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Latin America's
richest man added more than $6 billion to his fortune this year.
He sold off his stakes in MCI and Altria and used the proceeds
to up his holding in Saks Inc; in his fixed line operator,
Telmex; and in America Movil, his flagship wireless telecom
outfit. The latest was a particularly smart move as America
Movil's stock has almost doubled in the past year.
He also owns 71% of a new public company, Impulsora del
Desarollo Economico de America Latina, which he spun off from
financial services giant Grupo Financiero Inbursa. Inbursa also
invested in a start-up budget airline called Volaris. An art
collector, Slim houses his Rodin sculptures in Mexico City's
Museo Soumaya, the museum he funded and named after his late
wife. His Grupo Carso is reportedly a combination of his first
name and his late wife's.
Slim, the son of Lebanese immigrants, began buying businesses in
Mexico as the government started selling companies in need of
financing after its 1982 debt default. In 1990, he teamed up
with Southwestern Bell Corp. and France Telecom SA to buy
state-owned Telmex, which now has a market capitalization of
more than $20 billion.
Carlos Slim Helú (born January 28 , 1940 in Mexico City ) is
Latin America 's richest man (and #3 in the world) according to
Forbes . His wealth comes from his businesses in the
communications industry, Teléfonos de México and América Móvil
telecommunication companies.
His father was Julián Slim Haddad ( Yusef Salim Haddad ), a
Lebanese Maronite Christian, who as a teenager fled to Mexico in
1902 , escaping the harsh military rule of the Ottoman Turks .
His father and two of his older brothers arrived at the Mexican
port of Tampico , making their way to Mexico City where, in 1911
, Julian established a dry goods store called La Estrella del
Oriente and took a gamble and bought up some prime real estate
in the city core-a shrewd move as it turned out.
'That was courage,' says Slim Helu, 'He taught me no matter how
bad a crisis gets, Mexico isn't going to disappear, and that if
I have confidence in the country, any sound investment will
eventually pay off.'
Slim Haddad married Linda Helu, daughter of another prosperous
Lebanese merchant, and had six children. Carlos Slim Helu was
the fifth of the six children. Carlos credits his father as his
mentor in business, retailing and finance. Julian Slim Haddad
died in 1952 , leaving his family a moderately prosperous
economic base from which Carlos launched his successful
financial career.
Slim has six children and lives in Mexico City. He is an
engineer by profession, graduated from the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous University of
Mexico) in 1961, where before graduating he taught Algebra and
Linear Programming . He has given lectures in public and private
institutions, and also in international bodies such as the
Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA).
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 is a director at the Board of
Directors of the Philip Morris Companies and Alcatel , as well
as for SBC Communications , a position from which he retired in
July 2004 to devote more time to the Latin American Development
Fund , focusing on infrastructure , health and education ,
amongst the most relevant work. He later built an important
Mexican financial-industrial empires, Grupo Carso , that owns,
among other companies the COMPUSA electronic retail chain. After
28 years he became the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the
business. He also holds this position in TELMEX, América Móvil
and Grupo Financiero Inbursa. Slim opposes free trade and free
market prescriptions for developing Latin economies. Though he
maintains an actively involvement in his companies, his three
sons Carlos, Marco Antonio and Patrick Slim Domit head them.
Slim bought Telmex during then-president Carlos Salinas 's
privatization spree. Mexicans complain that after the transfer,
telephone prices went up dramatically but without any comparable
change in service quality, although this situation was largely
rectified with the subsequent opening up of the long-distance
market to other competing providers. Many critics suspect that
Slim's purchase of Telmex was corrupt, as were many of Salinas's
privatizations.
Slim has been awarded the Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor
from Mexico's Chamber of Commerce ; he received the " Golden
Plate Award ", granted by the American Academy of Achievement
and the Government of Belgium awarded him the Leopold II
Commander Medal .
In the year 2000, Carlos Slim Helú organized the Fundación del
Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México A.C. (Mexico City
Historic Downtown Foundation), which objective is to revitalize
and rescue Mexico City's historic downtown, for more people to
live, work and find entertainment in this area. He is 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.
Slim was once MCI 's largest shareholder, with 13 percent of
MCI's shares owned by him. On April 11 , 2005 , The Wall Street
Journal announced that he had sold his share of MCI to Verizon
Communications of the United States.
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