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A Timeline of Charles’ Life
Step through history and explore Charles' life milestones and accomplishments.
Step through history and explore Charles' life milestones and accomplishments.
Fred Koch puts Charles to work on the family farm. He often does his chores within earshot of his friends, who are across the street yelling and splashing at the local swimming pool. “I said, ‘I have such a mean father and they have fathers that really love them and let them have all this fun,’” Charles joked in 2015. “I’m now convinced my pop’s tough love saved me.”
In the third grade, Charles has an epiphany. As he wrote in his 2020 book Believe in People, “The subject was something that many struggle with: math. One day, as my teacher wrote problems on the blackboard, I noticed that, while the answers were obvious to me, they weren’t to any of my classmates.” His aptitude for abstract concepts would lead to his lifelong study and application of principles of human progress.
After attending eight schools by the time he graduates high school, Charles is admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There he earns a bachelor’s degree in general engineering (1957), followed by a master’s degree in nuclear engineering (1958) and chemical engineering (1959). Upon graduation, he stays in Boston to work for the consulting firm Arthur D. Little.
Fred asks Charles to come home to work for the family businesses, then known as Rock Island Oil & Refining Company and the much smaller Koch Engineering Company. Charles initially refuses, but a month later, Fred tells Charles he doesn’t have long to live, and if Charles doesn’t return, Fred will have to sell the businesses. He promises Charles full authority to run Koch Engineering and eventually Rock Island. As a 25-year-old seeking an entrepreneurial opportunity, Charles agrees.
Charles is made president of Rock Island in 1966, and after his father’s passing in 1967, he becomes chairman of the board and CEO. In 1968, the board renames the company Koch Industries in Fred’s honor. Under Charles’ tenure, the company will grow by more than 8,000 fold and become one of the world’s most successful private companies — employing more than 120,000 individuals across the globe, up from about 300 in the mid-1960s.
After a five-year courtship, Charles and Elizabeth Milner Buzzi marry on December 23, 1972. Charles considered his marriage to Liz his best and most cherished partnership. “I’m good at the few things she isn’t, and she’s good at about everything else. So, we make each other better. That’s been another one of my great blessings and advantages in my life,” Charles said in 2019.
On October 10, 1975, Charles and Liz welcome their daughter Elizabeth Robinson Koch. Charles conceded in 2017 that, prior to becoming a father, he had “mixed emotions.” He worried what kind of father he would be, but when Elizabeth was born, he was overjoyed. According to Liz, Charles was an “instant” parent who “never looked back.”
Charles Chase Koch is born on June 15, 1977. Despite his demanding job, Charles is always home for dinner at 6 p.m. when he isn’t traveling. Throughout their lives, Charles works to help Elizabeth and Chase discover their unique gifts and lead lives of meaning. His children both maintain a strong bond with their parents, and later credit this upbringing with giving them the confidence to forge their own distinct paths in life.
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Emblematic of his many philanthropic efforts, Charles, along with his wife Liz, co-found Youth Entrepreneurs, now known as Empowered. This teacher support network provides free training, activities, classroom resources, community and support to K-12 educators seeking to help their students understand the principles of entrepreneurship and economics — equipping them with the knowledge and tools that empower them to succeed in their own ventures.
Charles founds the philanthropic community that becomes Stand Together. Through Stand Together, he partners with thousands of community, educational, economic and public policy leaders to foster a society in which every person has the opportunity to realize their potential. He inspires several hundred other business leaders and philanthropists to join Stand Together — who continue to support the organization’s work.
Charles oversees many major acquisitions, beginning with INVISTA (2004) and followed by Georgia-Pacific (2005), Molex (2013), Guardian Industries (2016) and Infor (2019). These acquisitions and the creation of other businesses have created a broad, dynamic and diverse set of capabilities and industries within the company.
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The publication of his book The Science of Success marks Charles’ foray into writing New York Times and Amazon bestsellers that introduce principles of human progress to a broad audience. Other titles include Good Profit, Continually Transforming Koch Industries Through Virtuous Cycles of Mutual Benefit, and Believe in People.
