In this success post, we are going to share the story of Charles Koch, an American philanthropist, and businessman who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Koch Industries. His younger brother David inherited the business from their father, Fred Koch, who has founded the company in 1940.
Koch is one of the richest businessmen in the world, which owns 43% of the company. As of 2020, Charles Koch’s net worth is estimated to be around $50.4 billion dollars.
Charles Koch Early Life
Charles Koch was born on the 1st of November in Wichita, Kansas. Koch is the son of Mary and Fred Chase Koch. His father, Fred, was an engineer who then later turned to be an industrialist who later founded what was to become Koch Industries. Koch has three brothers: Federick, David, and William.
Koch attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study engineering. He earned his Bachelor of Science in General engineering in the year 1957 and a Master of Science (M.S in Mechanical engineering in 1958).
Charles Koch Career
After Koch’s graduation, he joined Arthur D. Little, Inc. This career lasted for a very short time period as he moved back to the Wichita in the year 1961 in order to join his father’s business, Rock Island Oil & Refining Company.
Koch was a hard-working man, determined to expand the family business, which had become a medium-sized oil firm by the late 1960s.
Koch worked tirelessly to grow the business, which is today involved in diverse fields such as fiber, energy, polymers, chemicals, pulp, and miners, and more.
A highly competitive businessman, he worked tirelessly to grow the business, which is today involved in diverse fields such as refining, manufacturing, and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, fiber, minerals, pulp, fertilizers, intermediates, and polymers and paper.
He became the Director of Koch Industries in the year 1982 and also served as the Director of other corporations such as Georgia Pacific LLC and Entrust Financial Corp.
Today, Koch Industries have invested more than $70 billion in the acquisition and some other capital expenditures and own Invista, Flint Hills Resources, Koch Fertiliser, Matador Cattle Company, Georgia Pacific, Molex, Koch Minerals and others.
Charles Koch credits his phenomenal success to the business philosophy of Market-based Management, a concept which he developed.
Koch supports a number of free markers oriented educational organizations such as the Bill of Rights Institute, Cato Institute, and the Institute for Humane Studies.
Charles Koch Awards & Achievements
He was presented with the Adam Smith Award By the American Legislative Exchange Council in the year 1994.
In the year 1999, he won the Director’s Award for Global Vision in Energy from the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Heritage Foundation bestowed upon him the Spirit of Justice Award in the year 2003.
In the year 2005, he won the Herman W. Lay Memorial Award by the Association of Private Enterprise Education.
He was honored with the William E. Simon Prize for the Philanthropic Leadership by the Philanthropy Roundtable in the year 2011.
Charles Koch Philanthropic Works
He is a renowned philanthropist and focuses more on the funding project in the fields of research, education, and policy, which are intended to advance free-market view. He has financed the research of economists like Friedrich Hayek and James Buchanan. Till date has donated millions to the causes, he believes in. Koch Industries and the Koch Family Foundation donated around $11.25 million to Wichita State University in the year 2014.
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