David Hamilton Koch   [1940]

Meet New York City’s wealthiest resident, who is also the co-owner of the world’s largest privately owned corporation, Koch Industries. His name is David H. Koch, one of four grandsons of a Dutch immigrant, Harry Koch, who lived in Northern Texas, and owned a local small town newspaper. David’s father was Fred C. Koch, who was a chemical engineering graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT], Cambridge, Massachusetts. The father founded a consulting engineering company which specialized in oil refining and oil industry related processes. The engineering company evolved into oil refining, servicing and production, and formed the foundation of what today is Koch Industries, a $ 90+ billion behemoth with about 80,000 employees.

David Koch serves as the Executive Vice President of Koch Industries, while his older brother, Charles Koch, is the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer [CEO]. David also serves as the chairman and CEO of the Koch Chemical Technology Group, LLC, a 4,000 employee, wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries.

David Koch earned a B. S. degree in chemical engineering from MIT in 1962, and a M. S. degree in chemical engineering, also from MIT, in 1963. David’s brother, Charles, also holds several engineering degrees, including one in chemical engineering, from MIT. As a result, the two brothers and the father, all earned degrees from MIT, in exactly the same area, chemical engineering. Following his engineering education at MIT, David worked for several engineering consulting firms, including Arthur D. Little, the Amicon Corporation, Halco International, and the Scientific Design Company. In 1970, David joined Koch Industries, which was then headed up by the current chairman and CEO, Charles Koch, David’s brother.

In 1980, David took a fling in national politics. He became the Libertarian Vice-Presidential candidate in the U.S. presidential election, sharing the party ticket with Ed. Clark. The Clark-Koch ticket received just under a million popular votes, the most successful Libertarian U.S. presidential campaign until that date. David Koch contributed over a million dollars of his own money to the campaign, a little over one dollar for each vote cast for the Libertarians in that presidential election.

David is probably best known for his largesse in supporting non-profit institutions. He has personally donated or pledged over $ 400 million dollars to worthwhile causes, especially to those related to cancer and medical research, enhancement of medical centers, and for support of higher education. His largest donation occurred in October 2007 when he donated $100 million to MIT for cancer research. He personally serves on more than 20 non-profit corporation boards, including the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, Rockefeller University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aspen Institute, among others.

 David Koch’s involvement in many non profit organizations has given him wide exposure, and he has become known as an exemplary philanthropist. As a result he has received many forms of recognition for his contributions. He has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Cambridge College, and was honored by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for corporate leadership. He was also honored with the prestigious Corporate Citizens Award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, among others.

David Koch has been able to be financially generous because of his enormous wealth as co-owner of Koch Industries. He and his brother Charles bought the shares in Koch Industries from the two other Koch brothers, William and Frederick R., in 1980, for an amount in excess of a billion dollars. It must have seemed like a large amount in 1980. But since then the value of Koch Industries has soared, and as a result, David Koch’s personal wealth was estimated by Forbes Magazine, in October 2013, at about $ 36 billion.

David Koch was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1940. His twin brother is William I. Koch [1940]. His oldest brother is Frederick R. [1932], and his other brother is Charles G. [1935], the co-owner with David of Koch Industries. David is married to Julia and the couple has three children. David and his wife live in Manhattan, New York City.

 

 

REFERENCES

David H. Koch, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Koch

David Koch – Libertarian

Koch History, http://www.kochnews.com/employee/history.asp

David H. Koch Gives $100 Million to MIT for Cancer Research, http://www.kochind.com/articles/946.asp (link no longer active)

For those interested in other successful Dutch American entrepreneurs, check the author's book, "Prominent Dutch American Entrepreneurs", available at::

http://www.infoagepub.com/products/Prominent Dutch-American-Entrepreneurs

 

E-BOOKS AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON; GOOGLE: Kindle Store Pegels

 

PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICANS, CURRENT AND HISTORIC

EIGHT PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE ROOSEVELTS, VANDERBILTS AND OTHERS, 2015

FIFTEEN PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE VAN BURENS, KOCH BROTHERS, VOORHEES AND OTHERS, 2015

PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICANS IN U.S. GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP POSITIONS, 2015

 

DUTCH PEGELS INVOLVED IN WARS

ALLIED EUROPE CAMPAIGN—1944/1945: TACTICAL MISTAKES, 2017

THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS: MEMOIRS, 2017

FRENCH REVOLUTION, NAPOLEON AND RUSSIAN WAR OF 1812, 2015