Carlos Slim Helu (born January 28, 1940 in Mexico City) is a Mexican businessman[2] and the world's richest person as of August 2007, according to Fortune magazine and the Wall Street Journal.[3][1]
Slim has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America as well. He controls Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), Telcel and America Movil companies. Though he maintains an active involvement in his companies, his three sons Carlos Slim Domit, Marco Antonio Slim Domit and Patrick Slim Domit head them on a day-to-day basis
.
Family
His father [1], a Maronite Christian, moved to Mexico City from southern Lebanon at the age of 14. Julian established a dry goods store called La Estrella del Oriente (Star of the Orient) in 1911 and purchased real estate in downtown Mexico City. He was a prominent businessman and he and his wife had six children, of whom Carlos was the youngest boy.
Slim is the surname of Carlos's father Julian, who was called Youssef Salim before moving to Mexico, upon which he changed his surname to Julian. He officially became Julian Slim Haddad by adding Haddad, his mother's surname, according to the Spanish-language naming customs.
In Western, non-Iberian naming conventions, Carlos Slim Helu's name would just be Carlos Slim.
World's richest person
On 8th August 2007, Fortune magazine reported that Carlos Slim had overtaken Bill Gates as the world's richest man. Carlos Slim's estimated fortune soared to US$59 billion, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July. Microsoft founder Bill Gates' net worth was estimated to be at least US$58 billion.[1]
On 4th August 2007, The Wall Street Journal ran a cover story profiling Slim. The article said, "While the market value of his stake in publicly traded companies could decline at any time, at the moment he is probably wealthier than Bill Gates".[3]
Forbes has not updated its calculations of billionaire fortunes. It does not plan to recalculate Carlos Slim Helu's wealth until next year.[4]
On the 29th March 2007, Carlos Slim Helu surpassed Warren Buffett as the world's second richest person with an estimated Net Worth of US$53.1 billion compared to Buffett's US$52.4 billion.[5]
According to the Wall Street Journal, Carlos Slim Helu credits part of his ability to discover investment opportunities early to the writings of his friend, futurist author Alvin Toffler.[3]
Achievements, directorships
He has been vice-president of the Mexican Stock Exchange and president of the Mexican Association of Brokerage Houses. He was the first president of the Latin-American Committee of the New York Stock Exchange Administration Council, and was in office from 1996 through 1998.
He was on the Board of Directors of the Altria (Previously Philip Morris) Group (resigned in April, 2006) and Alcatel. He was on the Board of Directors of SBC Communications until July 2004 to devote more time to the World Education & Development Fund, which focused on infrastructure, health and education projects. He is also the Majority Shareholder of CompUSA. In 1997, just before the company introduced its famous iMac line, Slim bought 3% of Apple Computer's stock, which has skyrocketed over the years.[6]
He built an important Mexican financial-industrial empire, Grupo Carso, which owns, among other companies, the CompUSA electronic retail chain. After 28 years he became the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the business. He is also Chairman of Telefonos de Mexico, America Movil, and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.
Telecom leadership
Slim gained notoriety when he led a group of investors that included France Telecom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in buying Telmex and TELNOR from the Mexican government in 1990 in a public tender during the presidency of Carlos Salinas. Today, ninety percent of the telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex.[7] The mobile company, Telcel, which Carlos Slim Helu also controls, operates almost eighty percent of all the country's cellphones. These operations have financed Mr. Slim's expansion abroad. Over the past five years, his wireless carrier America Movil has bought cellphone companies across Latin America, and is now the region's dominant company, with more than 100 million subscribers.
Slim was once MCI's largest shareholder, with 13 percent ownership. On April 11, 2005, The Wall Street Journal announced that he had sold his stake in MCI to Verizon Communications of the United States.
Awards
Slim has been awarded the Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor from Mexico's Chamber of Commerce. He is a "gold patron" of the American Academy of Achievement,[8] and the Belgian Government awarded him the Leopold II Commander Meda, CEO of the year in 2003 by Latin Trade business magazine and one year later CEO of the decade by the same magazine.
In the year 2000, Carlos Slim Helu organized the Fundacion del Centro Historico de la Ciudad de Mexico A.C. (Mexico City Historic Downtown Foundation), whose objective is to revitalize and rescue Mexico City's historic downtown to enable more people to live, work and find entertainment in this area. He has been Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Restoration of the Historic Center since the year 2001.
Additionally, as part of his philanthropic work, he heads the Latin America Development Fund project, and his foundations have more than 10 billion dollars budget for the next years.
Bill Clinton has said: "Carlos Slim is the most important philanthropist in the world most people have never heard of".
Criticism
Slim's critics claim that he is a monopolist, noting that his company Telmex controls 90% of the Mexican landline telephone market (the other 10% is controlled by TELNOR, which only serves on the Northwest part of Mexico). The contrast between Slim's wealth and the poverty of much of Mexico's population is also troubling to critics. Slim's wealth is equal to roughly 7% of Mexico's annual economic output, an astronomical figure compared to that of America's top billionaires. At the height of John D. Rockefeller's wealth his income only totalled 2.5% of America's economic output. Over the last two years Slim has made an average of $27 million per day.[3]