4.Charles Koch

Charles Koch

 Net Worth

$31 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• Age: 76
• Source of Wealth: Diversified
• Residence: Wichita, KS
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Master of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Bachelor of Arts / Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Marital Status: Married
• Children: 2

Forbes Lists

#4 Forbes 400

#12 Forbes Billionaires 

#4 in United States

#45 Powerful People

 

Profile:

The head of the nation's second biggest private company, $115 billion (sales) Koch Industries, Charles Koch continues to pay down debt and generate rich cash flow. By FORBES' estimates the Wichita, Kansas company, with interests in chemicals, refining and Georgia Pacific, which makes Brawny paper towels and Dixie cups, is now worth $75 billion, pushing up Koch's own net worth by $6 billion in the past year. A well-known Libertarian, he gives $40 million plus a year to his foundation, which gives grants to colleges and universities to study "market-based tools that enable individuals, institutions and societies to prosper." He also helped found the Cato Institute, which he sued last year but the parties settled, and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, both bastions of free-market and libertarian scholarship. And he's busy funding groups designed to raise a new generation of free-market entrepreneurs, including Youth Entrepreneurs Kansas (or Youth Entrepreneurs) with $1.5 million in assets, which teaches entrepreneurship to about 1,000 high school students each year; and the Bill of Rights Institute (2010 spending: $3.7 million) which runs programs to educate teachers and students on the importance of the Constitution in "securing our liberty as Americans."