Dietrich Mateschitz (born 20 May 1944) is an Austrian billionaire businessman. He co-founded the Red Bull energy drink company, and holds 49% of the company’s shares. Mateschitz’s net worth, as of August 2016, is estimated to be $14.7 billion.
Biography
Mateschitz was born in Sankt Marein im Mürztal, Styria, Austria to a family of Croatian ancestry (Matešić). His parents were both primary school teachers and separated when he was a young child.
Although never married, he has a son. He holds a pilot’s licence and enjoys flying a Falcon 900 and a Piper Super Cub.
After taking ten years to graduate from the Hochschule für Welthandel (now Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration) with a marketing degree, Mateschitz’s first employer was Unilever, where he worked marketing detergents. He subsequently moved to Blendax, the German cosmetics company since bought by Procter & Gamble, where he worked on, among other things, the marketing of Blendax toothpaste. It was as part of his travels for Blendax that he discovered Krating Daeng, the drink that would later become Red Bull. In 1984, he founded Red Bull GmbH with his Thai partners Chaleo and his eldest son Chalerm Yoovidhya, with the launch in Austria in 1987. Subsequently, he turned the Red Bull drink into a world market leader among energy drinks.
He is co-founder of the Wings for Life foundation that supports spinal cord research together with Heinz Kinigadner. Since 2014 the foundation has organised the Wings for Life World Run to raise funds.
He lives in Fuschl am See, Austria but also owns Laucala Island, off Fiji, which he bought from the Forbes family for £7 million. In 2013 Mateschitz purchased a custom DeepFlight Super Falcon, an extreme $1.7 million submarine for guests at his Laucala Island resort in Fiji.
Source:wikipedia