2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world,. The position was regained by

Bill Gates in 2014 before Slim reclaimed the position again on July 15, 2014. Known as

the "Warren Buffett of Mexico", Slim has extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican

companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, SA de CV, have amassed interests in

the fields of communications, real estate, airlines, media, technology, retailing, and

finance. Presently, Slim is the chairman and chief executive of telecommunications companies

Telmex and América Móvil. América Móvil, which was Latin America’s

largest mobile-phone carrier in 2010, accounted for around US$49 billion of Slim's wealth

by the end of that year. His corporate holdings as of December 2013 have been estimated at

US$71.2 billion.

Early life Slim was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1940

to Maronite Catholic parents, Julián Slim Haddad and Linda Helú, both of Lebanese descent.

His father, born Khalil Salim Haddad Aglamaz, emigrated to Mexico from Lebanon at the age

of 14 in 1902 and changed his name to Julián Slim Haddad. It was not uncommon for Lebanese

children to be sent abroad before they reached the age of 15 to avoid being conscripted into

the Ottoman army; four of Haddad's older brothers were already living in Mexico at the time

of his arrival. Carlos Slim's mother, Linda Helú Atta, was

born in Parral, Chihuahua, of Lebanese parents who had immigrated to Mexico in the late 19th

century. Her parents upon immigrating to Mexico had founded one of the first Arabic language

magazines for the Lebanese-Mexican community, using a printing press they had brought with

them. In 1911, Julián established a dry goods store,

La Estrella del Oriente. By 1921, he had purchased real estate in the flourishing commercial

district of Mexico City. These enterprises became the source of considerable wealth.

In August 1926, Julián Slim and Linda Helú married. They had six children: Nour, Alma,

Julián, José, Carlos and Linda. Julián senior died in 1953.

Business career Slim and his siblings were taught basic business

practices by their father, and at the age of 12, Slim bought shares in a Mexican bank.

At the age of 17, he earned 200 pesos a week working for his father's company. He went

on to study civil engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he

also concurrently taught algebra and linear programming. After graduating from college,

Slim began his career as a trader in Mexico to hone his business skills. He would then

go on to form his own brokerage firm that later expanded to invest in individual businesses,

ranging from construction and manufacturing to retail and restaurants. In 1965, he incorporated

Inversora Bursátil and bought Jarritos del Sur. In 1966, already worth US$40 million,

he founded Inmobiliaria Carso. Three months later, he married Soumaya Domit Gemayel, and

they remained married until her death in 1999. Companies found within the construction, real

estate, and mining industries were the focus of Slim's early career. By 1972, he had established

or acquired a further seven businesses in these categories, including one which rented

construction equipment. In 1976, he branched out by buying a 60% interest in a printing

business, and in 1980, he consolidated his business interests by forming Grupo Galas

as the parent company of a conglomerate that had interests in industry, construction, mining,

retail, food, and tobacco. In 1982, the Mexican economy, which had substantially

relied on oil exports, contracted rapidly as the price of oil fell and interest rates

rose worldwide. Banks and other businesses were nationalized, crippled, or collapsed,

and the peso was devalued. At this time, and during the period of recovery to 1985, Slim

invested heavily. He bought all or a large percentage of numerous Mexican businesses,

including Reynolds Aluminio, General Popo, Bimex hotels, and the Sanborns food retailer.

He also acquired a 40% and 50% interest in the Mexican arms of British American Tobacco

and The Hershey Company, respectively. He moved into financial services as well, buying

Seguros de México and creating from it, along with other purchases such as Fianzas La Guardiana

and Casa de Bolsa Inbursa, the Grupo Financiero Inbursa. Many of these acquisitions were financed

by the cash flows from Cigatam, a tobacco business which he bought early in the economic

downturn. In 1988 Slim added the Nacrobre group of companies –

which trade in copper and aluminium products – along with a chemicals business, Química

Fluor, and others. In 1990, the Grupo Carso was floated as a

public company initially in Mexico and then worldwide.

