Carlos Slim

Carlos Slim Helú
Born	(1940-01-28) January 28, 1940 Mexico City, Mexico
Occupation	Chief executive officer

Carlos Slim Helú (born January 28 1940 in Mexico City) is a Mexican businessman. He is the second richest person in the world according to Forbes with an estimated fortune of US$49.0 billion.

Slim has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and indeed the whole Latin American region. He controls Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and América Móvil 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.

Early life and family

His father, Julián Slim Haddad Aglamaz, a Lebanese Christian from Jezzine, moved as a teenager to Mexico City in 1902 to escape the harsh Ottoman rule. Julián established a dry goods store called La Estrella del Oriente (Star of the Orient) in 1911 and bought some prime real estate in the city center. Julián married the daughter of another prosperous Mexican merchant who had also emigrated from Lebanon. They had six children, of whom Carlos was the youngest.

Julián died in 1952, leaving his family the moderately prosperous economic base from which Carlos launched his successful financial career. Carlos credits his father as his mentor in business, retailing, and finance. Slim said, "courage 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".

Carlos is an engineer by profession. He graduated in 1961 from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous University of Mexico), where, before graduating, he taught Algebra and Linear Programming. He has lectured in public and private institutions, and also in international bodies such as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

In an announcement on 8 September 2006, Slim made public plans to match dollar for dollar all donations to charitable foundations in Mexico.

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 focussed on infrastructure, health and education projects.

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 Teléfonos de Mexico, América Móvil and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.

On March 29th, 2007, Slim overtook Warren Buffett to become the second richest man in the world. His fortune stands at an estimated $53.1 billion, compared with Warren Bufett's $52.4 billion.

Kingpin of telecoms

He gained notoriety when he led a group of investors that included France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in buying Telmex from the Mexican government in 1990 in a public tender during the presidency of Carlos Salinas. He has attracted criticism from some for allegedly abusing its quasi-monopolistic power and stifling competition in long distance, local and mobile markets.

The lack of any real competition meant that consumers had to pay more for the telecommunication services than countries with a more competitive market. In recent years, increased public outcry, competition and regulatory assertiveness from the Mexican antitrust commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia) has resulted in lower rates. The long-distance market has been opened up to other competing providers. In 2006, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development based in Paris, reported that Mexicans pay some of the highest phone rates in the world.

(Bloomberg) -- Mexico's central bank President Guillermo Ortiz claimed:

``This dominant position implies difficulties for promoting more competition and, as a result, for lowering prices, Ortiz said during a conference in Mexico City on the country's competitive position.

High costs of telecommunications, electricity, etc have caused an erosion of Mexico's competitiveness compared with Asian and European countries, leaving growth of per capita income lagging behind them, Ortiz said.

Mexico has the highest costs of telephone service for business and international residential calls, and the highest cost of broadband internet for businesses among the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Ortiz said.

Today, ninety percent of the telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex. The mobile company, Telcel, which Carlos Slim Helú 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 América Móvil 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.

Slim also is a common shareholder of US Commercial, SA de CV which wholly owns CompUSA Inc.

Awards

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 Belgian Government 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), whose 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.

Chapultepec Accord

In September 2005 Slim announced the creation of Chapultepec Accord, which is intended to push "the development of Latin America through the development of human capital and structural investment." The accord calls for public-private partnerships to fund education and hospitals and was signed by more than 4,000 of Mexico's most prominent business, political and academic leaders.

Quotes

• "Our concept is more to accomplish and solve things, rather than giving — that is, not going around like Santa Claus. Poverty isn't solved with donations." Slim's Comment with regard to the philanthropy of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.

See also

• Lists of billionaires

External links

• The World's Richest People: Slim's Chance Forbes article (2007-03-26)
• Forbes Billionaires List (2006)
• Telmex Corporate Site
• Top Business Entrepreneurs Carlos Slim Helu Profile
• Latin Business Chronicle Latin American Billionaires
• Third-richest man to give away part of fortune Sydney Morning Herald article