Elon Musk. Mark Zuckerberg. Warren Buffett. Steve Ballmer. If you saw any one of the 20 richest people in the world walking down the street, I have a hunch you’d recognize them instantly — as if you were spotting a major celebrity.

Actually, there’s one person I’m guessing you would not recognize.

Julia Flesher Koch is the third richest woman on the planet and the 20th richest person overall. She’s worth roughly $80 billion. Just this week, she and her family agreed to buy a 10% stake in the New York Giants for more than $1 billion, a deal that values the storied NFL franchise at a record $10 billion.

And yet, despite her staggering fortune and expanding sports empire, I’d wager the average person hasn’t heard her name before — and wouldn’t recognize her if they passed her on the sidewalk. To help fix that, here’s a photo, Julia is in the center:

Julia Koch (center) David (right) (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)

Early Life and Fashion Career

Julia Margaret Flesher was born in Iowa and spent part of her childhood in Indianola, a small town south of Des Moines, where her family once owned farmland before shifting to the antiques business. Her father, Frederic, ran Flesher’s, a furniture and antiques store on Highway 92, while her mother, Margaret, had been a standout high-school basketball player. When Julia was 8, the family relocated to Conway, Arkansas, a college town north of Little Rock. There, her parents opened Peggy Frederic’s, a women’s boutique that catered to local doctors’ and lawyers’ families. Julia and her sister, Jolene, worked in the shop and developed an early fascination with fashion, spending hours poring over magazines like Women’s Wear Daily.

In 1980, at age 17, Julia accompanied her mother on a buying trip to New York City and was instantly captivated by the glamour of the fashion world. After graduating from the University of Central Arkansas in 1984, she returned to New York to pursue that dream. She initially modeled for Tracy Mills, a couture designer from her home state, before landing a job interview with Adolfo, one of the era’s leading designers. Julia impressed him by arriving in one of his own white dresses that she had purchased herself, and he hired her on the spot.

For nearly a decade, Julia worked out of Adolfo’s Upper East Side salon, a refined setting frequented by some of the wealthiest women in America. She helped fit and style clients such as First Lady Nancy Reagan, Betsy Bloomingdale, and Leonore Annenberg. Colleagues remembered her as patient, poised, and skilled at putting demanding clients at ease. This period gave Julia both a professional education in fashion and an entrée into New York’s upper-class social world, setting the stage for the life she would later build alongside David Koch.

Marriage to David Koch

Julia met David Koch on a blind date in January 1991, arranged by mutual friends. She was about 28 years old at the time, while he was 50. Their first encounter was less than magical — Julia later admitted she left convinced she never wanted to see him again. Six months later, the two ran into each other at a party, where David reintroduced himself as if they had never met. Julia was unimpressed, but he made amends by inviting her to the U.S. Open. That second date marked the beginning of a five-year courtship, one that was not always easy for Julia, particularly as she navigated David’s world of lavish parties and constant attention from other women.

By the mid-1990s, Julia’s patience and presence in his life won out. David, who had been one of New York’s most eligible bachelors for decades, told friends that she gave him an ultimatum: become a husband or remain a lifelong bachelor. In May 1996, the two were married at David’s Southampton estate in a ceremony officiated by the Very Rev. James Parks Morton, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. On their wedding day, Julia was 34 years old and David was 56.

The union joined Julia, the daughter of an antiques dealer from Arkansas, to one of the wealthiest men in the United States. David Koch was already a household name in business and philanthropy — the executive vice president of Koch Industries, a chemical engineering graduate of MIT, and a onetime Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate in 1980. Their marriage thrust Julia into the spotlight of New York society, where she quickly became known as a glamorous hostess and later a patron of the arts.

Inheriting A Fortune

David Koch passed away in August 2019 at the age of 79, after a long battle with prostate cancer. Overnight, Julia, a former Iowa farm girl, instantly became one of the richest people in the world on her own. At the time of David’s death, Julia’s inheritance was worth $50 billion. Today, she’s worth $80 billion, placing her among the richest people on the planet and the third richest woman in the world. She ranks 20th overall on the list of global billionaires.

Away from the numbers, Julia focused on raising the couple’s three children — David Jr. (now 29), Mary Julia (24), and John (19). In the years following her husband’s death, she stepped back from public society life but quietly expanded her influence in philanthropy, real estate, and, most recently, professional sports.

Real Estate and Expanding Influence

One of the clearest reflections of Julia Koch’s wealth is her remarkable real estate portfolio. Together with David, she spent decades acquiring some of the most valuable properties in America. In Aspen, they combined two side-by-side mansions now worth at least $20 million. In Southampton, David bought a seven-bedroom oceanfront estate in 1992 for $7.5 million, now valued at upwards of $50 million, while Julia added another Southampton property for $70 million in 2021. In Palm Beach, they purchased Villa el Sarmiento in 1998 for $10.5 million, today estimated at more than $70 million.

In New York City, Julia and David purchased a legendary duplex at 740 Park Avenue in 2004 for $17 million, a building long described as “the world’s richest apartment building.” In 2022, she made headlines again by buying two Upper East Side apartments from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for a combined $101 million. Few individuals in the world control a property portfolio of this caliber.

But Julia Koch’s story isn’t just about real estate. In 2024, she and her three children purchased a 15% stake in BSE Global — the parent company of the Brooklyn Nets, WNBA’s New York Liberty, and Barclays Center — in a deal valuing the company at $6 billion. One year later, she agreed to pay more than $1 billion for a 10% stake in the New York Giants, a transaction that values the franchise at over $10 billion and sets a new record as the most expensive sports team on earth.

From her modest roots in Iowa and Arkansas to the very top of the world’s wealth rankings, Julia Koch’s life has been defined by transformation. Once a $200-a-week assistant in a fashion salon, she is now a central figure in New York’s social, cultural, and sporting landscape. And yet, despite her $80 billion fortune and ownership in two of the city’s most iconic franchises, she remains almost invisible to the average person.

Which is exactly why her story is so fascinating: Julia Koch is proof that in the rarefied world of billionaires, some of the richest people alive can still live largely out of sight.