Red Bull co-founder and co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz passed away on Saturday after battling a long-term illness. He was 78.
The Austrian businessman was worth more than $27 billion, a fortune that he amassed with his marketing genius which he refined while at a German consumer products company.
In 1987, he founded the energy drink with Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya, who died in 2012, Forbes reported. The energy drink was successful and has dominated the sector due to their success in tying the brand to extreme performance. The company sold nearly 10 billion cans last year.
Red Bull sent an email to the entire company informing employees of Mateschitz’s passing.
“In these moments, the over-riding feeling is one of sadness,” the company said. “But soon the sadness will make way for gratitude – gratitude for what he changed, moved, encouraged and made possible for so many individual people. We will remain connected to him respectfully and lovingly.”
The company said that it was the job of every employee to “continue his life’s work in his spirit.”
The company asked that employees respect his wish that they express their grief in “silence and restraint.”
Mateschitz was a right-wing populist who slammed the “blindness” of European nations for welcoming the migrant crisis that engulfed the continent in 2015, saying that “it was clear from the start that most of the people weren’t refugees, at least not according to the definition of the term in the Geneva Conventions.”
Mateschitz blasted political correctness from “intellectual elites” and said he fervently opposed being told what to think.
Mateschitz was big into Formula One racing, with the Red Bull team winning multiple championships.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of motor sports governing body Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), responded to Mateschitz’s death in a statement Saturday afternoon.
“I am deeply saddened to hear the news that Dietrich Mateschitz has passed away,” Sulayem said. “He was a towering figure in motor sport and with Red Bull not only established two hugely successful Formula 1 teams but also supported motor sport of every kind and helped the careers of countless young drivers through Red Bull’s junior programmes.”
“The thoughts of all the FIA family are with his loved ones at this time and he will be greatly missed,” he added.