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Charles de Ganahl Koch (pronounced "coke") (born 1 November 1935 ) is an engineer and chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries, Inc., the second largest privately held company (after Cargill) by revenue in the United States.[1]
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Biography
Koch was born and lives in Wichita, Kansas, United States, North America, one of four sons of Fred C. and Mary Robinson Koch.[citation needed]
Koch's academic life was spent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1957, he received a bachelor's degree in general engineering, a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1958, and a masters degree in chemical engineering in 1960.[citation needed]
As of 2008, Koch was worth approximately $17 billion according to the Forbes 400 list.[2]
Koch's brother, David H. Koch, was the Libertarian Party's candidate for vice president in 1980.[citation needed]
Koch and his wife, Liz, have two children, Elizabeth and Chase.[citation needed]
Political activities
Koch is a libertarian and supports many free-market organizations such as the Cato Institute, which he founded together with Edward H. Crane and Murray Rothbard in 1977.[3] Koch also funds the highly selective Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program through the Institute for Humane Studies.[citation needed]
Koch Industries and its subsidiaries, of which Koch is 42% owner, spent more than $20 million on lobbying in 2008, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Stock history
From 1961, when Koch went to work at his father's business, through 2006, the value of the Standard & Poor's 500 grew about 110-fold, assuming the reinvestment of dividends. During that same period, the value of Koch Industries grew nearly 2,000-fold, using the same assumptions. The growth of Koch companies has been achieved both through acquisitions and through expansion and broadening of existing businesses. Koch companies also exit or decrease their investments in businesses based on a continuous evaluation process that compares their internal value to their market value.[citation needed]
Market-based management
Much of Koch Industries' success can be traced to the oil industry and Charles Koch's interest in and commitment to scientific and social progress, which led to the development and implementation of the Market-Based Management business philosophy. The concepts and practice of MBM are described in Koch's book Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World’s Largest Private Company (ISBN 978-0-470-13988-2), published in March 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Mr. Koch is further developing the theories and expanding the practice of the MBM philosophy, as well as other applications of the science of human action, not only throughout Koch Industries, but also with scholars, non-profit leaders, government officials, and other business leaders.[citation needed]
See also
Bibliography
- The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company, 2007
References
- ^ Forbes List
- ^ "The 400 Richest Americans". Forbes. 2008-03-05. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Charles-Koch_Z9KL.html.
- ^ "25 Years at Cato". http://www.cato.org/pubs/papers/25th_annual_report.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
External links
- Charles Koch: Exclusive Interview with the World's Most Successful Private Billionaire
- Wall Street Journal: The Weekend Interview Private Enterprise: Charles Koch applied the "science of liberty" to become one of the world's richest men
- Forbes: Mr. Big
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