Carlos Slim Helu (born January 28, 1940) is a Mexican business magnate and philanthropist who as of 2011 is the
richest man in the world,
for the second year in a row. He is the chairman and chief executive of
telecommunications companies Telmex and America Movil and has extensive
holdings in other Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo
Carso SAB, as well as business interests elsewhere in the world.
America Movil, which in 2010 was Latin America's largest
mobile-phone carrier, accounted for around US$49 billion of Slim's
wealth by the end of 2010. His corporate holdings as of March 2011 have
been estimated at US$74 billion.
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 man. Slim's estimated fortune soared to $59 billion, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July.
Bill 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 man, with a net worth of $53.5 billion.
Bill Gates and
Warren Buffett
now have 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.
NO 2
William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an
American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates
is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software
company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the
world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to
2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. During his career at
Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect,
and remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6.4 percent of the
common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.
Bill Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal
computer revolution.Bill Gates has been criticized for his business
tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive, an opinion which
has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his
career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating
large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and
scientific research programs through the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, established in 2000.
Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in
January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief
software architect. In June 2006, Bill Gates announced that he would be
transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work, and
full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually
transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, and Craig
Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day
at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive
chairman.
Bill Gates was number one on the Forbes 400 list from 1993 through to 2007 and number one on Forbes list of The
World's Richest People
from 1995 to 2007 and 2009. In 1999, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed
$101 billion, causing the media to call him a "centibillionaire". Since
2000, the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a
fall in Microsoft's stock price after the dot-com bubble burst and the
multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable
foundations. In a May 2006 interview, Gates commented that he wished
that he were not the
richest man in the world
because he disliked the attention it brought. Gates has several
investments outside Microsoft, which in 2006 paid him a salary of
$616,667 and $350,000 bonus totalling $966,667. He founded Corbis, a
digital imaging company, in 1989. In 2004 he became a director of
Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by long-time friend
Warren Buffett. In March 2010 Bill Gates was bumped down to the second wealthiest man behind
Carlos Slim Helu.
NO 3
Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) is an American business
magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of
the most successful investors in the world. Often introduced as
"legendary investor, Warren Buffett", he is the primary shareholder,
chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is consistently ranked among
the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's wealthiest
person in 2008 and is the third wealthiest person in the world as of
2011.
Buffett is called the "Wizard of Omaha", "Oracle of Omaha" or the
"Sage of Omaha" and is noted for his adherence to the value investing
philosophy and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth.
Buffett is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99
percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the
Bill Gates Foundation. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees at Grinnell College.
In 2008, Buffett became the
richest man in the world dethroning
Bill Gates, worth $62 billion according to Forbes, and $58 billion according to Yahoo.
Bill Gates had been number one on the Forbes list for 13 consecutive years. In 2009,
Bill Gates
regained number one of the list according to Forbes magazine, with
Buffett second. Their values have dropped to $40 billion and $37 billion
respectively, Buffett having (according to Forbes) lost $25 billion in
12 months during 2008/2009.
In 2008 he was ranked by Forbes as the
richest person in the world
with an estimated net worth of approximately US$62 billion. In 2009,
after donating billions of dollars to charity, Buffett was ranked as the
second
richest man in the United States with a net worth of US$37 billion with only
Bill Gates ranked higher than Buffett. His net worth is up to $47 billion in the past 12 months.
Numerous books have been written about Warren Buffett and his
investment strategies. In October 2008, USA Today reported that there
were at least 47 books in print with Buffett's name in the title. The
article quoted the CEO of Borders Books, George Jones, as saying that
the only other living persons named in as many book titles were U.S.
presidents, major world political figures, and the Dalai Lama. Buffett
said that his own personal favorite is a collection of his essays called
The Essays of Warren Buffett, which he described as "a coherent
rearrangement of ideas from my annual report letters" as edited by Larry
Cunningham.
NO 4
Bernard Arnault(born 5 March 1949) is a French business magnate who
is best known as the chairman and CEO of the French conglomerate LVMH.
According to Forbes Magazine, Arnault is the world's 4th and Europe's
richest person, with a 2011 net worth of US$41 billion.
In 1987, shortly after the creation of LVMH, Mr Arnault exploited a
growing conflict between Alain Chevalier, Moet Hennessy's CEO, and Henri
Racamier, president of Louis Vuitton. The new group held property
rights to Dior perfumes, which Arnault craved to incorporate into Dior
Couture. He created a holding company of which he owned 60% and
Guinness, who had a distribution agreement with Moet-Hennessy, owned
40%. Following the October 1987 stock market crash, he capitalized on
the lower quoted price and soon owned 43% of LVMH. He then consolidated
his position by purging executives from both companies including
appointing his father Jean Leon Arnault Chairman of the Supervisory
board before officially taking over as Chairman & CEO in 1989.
In 2007, he acquired 10.69% of France's largest supermarket retailer
and the world's second largest food distributor, Carrefour through his
Blue Capital, which is jointly owned by California property firm Colony
Capital.
He has since then led the company through an ambitious development
plan, turning it into one of the largest luxury groups in the world,
alongside Swiss luxury giant Richemont and French based PPR Group.
Among other companies, Arnault also owned the art auction house Phillips de Pury & Company from 1999 to 2003.
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