About Koch

Koch Industries, Inc. is an American 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 the

 manufacturing, refining, and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, intermediates and polymers, minerals, fertilizer, pulp

 and paper,chemical technology equipment, cloud computing, finance, raw materials trading, and investments. Koch owns Flint Hills

 Resources, Georgia-Pacific, Guardian Industries, Infor, Invista, KBX, Koch Ag & Energy Solutions, Koch Engineered Solutions,

 Koch Investments Group, Koch Minerals & Trading, and Molex. The firm employs 122,000 people in 60 countries, with about half of

 its business in the United States.

The company was founded by its namesake, Fred C. Koch, in 1940 after he developed an innovative crude oil refining

 process. Fred C. Koch died in 1967 and his majority interest in the company was split amongst his four sons. In June 1983, after a

 bitter legal and boardroom battle over the amount of dividends paid by the company, the stakes of Frederick R. Koch and William

 "Bill" Koch were bought out for $1.1 billion and Charles Koch and David Koch became majority owners in the company. Charles

 owns 42% of the company; trusts for the benefit of Elaine Tettemer Marshall (the daughter in-law of J. Howard Marshall) and

 Elaine's children, Preston Marshall and E. Pierce Marshall Jr., own 16% of the company. David Koch died on August 23, 2019, and

 his heirs own the remaining 42% balance of the corporation.

Charles Koch has stated that the company would go public "over my dead body" and that the company has used its freedom from

 the pressures of public markets to make long-term investments and concentrate on growth.