30 Amazing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Charles Koch

7 January 2019, 4:11 pm EST By Ruby Karnick

Charles Koch, ranked as the 8th-richest person in the world as of December 2018, is the co-owner, chairman, and chief executive officer of Koch Industries since 1967. Here are some very interesting facts about the American businessman:

He was born Charles de Ganahl Koch, on November 01, 1935, in Wichita, Kansas, United States. He has an elder brother Frederick and two younger twins Bill and David.
His father Fred Chase Koch, is a chemical engineer and entrepreneur who founded the oil refinery firm that later became Koch Industries. Hi mother Clementine Mary is the daughter of prominent Kansas City physician.
Despite being born in affluent family, he was made to work as if he was the poorest person in the world. His father didn’t want his sons to be ‘country club bums,’ so he had me work during his spare time picking dandelions, shoveling stalls, milking cows, building fence.
Koch showed similar strictness towards his son Chase, who was nationally ranked tennis player. He gave him the choice of putting more efforts into his game or getting a job. Chase chose the job and was dispatched to a Koch owned cattle feedlot in western Kansas for the rest of the summer.
According to him he was a contrarian by birth challenging everything, resulting in eight different schools before he could graduate.
Koch is a science graduate in General Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went on to completemaster’sdegree in Nuclear and Chemical Engineering.
In 1960 right after his college he started work at Arthur D. Little, Inc, a consulting firm, in process development, product development and management consultancy.
In 1961, due to his father’s health condition he moved back to Wichita, to take care of his family business, Rock Island Oil & Refining Company.
After the death of his father in 1967, he became the president of the company and renamed it as ‘Koch Industries,’ in his father’s honor.
The company has grown more than 2000-fold under Koch’s leadership into world largest private company having more than 80,000 employees and annual revenues in excess of $ 90 billion.

According to Forbes 400 list of 2018, Koch is ranked 7th with net worth of $ 53.5 billion and philanthropy score of 4.
Koch was workaholic, who will routinely work 12-hours a day through weekends and expects from his executives the same. He would call meeting at unexpected hours which will last until midnight.
In the 2017 list of ‘America’s Top 50 Givers’ by Forbes, Koch is listed 14th with donation of $ 189 million focusing on education and criminal justice reform. He has donated to programs at over 300 colleges and universities.
He was awarded Honorary Doctorate from George Mason University in recognition of his financial support through scholarship, faculty recruitment and research grants. He also serves as director of the free market research group think tank at the University.
In March 2018, the Charles Koch Foundation donated $ 5 million to the benefit of Mason’s Nobel Prize-winning Department of Economics.
The Koch Cultural Trust founded in 1986 by Koch’s wife, Elizabeth, has evolved into a major source of support for outstanding artists in the state. They have awarded more than $ 1.7 million in grants.
Koch is identified as Libertarian and supports free enterprise policy. He funds ‘Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program,’ through the Institute of Human Studies, which recruits and mentors young Libertarians.
He has provided professional development opportunities to educate the teachers and students and others about the Bill of Rights with the help of ‘Bill of Rights Institute.’
As a reflection of Koch’s business leadership and community involvement, he has received around twenty nine honors and awards, from various institutes and universities.
On March 27, 2007, he published a book ‘The Science of Success,’ based on his business philosophy of ‘Market Based Management.’

Koch’s interest in and commitment to scientific and social progress, for more than 40 years led to found or help build a number of organizations, including the Institute for Humane Studies, the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Bill of Rights Institute and the Market Based Management Institute.
Following a $6 million endowment from Koch, the ‘Wichita State University basketball arena underwent a $25 million renovation in 2002-03 and was renamed ‘Charles Koch Arena.’
In December 2014, Koch family foundation donated $ 11.5 million to Wichita State University, the largest single –time gift in university history.
He was awarded the ‘William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership’ for the year 2011 in recognition of his philanthropy support and programs that helped people help themselves.
In July 2015, Koch brothers joined President Obama in working together on prison reforms and criminal justice systems including reduction of recidivist criminals, easing the employment process for rehabilitated persons.
Koch is married to Liz since 1972 and they have two children, Chase and Elizabeth. He has a history of prostate cancer and very rarely grants media interview.
In 2011, TIME Magazine named both Charles and David among the most influential people with their free market principle.
In 1980, he founded ‘The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation,’ for the purpose of advancing social progress and well-being through the development, application and dissemination of ‘The Science of Liberty.’
The industries under Koch Empire are diverse, ranging from companies that deal with energy to spandex. They manufacture paper, process minerals, create fertilizer and refine oil.
He is great admirer of George Washington, Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge, who created the Austrian School of economics and helped him to understand how the world works. He also admires the writings of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek.