Carlos Slim Helú was born on the 28th of January 1940 in Mexico City, Mexico and is a highly successful Mexican businessman who is currently the richest man in the world. Slim has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America as well. He controls Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and America Movil companies. Though he maintains an active involvement in his companies, his three sons Carlos Slim Domit, Marco Antonio Slim Domit and Patrick Slim Domit are in charge of company operations on a day-to-day basis. Carlos’s father Youssef Salim, a Maronite Christian moved to Mexico City, Mexico from Lebanon at the age of 14. Julián established a dry goods store called La Estrella del Oriente (Star of the Orient) in 1911 and purchased real estate in downtown Mexico City. He and his wife had six children, of whom Carlos was the youngest boy. Slim is the surname of Carlos's father Julián, who as stated previously was originally, called Youssef Salim before moving to Mexico, upon which he changed his first name to Julián and altered his surname to Slim. He officially became Julián Slim Haddad by adding Haddad, his mother's surname, according to the Spanish-language naming customs. In Western, non-Iberian naming conventions, Carlos Slim Helú's name would be Carlos Slim. Carlos studied engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. He married his wife, Soumaya Domit, in 1967; they had six children and were married for 32 years until Domit died of a kidney ailment in 1999. Since there is no way to accurately estimate the wealth of Bill Gates since he also owns the privately traded company “Cascade Investment Group” the possibility exists that Carlos and Bill will actually see saw on who is the richest person in the world throughout the remainder of 2007.
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