Carlos Slim Helu, or Carlos Slim, was born on January 28, 1940 in Mexico City, Mexico. Descending from Lebanese-Mexican roots, Carlos Slim is a philanthropist, engineer, and businessman with a primary focus on the burgeoning telecommunications industry. He dominates over the telecommunications industry within Mexico as well as for the greater part of Latin America. He controls Telcel, Telefonos de Mexico, as well as the America Movil companies. Having an estimated net worth of US$35 billion, he currently ranks as the third wealthiest person in the world competing amongst Lawrence Ellison, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
Carlos Slim completed his engineering studies at the prestigious Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. In 1967, he married Soumaya Domit, who gave him six children. The couple was married for 32 years until Soumaya’s death in 1999.
From 1996 to 1998, Carlos Slim served as the president of the Latin-American Committee of the New York Stock Exchange Administration Council. He was also a president of the Mexican Association of Brokerage Houses and vice president of the Mexican Stock Exchange.
Carlos Slim was also responsible for building Grupo Carso, a large Mexican financial-industrial conglomerate. Twenty eight years after its inception, Carlos Slim became the business’ Honorary Lifetime Chairman. The firm owns a variety of companies including the electronic retail chain CompUSA. In addition, he is also the chairman of the Grupo Financiero Inbursa.
For his active involvement and significant influence in the telecommunications industry, Carlos Slim became the recipient of Mexico’s Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor. In addition to this, the Belgian government also awarded him the Leopold II Commander Meda award. In 2003, he was hailed as CEO of the year by Latin Trade magazine and a year later, he received the title CEO of the decade from the same publication.