Carlos Slim

Slim married Soumaya Domit in 1967 and the couple had six children together. His wife died in 1999.

Slim underwent heart surgery in 1999. After the heart surgery he started taking it easy and passed the daily business affairs of his many holdings to his children.

Slim regularly pours his massive resources into philanthropic projects, in a broad range of areas, including education, health and the arts. The ‘Fundación Carlos Slim Helú’ was established in 1989, and its generous contributions to museums, healthcare programs, wildlife conservation efforts and many other projects led 'Forbes' to rank him fifth, in their list of the world's biggest givers.

Carlos Slim Helú was born on January 28, 1940, in Mexico City, Mexico, to parents of Lebanese descent. He was one of six children, and his father was a successful dry goods business owner.

Slim and his siblings were taught business from an early age by their father and by the age of 12, Slim bought shares in a Mexican bank. Although his father died in 1953, Slim continued to work in his business until he was 17.

He attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico, to study civil engineering. He also taught algebra and linear programming while at school and went into business immediately after graduating.

Working from the strong business foundation built by his father, Slim began his own career, as a trader, in Mexico and soon went on to start his own brokerage that invested in individual businesses. By 1965, his capital had grown big enough, that he was incorporating other companies or buying them outright.

By 1966, he was already worth an estimated US$40 million and growing. Although his early career saw him investing in many different individual businesses, his main focus was construction, mining and real estate, and he continued to acquire businesses in those fields.

During the 1970s he continued growing his empire by establishing and purchasing companies in various industries. By 1980, he had unified his various interests into the parent company ‘Grupo Galas’, which brought all of his holdings together.

In 1982, the falling prices of oil caused the mostly oil-based economy of Mexico to suffer and collapse, as banks became nationalized and the value of the Mexican currency Peso plummeted. During the next few years of economic downturn, Slim increased his acquisition efforts and gained large shares in the Mexican branches of international companies, including a 50% share in ‘The Hershey Company’.

In 1990, his conglomerate ‘Grupo Carso’ became a public company worldwide. This is also the year that he began extending his influence into telephone communications, working with ‘France Télécom’ and the ‘Southwestern Bell Corporation’, to buy the phone company ‘Telmex’ from the Mexican government. This was the start of what would end in an almost complete takeover of the nation's landline and eventually mobile phone service.

An inquisitive businessman, Slim has amassed a wide range of industries under his company ‘Grupo Carso’. But his acquisition of the communications company 'Telmex' previously managed by the Mexican Government established his monopoly over the land phone and mobile services market as the company provided telecommunication services to about 80% of the Mexican population.