Julia Margaret Flesher Koch (born April 12, 1962) is an American
socialite
A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...
and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
who is one of the
richest women in the world. She inherited her fortune from her husband,
David Koch
David Hamilton Koch ( ; May 3, 1940 – August 23, 2019) was an American businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and chemical engineer. In 1970, he joined the family business: Koch Industries, the second largest privately held c ...
, who died in 2019.
As of August 2022, ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' estimated her and her family's net worth at $57.9 billion.
Life
Julia Margaret Flesher was born on April 12, 1962.
Her family came from a farming background, but when she was born, her parents, Margaret and Frederic Flesher, owned a furniture store called Flesher's. She spent her early childhood in
Indianola, Iowa
Indianola is a city in Warren County, Iowa, United States, located south of downtown Des Moines, Iowa. The population was 15,833 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. Indianola is home to the National Balloon ...
, then when she was eight years old her family moved to
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
, where her parents started a clothing store called Peggy Frederic's, which she considered "a beautiful, beautiful shop".
By 1998, her mother still lived in Conway but her father had moved back to Indianola.
After graduating from the
University of Central Arkansas
The University of Central Arkansas (Central Arkansas or UCA) is a public university in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1907 as the Arkansas State Normal School, the university is one of the oldest in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As the state's only n ...
and working as a model, in 1984 Flesher moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where she worked as fashion designer
Adolfo's assistant and did fittings for
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress and First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was the second wife of president Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was born in N ...
.
She met David Koch on a
blind date
A blind date is a social engagement between two people who have not met, usually arranged by a mutual acquaintance.
Structure
A blind date is arranged for by a mutual acquaintance of both participants. The two people who take part in the blind ...
in January 1991, but the date did not leave her with a good impression.
She later described her reaction: "I'm glad I met that man because now I know I never want to go out with him".
However, the two met again at a party later that year and started dating.
She stopped working in 1993,
and they got married in May 1996 at David Koch's house on Meadow Lane in
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
.
In December 1997, she made what the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' called her "New York society debut" at the
Met Gala
The Met Gala, or Met Ball, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit, is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City. It is popularly ...
.
She was co-chairwoman of the gala that year, along with
Anna Wintour
Dame Anna Wintour (; born 3 November 1949) is a British journalist based in New York City who has served as editor-in-Chief of ''Vogue'' since 1988 and Global Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast since 2020; she is also the artistic directo ...
and
Patrick McCarthy.
McCarthy said she was "one of those people who occur in New York every few years...she's beautiful, she loves fashion, she knows how to entertain, she's married to an extraordinarily rich man."
Julia and David Koch spent years living in an apartment at
1040 Fifth Avenue, but in 2004 they moved to an 18-room
duplex at
740 Park Avenue
740 Park Avenue is a luxury cooperative apartment building on the west side of Park Avenue between East 71st and 72nd Streets in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was described in ''Business Insider'' in 2011 as "a l ...
.
According to ''
740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building'', David Koch bought the apartment for about $17 million from the Japanese government, which previously used it to house their
permanent representative to the United Nations
A permanent representative to the United Nations (sometimes called a "UN ambassador")"History of Ambassadors", United States Mission to the United Nations, March 2011, webpagUSUN-a. is the head of a country's diplomatic mission to the United Nati ...
.
In 2018, the couple also bought an eight-bedroom
townhouse
A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...
in Manhattan from investor
Joseph Chetrit
Joseph Chetrit is an American real estate investor and developer and founder of the Chetrit Group.
Early life
Chetrit was born to a Jewish family in Morocco to Simon and Alice Chetrit.Tom Acitelli"Joseph Chetrit, the Most Mysterious Big Shot i ...
for $40.25 million.
David Koch died in August 2019, and Julia Koch and their three children (David Jr., Mary Julia, and John Mark) inherited 42% of
Koch Industries
Koch Industries, Inc. ( ) is an American privately held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiaries are involved in th ...
.
As a result, she was listed by ''
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...
'' as the richest woman in the world
and was included on
''Forbes''' list of the 10 richest women in the world in 2020.
In 2022, Koch put the apartment at 740 Park Avenue on the market; a spokesperson said that she wanted to sell it because she was spending more time at houses in Southampton and
Palm Beach.
Koch is on the board of directors of Koch Industries.
She tends not to seek public attention.
Philanthropy
Koch serves as the president of the
David H. Koch Foundation. She was formerly on the board of directors of the
School of American Ballet
The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...
.
During her husband's lifetime, they made donations to institutions such as the
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, and the
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7. ...
.
References
External links
*
Julia Koch – David H. Koch Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Julia
Living people
American billionaires
Female billionaires
Koch family
People from Indianola, Iowa
People from Conway, Arkansas
1962 births
University of Central Arkansas alumni