The Red Bull inheritance
Mark Mateschitz owes his wealth to Red Bull, the energy drink company co-founded by his father, Dietrich Mateschitz. In the early 1980s Dietrich, then a marketing executive for a consumer goods company, came across a Thai tonic drink called Krating Daeng, made by the businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya. The two agreed to adapt it for Western consumers and set up Red Bull in 1984, with the Austrian side holding a minority stake and the Yoovidhya family a majority. The drink went on sale in Austria in 1987.
Dietrich Mateschitz ran the company from Fuschl am See, near Salzburg, and built the brand with unconventional marketing focused on extreme sports, music and events rather than traditional advertising alone. Red Bull spread across Europe and into the United States and became the best known energy drink brand in the world.
When Dietrich died in October 2022, Mark, his only son, inherited his stake in the company. The Yoovidhya family kept its majority. Mark did not build the business, and his fortune is the result of that inheritance. Because Red Bull is privately held and pays large dividends to its owners, the stake provides both a valuable ownership position and a regular income.
What the Red Bull stake includes
Red Bull GmbH is much more than a drinks maker. Alongside the core beverage business, it owns or sponsors a wide range of sports and media properties, including:
- Formula One: the Red Bull Racing team and a second team, now known as Racing Bulls
- Football: clubs such as RB Leipzig in Germany, FC Red Bull Salzburg in Austria and the New York Red Bulls
- Ice hockey and other sports: teams and athletes in winter sports, motorsport, cycling and extreme sports
- Media House: a production company for films, magazines and digital content, and the Austrian television channel ServusTV
The company manufactures much of its drink through a contract bottler in Austria and Switzerland and sells cans in a very large number of countries.
After Dietrich's death, the company introduced a new leadership structure with a board of managing directors covering beverages, finance and the sports and media projects. Mark Mateschitz chose not to take an operational role, indicating that he saw his part as a shareholder rather than a manager, and he holds his influence through the company's shareholder bodies. He is also reported to have inherited other private assets of his father, including the Fijian island resort of Laucala.
Growing up in Salzburg
Mark Mateschitz was born in 1992 in Salzburg, Austria. His mother, Anita Gerhardter, was the partner of Dietrich Mateschitz, and she later headed the Wings for Life foundation. Mark grew up largely away from public attention, in keeping with his father's preference for privacy.
He studied business and then worked for parts of the Red Bull group. Before his father's death he was responsible for Organics by Red Bull, a line of soft drinks made with organic ingredients, which gave him direct experience of the beverage business. He has also been associated with the Mateschitz family's agricultural and hospitality interests in Austria.
There was little public discussion of succession during Dietrich's lifetime, so the inheritance and Mark's choices afterward drew strong interest in the Austrian press. In the period after his father's death, he indicated that he wanted to continue his father's work while leaving daily management to experienced executives.
Foundations and public role
Mark Mateschitz has continued philanthropic work linked to his father. The best known is Wings for Life, a foundation set up in 2004 by Dietrich Mateschitz and the motocross rider Heinz Kinigadner, whose son was paralyzed in an accident. The foundation funds research into curing spinal cord injury, and its Wings for Life World Run, in which participants around the world run at the same time, raises money for that research.
Dietrich Mateschitz also supported the Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, including its institute for spinal cord research, and Mark has maintained links to these causes.
In public, Mark Mateschitz has kept a low profile, avoiding most media appearances and rarely commenting on Red Bull's sports teams or business. Public interest in him has centered on how he would handle his father's legacy in Austria, including assets such as ServusTV, the channel his father briefly planned to close in 2016 before reversing the decision. He lives in the Salzburg area, close to Red Bull's headquarters.