Carlos Slim Helú was born in 1940 in Mexico City, making him 81 years old. Sometimes called the king of telecom, as a businessman he owns the major telecommunications company Telmex, the mobile phone company Telcel, and América Móvil, a Mexican telecommunications company that is one of the largest corporations in the world. The success of Grupo Carso, a real estate investment firm that Slim started when he was just 25 years old, had already brought him 40 million dollars in assets by the time he was 26. Tobacco company buyouts brought in a tremendous amount of capital as well, through which he extended his reach to manufacturing, retail, solar power generation, petroleum, and rail and other infrastructure to create a massive conglomerate. When Mexican petroleum prices plummeted in the 1980s, plunging the nation into a debt crisis, Slim started buying up major corporate stock at bargain prices and continued his long-term investments. As the Mexican economy recovered, Slim had become one of the top investors in the world. He also runs the Inbursa banking company, the longstanding department store Sanborns, and more, so it’s probably not a stretch to say that every single person in Mexico makes use of at least one of his companies in some way.
One of the reasons Slim is such a talented businessman is that his father provided him with an education tailored to his outstanding gifts. A Lebanese immigrant, his father opened a dry foods store in 1911, and later succeeded in opening other stores as well. Slim was the third son among six brothers and sisters born to his businessman father and his mother, who was a Chilean immigrant. Slim’s father passed away when Slim was just thirteen, but apparently he had already made each of his children keep an account book to manage their own spending money. Slim made his first stock purchase when he was twelve years old and went on to have a fascinating career, studying civil engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America) and teaching mathematics while he was a student there.
Slim is a prominent philanthropist as well as businessman. The Carlos Slim Institute of Health has invested some 5.8 billion yen in genome research, while the Fundación Carlos Slim Helú gifted more than 100,000 computers to public schools throughout Mexico, among its many other contributions, scholarships, and other forms of support.
The most famous of all Slim’s philanthropic pursuits was the construction of the Soumaya Museum in 2011, whose exhibits feature numerous famous artworks from Mexico, Europe, and around the world. The fact that there is no admission fee, coupled with the innovative modern building, means that the place is always teeming with visitors. I was shocked to learn that every one of the 66,000 pieces on display here is owned by Slim himself—including the world’s largest collection of Rodin sculptures outside of France. The museum is named after Slim’s late wife Soumaya Domit, and was designed by Fernando Romero, husband of Slim’s daughter, who also has her mother’s name.
The Soumaya Museum
The Soumaya Museum is located in the Nuevo Polanco district of Mexico City, home to a large population of Japanese and other foreign residents. The site was once part of an industrial complex that Slim developed with the usual high-rise condominiums, shopping centers, and office buildings, plus movie theaters, concert halls for musicals and other performances, and even the Inbursa Aquarium opposite the Soumaya Museum (naturally, Slim owns the aquarium as well). Partially because it was an industrial district, Nuevo Polanco was once a rather rough part of town, but prices have gone up and the place has transformed thanks to the development effort—turning it into a popular sightseeing area for people from all over the world and home to a large foreign population. Development is still ongoing, and it can be dangerous off the main streets, but it’s exciting to think about how the area will continue to evolve in the near future thanks to Carlos Slim.
