Billionaire Carlos Slim Biography

Carlos Slim Biography

Born in year 1940, Carlos Slim, with a net worth of $69 billion is the richest man in the world, who besides being a globally renowned businessman is also a revered billionaire philanthropist. After completing his bachelor’s degree in the field of art and science, Mr. Slim entered the corporate world, where he focused primarily on three of the most lucrative verticals i.e. construction, real estate and mining. The year 1990 witnessed the sale of the Mexican landline company Telmex, which the billionaire acquired from the Mexican government via Grupo Carso and the company went public at the stock exchange worldwide. As his business ventures continued to yield soaring profits, so did his plans of acquisitions and distributed investments.

In the year 2007, Forbes Magazine placed Carlos slim as the second richest man in the world, after he nudged Warren Buffet with an estimated net worth of $53.1 billion. During the course of next three years, Mr. Slim continued to fluctuate on the Forbes list slipping in and out of second and third place. Then, in the year 2010, Carlos Slim net worth reached a mind blowing $53.5 billion that propelled him to the very top of the list, where he sent Bill Gates sliding down to the second position and grabbed the title of the richest man in the world. As of the year 2012, Mr. Slim still holds the coveted position with an iron grip as the Mexican billionaire has now amassed a net worth of $69 billion.

The Carlos Slim family is comprised of the billionaire’s six children, while this extremely successful entrepreneur is known to be a widower, after the demise of his wife Soumaya Domit in 1999. With his focus on the ‘simple life’ as per the standards of a multi-billionaires, Mr. Slim earns a monthly severance package of just $24,000 and instead of owning a private jet, he prefers to fulfill his air travel requirements via an airplane and a helicopter that is owned by Telmex.

Billionaire: Carlos Slim Helu

Current Position: Chairman, Telmex

Age: 72

Nationality: Mexico City, Mexico

Source of Wealth: Telecom Sector

Net Worth: $69 Billion

Education: Bachelor of Arts & Science, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Marital Status: Widowed

Children: 6

Carlos Slim House

1.  Lomas de Chapultepec:

Besides having his personal fortune figures edging close to $70 billion mark, Carlos Slim prefers simplicity as his most treasured ornament. The Mexican billionaire lives in a modest home that by every standard portrays his humility even after his phenomenal success. Located in the Lomas de Chapultepec housing district of Mexico City, this Carlos Slim house is comprised of only six bedrooms, while the house as well the neighboring residences carry Californian Colonial architecture, along with pitch roofs that are equally complemented with carved doors and walls. The Carlos Slim residence is located just a short distance from his office and even puts his childhood home in easy reach.

2.  Duke-Semans Mansion

Price: $44 Million

Just because the richest man in the world doesn’t seem to have an affinity towards super yachts and private yachts, doesn’t mean that luxury real estate is also off the books. Carlos Slim stunned the world in the month of July in 2010, when he purchased the highly prestigious Duke-Semans Mansion in New York City for a staggering sum of $44 million. This uber bespoke luxury mansion was designed and developed in the year 1901 and provides a spacious 20,000 square feet of living space, along with just about every modern amenity imaginable. The Duke-Semans mansion boasts of an extraordinary twelve bedrooms, along with fourteen bathrooms, while this magnificent residence also comes with eleven wood burning fireplaces.

3.  Fifth Avenue Office Building

Price: $140 Million

In the heart of New York City on the fabled Fifth Avenue, stands an office building and gloriously shines of the corporate success of Carlos Slim. The billionaire extraordinaire purchased this grand office building in the year 2010 and paid a whopping $140 million,. The entire building occupies a massive 412,000-square feet of space and is located at the southeast corner of East 38th Street in the Grand Central submarket in the prestigious Fifth Avenue New York region. The Fifth Avenue office building provides some 380,000 square feet of highly efficient works space, while also sporting 23,500 square feet of retail space. The deal for this massive building was inked by Cushman & Wakefield, which was composed of real estate big hitters such as the likes of Karen Wiedenmann, Helen Hwang etc.

Carlos Slim Collectibles

Though the wealthiest person in the world Carlos Slim refrains from splashing his money on luxuries, yet he is also a very well renowned art connoisseur, who has collected and maintained a vast and elegant library of some of the most valuable works of art. In the month of March 2011, Mr. Slim introduced his most endearing possession in the form of the Museo Soumaya. This one of a kind art museum has been designed and developed in the memory of Soumaya Domit, who passed away in the year 1999 due to kidney failure. As a tribute to his late wife, the museum stop exhibition for more than 66,000 pieces of artwork that have been crafted by some of the most renowned names in the art world such as the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Rodin, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali etc. and the museum itself took a staggering $34 million to build, while housing the artwork that carries a combined estimated worth of a whopping $800 million. All the artwork displayed at the museum has been claimed from the billionaire’s own collection, while the museum has been designed by architect Fernando Romero, who is also known to be the son-in-law of Mr. Slim and is a well renowned protégé of ritzker Prize winner and urbanist Rem Koolhaas. The Museo Soumaya is a six story structure and measures an astounding 150 feet in height. All expenses for the museum, including its maintenance will be taken care of by the Carlos Slim Foundation, along with the Mexican telecommunication giant, Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex).

