My alternate title was “The richest man you’ve never heard of”. I decided against it because its been done before. Carlos Slim is not well known despite his fortune. Every once in a while he will be featured on Forbes or CNBC, but for the most part he seems to have come out of nowhere. And that really is not the case. Many attribute this Latin American’s growth in wealth to NAFTA, which was enacted in 1994. His growth rate might be similar to Microsoft’s founder, but in the 90’s we were too interested in Gates and our tech bubble to notice a neighbor to the south growing at a similar rate.
Just look at that picture, he’s got the look of a relentless businessman. So how rich is this guy? In 2007 he was briefly the richest in the world, something he had predicted would happen. Forbes puts him just behind Warren Buffet for their 2008 list at $60 billion (Gates is 3rd).
So how did he get his money? Slim’s fortune is largely based on a telecommunications monopoly in Mexico. His massive growth in wealth started when leading the purchase of the de-nationalized Telmex in 1990. NAFTA’s role seems less significant based on this knowledge, but I’ll let others fight about that. As Slim’s wealth grew, he bought into a number of US and South American based telecoms. This brings him to today where he’s the most powerful man in Latin America. In a world that rewards capitalism, this guy is textbook material.
Check him out in Forbes and Wikipedia.
 By The Weakonomist |
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