Dietrich Markwart Eberhart Mateschitz (; 20 May 1944 – 22 October 2022) was an Austrian billionaire businessman. He was the co-founder and 49% owner of Red Bull GmbH. In April 2022, Mateschitz's net worth was estimated at US$27.4 billion. Mateschitz worked in marketing for Unilever and Blendax. While travelling in Thailand, he discovered the drink Krating Daeng, which he adapted into Red Bull. He founded Red Bull GmbH in 1984 and launched it in Austria in 1987. His company acquired or founded several sports teams around the world, including five-time Constructors' Champions Red Bull Racing and sister team AlphaTauri in Formula One, and association football teams including FC Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig. Early life and education Mateschitz was born on 20 May 1944, in Sankt Marein im Mürztal, Styria, Austria, to a family of Slovene or Croatian ancestry. His mother's side was from Styria, his father's side was from Maribor (now in Slovenia); some sources place his ancestry in the area of Zadar where he allegedly had relatives and the surname Matešić was common. He declared himself a "Styrian cosmopolitan". Both his parents were school teachers. He attended the Hochschule für Welthandel (now Vienna University of Economics and Business), where after ten years, he graduated with a marketing degree in 1972. He was keen and passionate about extreme sports at an early age. Career Mateschitz's first employer was Unilever, where he worked marketing detergents. He subsequently moved to Blendax, the German cosmetics company (since bought by Procter & Gamble), where he worked on, among other things, the marketing of Blendax toothpaste. It was as part of his travels for Blendax, on the way from Bangkok airport to the city centre, that Mateschitz bought a bottle of Krating Daeng, the drink that would later become Red Bull. "One glass [of Krating Daeng] and the jet lag was gone", he recalled. Sensing the commercial opportunities of this drink in Europe, Mateschitz struck a partnership deal with the Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya who had already been successfully selling Krating Daeng to lorry drivers and factory workers. In 1984, he founded Red Bull GmbH with Yoovidhya, launching the brand in Austria in 1987. Subsequently, he turned the Red Bull drink into a world market leader among energy drinks. It was revealed that he worked on the formula for around three years before the modified drink was launched under the new name Red