Julia Koch

Julia Margaret Flesher Koch (born April 12, 1962) is an American socialite and philanthropist who is one of the richest women in the world. In the annual Forbes ranking for April 2023, she ranked second among the richest women in the world with a fortune of $59 billion. She inherited her fortune from her husband, David Koch, who died in 2019.

Life
Julia Margaret Flesher was born in Des Moines, Iowa 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, then when she was eight years old her family moved to Conway, Arkansas, 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 and working as a model, Flesher moved to New York City in 1984, where she worked as fashion designer Adolfo's assistant and did fittings for Nancy Reagan.

She met David Koch on a blind date in January 1991, although they did not continue dating at the time. 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.

In December 1997, she made what the New York Times called her "New York society debut" at the Met Gala. She was co-chairwoman of the gala that year, along with Anna Wintour 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. 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. In 2018, the couple also bought an eight-bedroom townhouse in Manhattan from investor Joseph Chetrit for $40.25 million.

David Koch died in August 2019, and Julia Koch and their three children inherited 42% of Koch Industries. As a result, she was listed by Bloomberg 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 is president of the David H. Koch Foundation, which says it has given over $200 million to causes related to science and medical research, education and the arts as of 2022. She also established the Julia Koch Family Foundation, which donates to healthcare, educational and cultural organizations.

During her husband's lifetime, they donated $1.2 billion to various causes such as the Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

In 2012, Koch made a $10 million gift to the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, creating the David H. and Julia Koch Research Program in Food Allergy Therapeutics within its Jaffe Food Allergy Institute. In 2016, she donated $10 million to establish the David & Julia Koch research clinic for allergy and asthma at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University.

Koch has also given to LSA Family Health Services and NYU Langone, establishing the Julia Koch Endowed Scholarship. Roy I. Davidovitch is the current Julia Koch Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and director of NYU Langone's Hip Center.

In 2022, Koch donated $5 million to expand the Cox Science Center and Aquarium in Palm Beach, Florida. In 2024, she donated $75 million to NYU Langone through the Julia Koch Family Foundation for the construction of the Julia Koch Family Ambulatory Care Center, a medical office tower in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Koch is a member of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's Board of Trustees, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees, and the Venetian Heritage Foundation's Board of Directors.

She was formerly on the board of directors of the School of American Ballet.

Personal life
Julia Koch has three children with David Koch; David Jr., Mary Julia, and John Mark. Mary Julia is a staff reporter for The New York Sun.