Mexico’s richest family, the Slims, control America Movil, Latin America’s biggest mobile telecom company. Founder Carlos Slim Helú was born in Mexico to parents of Lebanese descent in 1940. He worked as a stock trader before investing in Telmex, Mexico’s only phone company, in 1990. America Movil was originally a subsidiary of Telmex but would eventually purchase a controlling stake in its former parent company.
Today, Carlos owns stakes in construction, consumer goods, mining, real estate, 17 per cent of The New York Times and interests in 60 per cent of the companies on the Mexican Stock Exchange. He has six children. His wife, Soumaya Domit, passed away in 1999.
Many of his children have active roles in the family businesses, and Carlos recently put two of his grandchildren on the boards of his companies. Carlos Slim’s son-in-law Fernando Romero designed the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, which houses Slim’s extensive art collection. Carlos ranks seventh on Forbes’ “The World’s Billionaires” list.
