Chase Koch

Charles Chase Koch ( ; born June 15, 1977), is an American businessman and the son of Charles Koch, the co-owner, CEO, and chairman of Koch Industries. Koch directs the venture capital company Koch Disruptive Technologies, and is a leading figure in Koch Industries and the family's philanthropic activities.

Early life and education Koch, who is named after his grandfather and father, was born on June 15, 1977 and raised in Wichita, Kansas, by his parents, Charles and Liz. Every Sunday, Charles Koch would educate Chase and his sister Elizabeth about his value system, libertarian economics, and philosophy.

Chase played basketball at the local YMCA and attended Wichita Collegiate School. He later said that although "I hated Koch Industries at the time," the experience taught him "a critical life lesson about the importance of hard work."

Koch graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in marketing.

In 2006, Koch began working for Koch Nitrogen Company, working as a regional manager and in global supply. He was appointed president of Koch Fertilizer in 2013 and later named executive vice president of Koch Agronomic Services. As of 2016, he was president of Koch Agronomic Services. Koch Industries' venture-capital arm. Under his management, according to Bloomberg News, KDT has invested in sectors outside of Koch's traditional areas of expertise; among the firms in which he has invested is InSightec Ltd., which manufactures surgical tools that employ ultrasound. He was present in 2003 when his father held a get-together at Chicago's Peninsula Hotel that marked the beginnings of what would later be known as the Koch network. When working with this network, reported Politico in 2018, Koch aims at nonpartisanship and avoids "the hard-charging political gamesmanship" often identified with the Kochs. Koch told Politico that, rather than becoming involved in political conflict, he preferred to find things that he and his philanthropic collaborators can agree on. His aim, he said, is "to be a bridge-builder and an innovator focused on civil society." In 2015, for example, he was involved in an antipoverty initiative that instructed nonprofits in the principles that helped Koch Industries to thrive. He has expressed concern about urban violence and police shootings and has lent his support to a nonprofit called Urban Specialists. They divorced in 2020.

With Zach Lahn, a former Koch network fundraiser, Breitenbach opened Wonder, a private Montessori-style preschool and grade school on the campus of Wichita State University.