Carlos Slim

Carlos Slim Helu is a Mexican businessman who built Grupo Carso, a conglomerate spanning telecommunications, retail, industrial manufacturing, financial services and real estate, into one of the largest business groups in Latin America. Beginning with investments in Mexican industrial and construction firms in the 1960s, he expanded into telecommunications through the 1990 privatization of Telefonos de Mexico, later building the wireless carrier America Movil into the dominant mobile operator across much of Latin America. For years the world's wealthiest person before being overtaken by American technology entrepreneurs, he remains one of the most influential figures in Mexican and Latin American business.