Carlos Slim is a Mexican born billionaire investor and famous philanthropist. He currently owns over 200 businesses in a wide variety of industries and has been named by 'Forbes' magazine, as the richest man in the world, several years in a row. He learned basic business practices from his father, from a very early age, and worked in his family's business as a teenager. After he graduated from college, he began investing in earnest and slowly began building a multi-industry empire of conglomerates and corporations; both developed and purchased by him. Today, he has holdings in Latin American and international companies, in industries ranging from construction and manufacturing to dry goods, and tobacco. His most famous and influential holdings include his near complete monopoly over the mobile phone market, in Mexico, which at one point provided over 80% of the mobile services used in that country. Part of his vast wealth goes towards many different philanthropic projects, dedicated to preserving the environment, providing dependable and affordable health care, protecting culture and the arts, and many other humanitarian causes. He is honorary chairman for life, of his parent company, ‘Grupo Carso’, but after he underwent heart surgery, many of the daily responsibilities in the company have been passed to his children.