Lakshmi Nivas Mittal was born on June 15, 1950 in Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India and he is the CEO & Chairman of Arcelor Mittal. Mittal has two siblings - Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal. He married Usha, the daughter of a well-to-do moneylender. Young Lakshmi Nivas Mittal spent his first years in Sadulpur, before his father moved to Kolkata. Lakshmi graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta. He founded Mittal Steel in 1976, which soon became a global steel producer with operations on 14 countries. His success mantra lies in the identification, acquisition and turnaround of many loss making steel companies all across the world. In 1994, he took over the international operations of his family's steel business. Arcelor Mittal is presently the world's largest producer of low and mid-grade steels, with operations in Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and many other countries. He was listed in the Forbes List of Billionaires in 2006 as the richest Indian and the fifth richest man in the world with an estimated wealth around of $25.0 billion and is the richest man in the United Kingdom.
Mittal is considered to be close to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and has donated large sums of money to the Labour party coffers. He bought his residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens from Formula One car racing boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £57.1 million ($105.7 million), the highest-ever price paid for a house. His son Aditya is the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of Arcelor Mittal. Mr. Mittal has been nominated as a member of the Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan, the International Investment Council in South Africa, the World Economic Forum's International Business Council, besides being a Director of ICICI Bank Limited and being on the Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management in the United States. Lakshmi Mittal is also known for his opulence. In 2003, he acquired the Kensington mansion, said to be the world's most expensive home, from Formula One racing's Bernie Ecclestone for £70 million ($128 million). His daughter Vanisha's $50 million wedding bash is touted as the most expensive wedding of the 20th century.
Lakshmi Mittal has become something of a cult figure in the global steel industry. His company Mittal Steel is the largest steel maker in the world. After the recent merger between Mittal Steel and Arcelor which raged a big debate throughout the Europe, Laxmi Mittal current controls 10% of the total steel production and the combined entity that has come into force post-merger is three times the size of its nearest competitors. London-based Ispat International and its founder Lakshmi Niwas Mittal recently became the world's biggest steel maker, and has been named by Forbes magazine World's largest steel maker and the third richest man in the world.
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