Carlos Slim Helú (born January 28, 1940 in Mexico City) is a Mexican businessman born to Lebanese parents.^[2] Slim has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and in much of the rest of Latin America as well. 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 and his son in law Daniel Hajj Aboumrad, head them on a day-to-day basis.

On July 3, 2007, a report by Mexican financial journalist Eduardo Garcia indicated that Slim's wealth had exceeded that of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, making him the world's wealthiest person. Recent gains in his shares in the America Movil group are largely responsible for his recent increase in wealth, boosting his fortune to an estimated $67.8 billion dollars compared with $59.2 billion dollars for Gates. ^[1]

Family

His father, Julián Slim Haddad Aglamaz, a Lebanese native from Jezzine, moved to Mexico City as a teenager in 1902. Julián established a dry goods store called La Estrella del Oriente (Star of the Orient) in 1911 and purchased real estate in the city center. Julián married the daughter of another prosperous Lebanese merchant. They had 6 children, of whom Carlos was the youngest.

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 is also the Majority Shareholder of CompUSA. In 1997, just before the company introduced its famous iMac line, Slim bought 3% of Apple's stock, which has skyrocketed over the years.^[3]

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.

Telecom leadership

Slim 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.

Today, ninety percent of the telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex.^[4] 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.

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. Click here for a photo of Slim accepting the award. http://www.achievement.org/achievers/fue0/large/fue0-011.jpg

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.