MNGT828 – Latin America Clusters Project
Zachary Lewis
Carlos Slim Helu, Honorary Chairman, América Móvil
(http://www.famous-entrepreneurs.com/images/carlos-slim-helu.jpg)0
1. Provide a brief biographical overview of each individual’s life. Include the dates of birth
and death, if known.
Carlos Slim is Mexico’s richest person and he and his family control Telemex, Grupo Carso, and
América Móvil which is Latin America’s biggest mobile telecom firm. Further, he owns a 17%
stake in the New York Times, Mexican construction companies, consumer goods, mining, and
real estate companies1. He is 82 years old and was born January 28th, 19402. He has an
educational background in civil engineering and is best known as a businessman, investor, and
philanthropist. He is currently worth over $88 billion, and his holdings account for over 40% of
the listings on the Mexican Stock Exchange3. Growing up, his father would give him a 5-pso
allowance while requiring him to record his purchases in a ledger and prior to going into
business he was a professor of algebra for university in Mexico City4.
He was luckily enough however that his father made a great fortune during the Mexican
Revolution from 1910-19205, which surely helped him get a start.
2. Explain how and why this person was an innovative leader. What did he or she achieve?
In what ways did his or her success influence, and was influenced by, by the world
outside his or her origin country?
Carlos is an innovative leader because he started from nothing and self-made himself into the
16th richest person in the world. Once he found his niche in stock trading he didn’t stop.
Amassing interests in fields of communications, insurance, construction, energy, mining,
retailing, publishing, and finance6. He utilized the economic crash in Mexico during 1982 to
purchase controlling interests in many different companies and with his expertise and
management effectiveness his was able to substantially increase their value, and his.
