Dietrich Mateschitz

Dietrich Mateschitz
Born 20 May 1944
Sankt Marein im Mürztal, Styria, Austria
Residence Fuschl am See, Austria
Occupation Businessman
Years active 1987 to present
Net worth IncreaseUS$10.8 billion (April 2015)[1]

Dietrich Mateschitz (born 20 May 1944) is an Austrian businessman who co-founded the Red Bull energy drink company and holds 49 percent of the company's shares.[2] Mateschitz's net worth, as of January 2015, is estimated to be $10.7 billion.[1]

Biography

Mateschitz was born in Sankt Marein im Mürztal, Styria, Austria to a family of Croatian ancestry (Matešić).[3][4][5] His parents were both primary school teachers and separated when he was a young child.[6]

Although never married, he has a son.[7] He holds a pilot's licence and enjoys flying a Falcon 900 and a Piper Super Cub.[7]

After taking ten years to graduate from the Hochschule für Welthandel (now Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration) with a marketing degree,[6] 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.[8] It was as part of his travels for Blendax that he discovered Krating Daeng, the drink that would later become Red Bull.[6] In 1984, he founded Red Bull GmbH [9] with his Thai partners Chaleo and Chalerm Yoovidhya, with the launch in Austria in 1987.[8] Subsequently, he turned the Red Bull drink into a world market leader among energy drinks.

He lives in Fuschl am See, Austria but also owns Laucala Island, off Fiji, which he bought from the Forbes family for £7 million.[7] In 2013 Mateschitz purchased DeepFlight Super Falcon, an extreme $1.7 million submarine for guests at his Laucala Island resort in Fiji.[10]

Sports

Mateschitz's brands are consistently marketed as associated with the physical and mental attributes needed for various types of extreme sports through commercial sponsorship.[11] In November 2004, Mateschitz bought the Jaguar Formula One team from its previous owners, Ford, and it was subsequently renamed Red Bull Racing. In September 2005, Mateschitz joined forces with his close friend and former F1 driver Gerhard Berger, and purchased the Italian-registered Minardi team from its Australian owner Paul Stoddart. The team was renamed Scuderia Toro Rosso, Toro Rosso meaning Red Bull in Italian. In 2010 Red Bull Racing won the Formula 1 Constructors Championship and Drivers Championship with Sebastian Vettel. They then went on to win both titles for the next 3 years running in 2011, 2012 and 2013 making Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing four-time world champions.

He also owned a NASCAR team called Team Red Bull in the Sprint Cup Series and the K&N Pro Series East from 2006 to 2011.

In late 2004, he bought the former Formula One circuit A1-Ring, renaming it the Red Bull Ring. The circuit opened in May 2011 and hosted a round of the 2011 DTM season. Although Mateschitz had stated that there were no plans for it to return to the Formula 1 calendar, in December 2012, Red Bull notified the FIA they would be open to hosting a Grand Prix.[12] In July 2013, Red Bull announced the return of the Austrian Grand Prix to the Formula One World Championship in 2014, which took place on 22 June 2014 and was won by Nico Rosberg (Mercedes).[13] Mateschitz also plans to set up a testing site for the automobile industry at the Austrian race circuit. There are already far developed plans, but residents of the area object.

He also planned to create an Avionautik Akademie in Zeltweg jointly with the Austrian Army. He has his own hangar, where he keeps his collection of old planes, including the last ever Douglas DC-6B to be produced, and which once belonged to Marshal Josip Broz Tito.[14] He also sponsors the World Stunt Awards, an annual fundraiser to benefit his Taurus Foundation, which helps injured stunt professionals.

In April 2005, he bought the Austrian football club SV Austria Salzburg and in March 2006, he bought the American club MetroStars; both clubs were subsequently renamed after his famous drink, as Red Bull Salzburg and Red Bull New York, respectively. In 2007, Red Bull founded Red Bull Brasil, a football team based in Campinas, Brazil. The team was promoted to the 2nd division of the São Paulo championship in 2010, the most competitive state championship of the country. In May 2009, he founded a German football club called RB Leipzig and was named as owner. Since 2012 he is also the owner of the German ice hockey club EHC München which also changed its name into Red Bull München.

He also owned Seitenblicke, Austria's top society magazine, but avoids the celebrity circuit and watches most Formula One races on TV despite owning two teams.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Dietrich Mateschitz". Forbes. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  2. ↑ . Associated Press. March 17, 2012 http://news.yahoo.com/red-bull-co-founder-thai-tycoon-chaleo-dies-141229314.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ Lauterbach, Peter (9 March 2010). "Mateschitz will unbedingt die Nummer eins sein" [Mateschitz is determined to be number one] (in German). Die Welt. Retrieved 28 December 2012. Mit dem smarten Einschlag seiner kroatischen Vorfahren gesegnet, ...("Blessed with the smart wrapping of his Croatian ancestry, ...")
  4. ↑ "Wenn Milliardäre sich einen Fußballverein gönnen" (in German). Handelsblatt. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012. Fußball-Engagement als Marketing-Strategie: Der österreichische Unternehmer Dietrich „Didi“ Mateschitz (Mitte) hat kroatische Wurzeln ...("Football partnerships as a marketing strategy: the Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich "Didi" Mateschitz (center) has Croatian roots ...")
  5. ↑ Matić, Srećko (16 November 2010). "Poduzetnik hrvatskog podrijetla "dao krila" Vettelu" [Businessman of Croatian descent "gave wings" to Vettel] (in Croatian). Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 28 December 2012. Danas se imovina ovog Austrijanca hrvatskog podrijetla (neki izvori navode da ima rodbinu na zadarskom području) procjenjuje na oko tri milijarde eura. U Sloveniji se naglašava da je Mateschitz - slovenskog podrijetla, obzirom da mu je otac iz Maribora. Sam Mateschitz za sebe kaže da je "kozmopolit iz Štajerske".
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Soda With Buzz. Kerry A. Dolan. Forbes, p. 126, vol. 175, No. 6 (March 28, 2005).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Big man drives forward energy-packed brand" by Peter Klinger. The Times (London), 25 February 2006.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Red Bull CEO takes foot off gas. The Nation (Thailand). November 26, 2001.
  9. ↑ Grabbing the drinks market by the horns. The Sunday Herald. 7 May 2000.
  10. ↑ Profile, expensiveplaces.com; accessed 3 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Marketing with wings: Dietrich Mateschitz and the art of branding". European CEO. 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
  12. ↑ "Formula One News". Planet F1. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
  13. ↑ "Rosberg defeats Hamilton in Austrian thriller". Retrieved 2014-06-22.
  14. ↑ "The Flying Bulls". The Flying Bulls. Retrieved 2014-06-10.

External links