Later in 1990, Slim acted in concert with France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation

in order to buy the landline telephony company Telmex from the Mexican government. By 2006,

90 percent of the telephone lines in Mexico were operated by Telmex, and his mobile telephony

company, Telcel, which was created out of the Radiomóvil Dipsa company, operated almost

80 percent of all the country's cellphones. In 1991, he acquired Hoteles Calinda, and

in 1993, he increased his stakes in General Tire and Grupo Aluminio to the point where

he had a majority interest. In 1996, Grupo Carso was split into three

companies: Carso Global Telecom, Grupo Carso, and Invercorporación. In the following year,

Slim bought the Mexican arm of Sears Roebuck. 1999 saw Slim expanding his business interests

beyond Latin America; he set up Telmex USA and also acquired a stake in Tracfone, a US

cellular telephone company. At the same time, he established Carso Infraestructura y Construcción,

S. A. as a construction and engineering company within Grupo Carso. In 1999 Slim had heart

surgery and subsequently passed on much of the day-to-day involvement in the businesses

to his children and their spouses. América Telecom, the holding company for

América Móvil, was incorporated in 2000. It took stakes in various cellular telephone

companies outside of Mexico, including the Brazilian ATL and Telecom Americas concerns,

Techtel in Argentina, and others in Guatemala and Ecuador. In subsequent years, there was

further investment in Latinamerica, with companies in Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, Honduras,

and El Salvador. 2000 also saw a venture with Microsoft which led to the start of the Spanish

T1msn portal, later renamed ProdigyMSN. In 2005, Slim invested in the Volaris airline

and formed Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina SAB de CV, a Mexico-based

company primarily engaged in not-for-profit infrastructure development.

In 2007 after having amassed a 50.1% stake in the Cigatam tobacco company, Slim reduced

his holdings by selling a large portion to Philip Morris for $1.1bn, while in the same

year also selling his entire interest in a tile company, Porcelanite, for $800m. He licensed

the Saks name and opened Saks Fifth Avenue in Santa Fe, Mexico. In 2008 he took a 6.4%

stake in The New York Times Company, which increased to 8% by 2012.

On December 8, 2007, Grupo Carso announced that the remaining 103 CompUSA stores would

be either liquidated or sold, bringing an end to the struggling company, although the

IT tech part of CompUSA continued under the name Telvista with U.S. locations in Dallas,

Texas and Danville, Virginia. Telvista has five centers in Mexico. After 28 years, Slim

became the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the business. He is also Chairman of Teléfonos

de Mexico, América Móvil, and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.

Slim built Plaza Carso in Mexico City, where most of his ventures share a common headquarters

address. In March 2012, Slim along with American television

host Larry King established Ora TV, an on-demand digital television network that produces and

distributes television shows including Larry King Now, Politicking with Larry King, Recessionista,

and Jesse Ventura Uncensored. The network was used as an outlet to produce a new show

for Larry King after leaving CNN. On April 23, 2014 Slim took control of Telekom

Austria established in seven central and Eastern European countries outside Austria, under

a 10 year agreement, being his first successful acquisition in Europe. In a syndicate holding

structure the Austrian state holding company OIAG's 28 percent are combined with Slim's

27 percent ownership. America Movil will spend as much as $2 billion to buy out minority

shareholders in a mandatory public offer and invest up to 1 billion euros into the company,

which it sees as "platform for expansion into central and eastern Europe". Labor representatives

boykotted attending the OIAG supervisory board meeting for 12 h criticizing lack of explicit

job guarantees. Personal life

Slim was married to Soumaya Domit from 1967 until her death in 1999. Among her interests

were various philanthropic projects, including the creation of a legal framework for organ

donation. Slim has six children: Carlos, Marco Antonio, Patrick, Soumaya, Vanessa, and Johanna.

Slim underwent heart surgery in 1999. Personal fortune

Wealth On March 29, 2007, Slim surpassed Warren Buffett

as the world's second richest person with an estimated net worth of $53.1 billion compared

to Buffet's $52.4 billion. On August 4, 2007, The Wall Street Journal

ran a cover story profiling Slim. The article said, "While the market value of his stake

in publicly traded companies could decline at any time, at the moment he is probably

wealthier than Bill Gates". According to The Wall Street Journal, Slim credits part of

his ability to "discover investment opportunities" early to the writings of his friend, futurist

author Alvin Toffler. On August 8, 2007, Fortune reported that Slim

had overtaken Gates as the world's richest person. Slim's estimated fortune soared to

$59 billion, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July. Gates' net worth

was estimated to be at least $58 billion. On March 5, 2008, Forbes ranked Slim as the

world's second-richest person, behind Warren Buffett and ahead of Bill Gates.

On March 11, 2009, Forbes ranked Slim as the world's third-richest person, behind Gates

and Buffett and ahead of Larry Ellison. On March 10, 2010, Forbes once again reported

that Slim had overtaken Gates as the world's richest person, with a net worth of $53.5 billion.

At the time, Gates and Buffett had a net worth of $53 billion and $47 billion respectively.

He was the first Mexican to top the list. It was the first time in 16 years that the

person on top of the list was not from the United States. It was also the first time

the person at the top of the list was from an "emerging economy."

In March 2011, Forbes stated that Slim had maintained his position as the wealthiest

person in the world, with his fortune estimated at $74 billion.

In December 2012, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Carlos Slim Helú remains

the world's richest person with an estimated net worth of $75.5 billion.

On March 5, 2013, Forbes stated that Slim is still maintaining his first place position

as the wealthiest person on the globe, with an estimated net worth of US$73 billion.

On May 16, 2013, Bloomberg L.P. ranked Slim the second richest person in the world, after

Bill Gates. As of July 15, 2014, Forbes announced that

Slim had reclaimed the position a the wealthiest person in the world, with a fortune of $79.6

billion. Personal assets

Slim owns the Duke Seamans mansion, a 1901 Beaux arts house on 5th Avenue in New York

City, which he bought for $44 million in 2010. The mansion is 20,000 sqft large and has 12

bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and a doctor’s office in the basement.

Philanthropy Slim founded three non-profit foundations

concentrating on Mexico City: one for the arts, education and health care, one for sports

and one for downtown restoration. Fundación Carlos Slim Helú

Established in 1986 Fundación Carlos Slim Helú sponsors the Museo Soumaya in Mexico

City, named after Slim's late wife, Soumaya Domit, opened 2011. It holds 66,000 pieces,

including religious relics, contains the world's second-largest collection of Rodin sculptures,

including The Kiss, the largest Dalí collection in Latin America, works by Leonardo da Vinci,

Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and coins from the viceroys of Spain. The inauguration

in 2011 was attended by the President of Mexico, Nobel Prize laureates, writers and other celebrities.

After stating that he had donated $4 billion of dividends to Fundación Carlos Slim Helú,

$2 billion in 2006 and another $2 billion in 2010, Slim was ranked fifth in Forbes'

World's Biggest Givers in May 2011. Education and health care projects have included $100

million to perform 50,000 cataract surgeries in Peru through the Clinton Initiative, a

$20 million fund to strengthen small and medium-size businesses in Colombia, and a digital education

program for youth in Mexico, $150 million for programs in nutrition and disease prevention

in Central America with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the government of Spain,

$50 million to work with the World Wildlife Fund on restoration of six areas for species

in Mexico, including the monarch butterfly and $100 million on education programs for

young people through Colombian singer Shakira’s Alas Foundation.

Fundación Telmex In 1995 Slim established Fundación Telmex,

a broad-ranging philanthropic foundation, which as he announced in 2007 had been provided

with an asset base of $4 billion to establish Carso Institutes for Health, Sports and Education.

Furthermore, it was to work in support of an initiative of Bill Clinton to aid the people

of Latin America. Because Mexican foundations are not required to publish their financial

information, it is not possible to confirm Slim’s claims of charitable giving through

a public source. The foundation has organized Copa Telmex, an amateur sports tournament,

recognized in 2007 and 2008 by Guinness World Records as having the most participants of

any such tournament in the world. Together with Fundación Carlos Slim Helú, Telmex

announced in 2008 that it was to invest more than $250 million in Mexican sports programs,

from grass-roots level to Olympic standard. Telmex sponsored the Sauber F1 team for the

2011 season. Fundación del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad

de México A.C. In 2000, Slim and ex-broadcaster Jacobo Zabludowsky

organized the Fundación del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México A.C.,to revitalize

and rescue Mexico City's historic downtown area to enable more people to live, work and

find entertainment there. He has been Chairman of the Council for the Restoration of the

Historic Downtown of Mexico City since 2001. In 2011 he, along with the President of Mexico,

Mexico City Mayor and Mexico City Archbishop, inaugurated the first phase of Plaza Mariana

close to Basilica de Guadalupe. The complex, whose construction was funded by Slim, includes

an evangelization center, museum, columbarium, health center, and market.

Achievements Slim 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.

Slim was on the Board of Directors of the Altria Group until his resignation in April

2006. Slim was also on the Board of Directors of Alcatel. Slim currently sits on the Board

of Directors for Philip Morris International. He was on the Board of Directors of SBC Communications