Carlos Slim Helú (born January 28, 1940) is Latin America's richest man (and #4 in the world) according to Forbes. His wealth comes from his businesses in the communications industry, Teléfonos de México and América Móvil telecommunication companies.

His father was Julian Slim Haddad (Yusef Salim Haddad), a Lebanese Maronite Christian teenager, who fled to Mexico in 1902, escaping the harsh military rule of the Ottoman Turks. His father and two of his older brothers arrived at the Mexican port of Tampico, making their way to Mexico City where, in 1911, Julian established a dry goods store called La Estrella del Oriente and took a gamble and bought up some prime real estate in the city core--a shrewd move as it turned out.

'That was courage,' says Slim Helu, 'He 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.

Slim Haddad married Linda Helu, daughter of another prosperous Lebanese merchant, and had six children. Carlos Slim Helu was the fifth of the six children when he was born on January 28th, 1940. Carlos credits his father as his mentor in business, retailing and finance. Julian Slim Haddad died in 1952, leaving his family a moderately prosperous economic base from which Carlos launched his successful financial career.

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

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 is a director at the Board of Directors of the Philip Morris Companies and Alcatel, as well as for SBC Communications, a position from which he retired in July 2004 to devote more time to the Latin American Development Fund, focusing on infrastructure, health and education, amongst the most relevant work. He later built an important Mexican financial-industrial empires, Grupo Carso. After 28 years he became the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the business. He also holds this position in TELMEX, América Móvil and Grupo Financiero Inbursa. Slim opposes free trade and free market prescriptions for developing Latin economies. Though he maintains an actively involvement in his companies, his three sons Carlos, Marco Antonio and Patrick Slim Domit head them.

Slim bought Telmex during then-president Carlos Salinas's privatization spree. Mexicans complain that after the transfer, telephone prices went up dramatically but without any comparable change in service quality, although this situation was largely rectified with the subsequent opening up of the long-distance market to other competing providers. Many observers believe that Slim's purchase of Telmex was corrupt, as were many of Salinas's privatizations.

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 Government of Belgium 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), which 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 philathropic work, he heads the Latin America Development Fund project.

Slim was once MCI's largest shareholder, with 13 percent of MCI's shares owned by him. On April 11, 2005, The Wall Street Journal announced that he had sold his share of MCI to Verizon Communications of the United States.

External links

• Forbes article on Slim (http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/10/2005/LIR.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2005&passListType=Person&uniqueId=WYDJ&datatype=Person)es:Carlos Slim Helú