradually withdrew from business and handed over the initiative to his sons, who make up the backbone of the Slim family business.

Carlos has never hidden that he wants to turn his business into a family enterprise. He left his three sons in senior positions of the family empire. The eldest son Helu, Carlos, and his brothers Patrick and Marco Antonio chair the management of the trading and industrial group, the telecommunications conglomerate, his main company Telmex, and the venture company America Telecom.