Charles Koch Biography

Charles de Ganahl Koch is the CEO and co-owner of Koch Industries, an oil and industrial conglomerate that ranks as one of the largest privately held companies in America. While he and his company generally keep a low profile in his business, he is known widely as a philanthropist, and as one of the most active and influential right-wing political donors in the United States.

He shares control of the conglomerate, which brings in annual estimated revenues of roughly $115 billion, with his younger brother David H. Koch, who also owns 42%. The two brothers inherited the business from their father, Fred C. Koch, in 1967, then expanded the company, and bought out the remaining ownership stake from their other two brothers in 1983.

Fred C. Koch, a chemical engineer, built Koch Industries from a crude oil refining method he pioneered. In the decades since, the company has diversified into a number of fields. Those fields include polymers, minerals, fertilizers, pollution control equipment and technologies. It also has business lines in commodity trading and services, ranching and a wide array of consumer products, such as Stainmaster carpet, Quilted Northern tissue, the Lycra brand of spandex fabric and Dixie Cup.

Though Charles Koch inherited and took the reins of a vital enterprise from his father, the decades-long success and expansion of the business has earned him the respect of the business community. Since Charles took the helm, the conglomerate has grown more than 500-fold through successes in the market and savvy acquisitions.

Koch attributes the company’s success to something he calls "Market-Based Management," which he outlined in his 2007 book, “The Science of Success: How Market Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company.”

Outside the office, Koch is an active and generous booster of free-market and libertarian educational and political organizations, including think tanks like the Washington, DC-based Cato Institute, of which he is a co-founder. He is a high-profile and influential donor to the Republican Party and Libertarian groups, as well as other charitable and cultural institutions.