# 23 Carlos Slim Helu

Age: 70yrs

Birth Place: Mexico City, Mexico

Industry: Telecommunication

Influence: Investments and Telecommunications

Net Worth: $53.5 billion

Why they made the list…

Carlos Slim Helu, best known as slim, is a well-known entrepreneur who is currently the richest man alive.  Carlos started in business at the age of eight when his father asked him to help with the family store. He graduated with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Mexico, however his personal wealth began when he inherited a large amount of real estate from his parents. Using his capital from the real estate to make some very explosive acquisitions. In the 1970s some of his assets became part of a group called Grupo Galas S. A, which was later renamed Grupo, Carso. This business had many different departments such as restaurants, real estate, mining, tobacco, railways, and also department stores. Later in the 1980s after more than 30 different companies joined his group some of them very well known and well respected, slim took control of the majority of shares of Cigtam, a tobacco business.

Cigatam, for those of you that don’t know the manufacturers of Marlboro cigarettes as well as many other brands of cigarettes. Still within the 80s Slim decides to sell a massive 50% of his shares just as the market was at its peak, making him a massive fortune overnight. He used the money to purchase a business chain called Sanborns, which again included restaurants music stores and bookshops to name a few. In the 1990s he managed to get Sears one of the country’s largest department stores to join his group, however it wasn’t until his monopolisation of the telecommunication industry in Mexico when he won a bid for the privatisation of Teléfonos de México, also known as Telmex. With Telmex he incorporated a partnership with France Telecom as well as Bella Canada which brought him great success. His business now controls 90% of all landlines within Mexico. With his fortune he has been an amazing example of what an investor should be, investing in companies such as Apple Computer Inc, MSN, as well as red Uno and Coca-Cola. It is here with his investments as well as his large share of the telecommunication business where he is made the majority of his fortune.