Julia Flasher Koch, the spouse of the late billionaire industrialist David Koch, became one of the richest ladies in the world. Koch, who died in August 2019 at the age of 79, managed an estimated $ 53.5 billion fortune, which meant he and his brother Charles were the seventh richest Americans in the Forbes 400 ranking.
As of January 2020, Forbes magazine estimates its capital at $ 43 billion, while Bloomberg estimates its fortune at $ 61.6 billion.
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Julia Koch, which we will talk about in this article.
So, here is a short biography of Julia Margaret Flesher Koch.
Julia Koch biography
Julia Koch was born on April 12, 1962, in the US state of Iowa. Her parents, Frederick and Margaret, had their furniture store, Fleshers.
When Julia was about 8 years old, she and her family settled in the state of Arkansas, where her parents opened Peggy Frederic’s clothing store. After graduating from high school, she graduated from a local university.
Then the girl worked as a model until she moved to New York in 1984. Here she worked as an assistant to the fashion designer Adolfo Sardinha. She met her future husband, oil tycoon David Koch, on a blind date in early 1991.
However, this meeting did not make a good impression on Julia. Moreover, according to her, “she was glad to see this man only because she realized that she never wanted to see him again.” But as time has shown, later her views changed.
Personal life
A few months after Julia’s first meeting with David Koch, she crossed paths with him again at the same party. They began to communicate, deciding to get to know each other better. As a result, a whirlwind romance began between them.
After a couple of years, Julia quit her job, and in 1996 agreed to become Koch’s wife. Their family happiness lasted until the death of David, who died on August 23, 2019, at the age of 79. In this marriage, the couple had three children: David, Mary Julia, and John Mark.
When her husband passed away, Julia and her children inherited 42% of Koch Industries from him. By the way, this company has branches in almost all US states and 60 countries, and has up to 130,000 employees!
Bloomberg named her one of the richest women in the world. In 2020, Forbes magazine ranked Julia Koch in the TOP 10 richest women on the planet. The woman is president of the David Koch Foundation, which continues to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable projects.
Julia Koch today
Julia is now on the Board of Directors of Koch Industries, trying not to attract public attention. Not long ago, a hospital at Stanford and a medical center in New York received $ 10 million from her to fight allergies.
Fund President
Flesher Koch is president of the David H. Koch Foundation, which has donated more than $ 200 million for a variety of purposes, including science and medical research, education, and the arts, according to his website. Together with his brother Charles, David Koch donated at least $ 100 million to help the Tea Party’s growth and support the Republican Party since the 1970s, according to The New York Times. Before she became president of her late husband’s Foundation, 57-year-old Julia Flesher Koch previously served on the Board of Directors of the School of American Ballet. She has also led activities for the Sloan Kettering Cancer Memorial Center, Food Allergy Research, and the American Ballet Theater. A Koch Industries spokesman declined to comment on Flesher Koch’s philanthropic or other activities.
