CHARLES KOCH LIFE STORY
Charles De Ganahl Koch he was born in November 1, 1935 in Wichita, Kansas, U.S. His father name was Fred C. Koch and her mother name was Mary R. Koch. He is an American billionaire businessman. As of March 2022, he was ranked as the 20th richest person in the world on Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $58 billion. Koch has been co-owner, chairman and C.E.O. of Koch Industries since 1967, while his late brother David Koch served as executive vice president. Charles and David each owned 42% of the conglomerate. The brothers inherited the business from their father Fred C. Koch then expanded the business. Originally involved exclusively in oil refining and chemicals, Koch industries now includes process and pollution control equipment and technologies, polymers and fibers, minerals, fertilizers, commodity trading and services, forest and consumer products, and ranching. The businesses produce a wide variety of well-known brands, such as Stainmaster carpet, the Lycra brand of spandex fiber, Quilted Northern tissue, and Dixie Cup.
He did B.S. (Bachelor of Science), M.S. (Master of Science), from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, U.S. After college, Koch started work at Arthur D. Little, Inc. In 1961 he moved back to Wichita to join his father’s business, Rock Island Oil & Refining Company (now known as Koch industries). In 1967, he became president of the business, which was then a medium-sized oil firm. In the same year, he renamed the firm Koch industries in honor of his father. Charles’s brothers Frederick and Bill had inherited stock in Koch industries. In June 1983, after a legal and boardroom battle, the stakes of Frederick and Bill were bought out for $1.1 billion and Charles and his younger brother David became majority owners in the company. Despite the settlement, legal disputes continued until May 2001, when CBS News reported that Koch Industries settled for $25 million. In 2006, Koch Industries generated $90 billion in revenue, a growth of 2000 over times over, which represents an annual compounded return of 18%.
Koch’s business philosophy, “market-based management”(MBM), is described in his 2007 book "The Science of Success". In an interview with the Wichita Eagle, he said that he was motivated to write the book by Koch industries’ 2004 acquisition of Invista so he could give new employees a “comprehensive picture” of MBM. According to the website of the Market-Based Management Institute, which Koch founded in 2005, MBM is based on rules of just conduct, economic thinking, and sound mental models, harnessing the dispersed knowledge of employees just as markets harness knowledge in society. It is organized in and interpreted through 5 dimension: vision, virtue and talents, decision rights, incentives, and knowledge processes.
Koch supported his brother’s candidacy for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980. After the bid, Koch told a reporter that conventional politics “tends to be a nasty, corrupting business. I am interested in advancing libertarian ideas.” In addition to funding think tanks, Charles and David also support libertarian academics and Koch funds the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program through the Institute for Humane Studies which recruits and mentors young libertarians. Koch also organizes twice yearly meetings of Republican donors. In February 2016, Koch penned an opinion piece in The Washington Post, where he said he agreed with presidential candidate Bernie Sanders about the unfairness of corporate welfare and mass incarceration in the U.S. In 2020, Koch’s Koch Industries donated $2.8 million to Republican Party causes through a political action committee. Koch Industries donated $221,000 to Democratic Party causes.
In Covid-19 pandemic he also did good work people and also given money to the American Institute for Economic Research, the right-wing libertarian think tank which sponsored the Great Barrington Declaration.
In life he also won many awards which are following:
- The Spirit of Justice Award from The Heritage Foundation.
- The Entrepreneurial Leadership Award from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
- The Brotherhood/Sisterhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
- The 2011 Defender of Justice Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
- In 2013, Advisory Cloud ranked him number two on their Top Chief Executive List.
The best quote ever he said is “Most power is power to coerce somebody. We don’t have the power to coerce anybody.”
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