Carlos Slim Cars

1.  Navy Mercedes 4X4:

With a definitive own to earth approach to luxury and  flamboyance, billionaire Carlos Slim is known to have in his possession a Navy Mercedes 4X4 that has been custom designed to suit the needs of the billionaire. This understated luxury vehicle came with a price tag of no more than $100,000 and is known to be most cherished car in his entire fleet. Amazingly, instead of employing a chauffeur, Mr. Slim prefers to drive the Navy Mercedes 4X4 all by himself and is close followed by his security detail, which drives in 4X4 SUVs.

2.  2005 Bentley Continental Flying Spur

Another vehicle in the rather small collection of Carlos Slim cars is the 2005 Bentley Continental Flying Spur, which is definitely a luxury automobile that must be used whenever the billionaire needs to make an impression. Introduced in the year 2005, the Continental Flying Spur has been designed taking inspiration from the widely acclaimed Bentley Continental GT coupé.  This four door Bentley saloon is powered by a 6.0 L W12 twin-turbo engine that gives the car 560 bhp, thereby propelling the Continental Flying Spur to a top speed of 194 mph. The power plant is tethered to a six speed automatic transmission that enables this gorgeous car to make sprint of 0 to 62 mph in a mere 5.2 seconds.

Carlos Slim Travel Destinations

1.  Chichen Itza:

A man with a great pride in his home country of Mexico, billionaire Carlos Slim prefers to spend his free time exploring the country and the world, while his most preferred destination is Chechen Itza. Located in the Yucatán state in Mexico, Chichen Itza is one of the most legendary and mystical places on the planet and is known to be a principal city for the ancient civilization of the Mayans. Since childhood, Carlos Slim was always fascinated with pyramids and the ancient world, hence stills hold an immense interest in the pyramids of Chichen Itza and their immense importance to the Mayans. Considered to be one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico, Chichen Itza attracts millions of tourists each year and has deemed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Furthermore, as the end of the Mayan calendar comes to an end on December 21^st, 2012, the tourist volume to Chichen Itza is expected to skyrocket.

2.  New York City:

With a $44 million luxury mansion and a $144 million Fifth Avenue office building, Carlos Slim is a most frequent visitor to New York City and as such has grown immensely fond of the urban and high paced lifestyle of the ‘city that never sleeps’. Mr. Slim is also known to be an avid fan of Baseball and is said to have attended numbers Baseball play-offs at the Yankee Stadium, where without surprise, he can be found sitting in the VIP boxes. Furthermore, New York City also serves as a principal city for numerous business interests that Mr. Slim has crafted and nurtured over the years.

Carlos Slim Charity

Apart from being a highly successful entrepreneur, the one element that truly defines the man Carlos Slim has become, is his intense interest in the field of philanthropy and his constant endeavor to contribute for charitable purposes. The billionaire founded his flagship philanthropy organization by the name of Fundación Carlos Slim Helú (Carlos Slim Helu Foundation) in the year 1986 and has focused immensely on its activities, while also initiating a new charitable foundation called Fundación Telmex, Both these organizations were set to bring living standards of Mexicans to respectable standards, while provide the means to educate and empower the Mexican people. Carlos Slim provided Fundación Carlos Slim Helú with a donation of a mind blowing $4 billion, which was to be used for setting up of the Carso Institutes for Health, Sports and Education. This sister organizations along with Carlos Slim Foundation was assigned the task of working alongside a separate initiative taken by former U.S President Bill Clinton, wherein wished to bring enhanced aid to the Mexican people. Fundación Telmex was on the other hand established to bring forth more opportunities and better facilities that would take Mexican sports to new heights. In the year 2008, both Fundación Telmex as well as the Fundación Carlos Slim joined hands to bring $250 million to the Mexican sporting world, where in the aim was to provide aid and nature Mexico sports and takes them to the Olympic standards.

Then in the year 2001, Carlos Slim focused his attention on the revitalization of downtown Mexico, for which he established the Fundación del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México A.C. (Mexico City Historic Downtown Foundation). The sole goal of this organization was to give the downtown region a complete facelift, so as to provide the residents with better housing, entertainment as well as employment opportunities. Forbes magazines featured Carlos Slim in its coveted list of ‘World’s Biggest Givers’ for his $4 billion donation to the Carlos Slim Foundation.

In conjunction with the Clinton Initiative project, the Carlos Slim Foundation is also focusing greatly in healthcare for those who aren’t able to afford it. The most recent project involves a $100 million investment, where in the country of Peru is set to receive 50,000 cataract surgeries, while Colombia has been chosen for a $20 million project that is aimed supporting small and medium business. Through this $100 million initiative, Carlos Slim is also targeting a digital education program for the youth of Mexico, where lack of education is always considered to be the main reason of the increasing crime rate.

Carlos Slim is also known to have joined hands with the globally renowned Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, wherein both the organizations in collaboration with the Spanish government have allocated $150 million for nutrition and disease prevention in Central America. Taking into consideration the rapidly rising threats to the global flora and fauna, Carlos Slim has only recently donated $50 million to the World Wildlife Fund for the restoration of six fauna species in Mexico, focusing primarily on the  highly endangered Monarch butterfly.

Carlos Slim Quotes

1.  “When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.”

2.  “I think I can work with any of them. We are going to continue investing, whoever wins. We think long term, not just four or six years. We believe the country is strong, like almost all the countries in Latin America.”

3.  “When everybody else is better off, they can buy more, they strengthen demand, strengthen the market, strengthen the country.”