The worlds third-wealthiest man right behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffett is President of Telefonos de Mexico SA de CV or TelMex, a US$20bn telecommunications company and the countrys largest mobile operator Amrica Movil, both of which endow him with control of 90% of the telecommunications industry in Mexico.

His greatest asset is diversification: His investment group Grupo Carso owns an ISP (Prodigy), an online bank, department stores, a cigarette company (Cigatam), CompUSA electronic retail chain, and a restaurant chain with hundreds of locations.

The 66 year-old, who is not only the richest man in Mexico but also in Latin America, is originally from Lebanon. He inherited a small fortune from his father, Yusef Salim Haddad (known as Julian Slim Haddad), who made his money in several ventures and like many Lebanese Christians immigrated to Mexico when Lebanon was under the Ottoman Empire.

Slim the son, who is an engineer, began buying controlling shares in companies that have high cash flows, such as TelMex, which then subsidized other acquisitions. In 2002, he bought 13% of the U.S. telecom company MCI for US$300m and sold his shares to Verizon three years later for US$1.1bn.

He was a member of the board of tobacco giant Philip Morris, Alcatel, Southwestern Bell Corp. (SBC), and was the first president of the Latin-American Committee NYSE Administration Council at the New York Stock Exchange. The joke in Mexico is that Helu owns half of the businesses in the country. Slim is married with six children.