Julio Ponce Lerou

$2.41B

as of 07/05/24

About Julio Ponce Lerou

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.

Personal stats

Citizenship

Chile

Source of wealth

Fertilizer

Residence

Santiago, Chile

Marital status

Divorced

Birth date

11/13/45 (age 78)

Number of children

Self-made

self-made