#1142

Julio Ponce Lerou

Chile 80 years old Self-Made

Overview

Source of Wealth
Fertilizer
Residence
Santiago
Marital Status
Divorced
Children
1

Assets

  • SQM CLASS A
    49,760,000 shares @ -
    -
    SQM.A-CL

Biography

Julio Ponce Lerou owns a 17% stake in Sociedad de Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), a publicly-traded chemicals and mining company.

He resigned as chairman of SQM in 2015, citing personal reasons.

SQM is one of the world's largest miners of lithium, which is used in batteries for electric cars.

For almost 40 years Ponce headed SQM, which also mines and sells potassium nitrate and iodine -- chemicals used in fertilizers.

He is a former son-in-law of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and SQM was privatized by Pinochet's government in the 1980s.