Warren Buffett Quick Info | |
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Height | 5 ft 10 in |
Weight | 83 kg |
Date of Birth | August 30, 1930 |
Zodiac Sign | Virgo |
Eye Color | Green |
Warren Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist who is one of the most successful investors in the world and has served as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Frequently referred to as the “Oracle” or “Sage” of Omaha by global media, the research published at the University of Oxford characterizes Buffett’s investment methodology as falling within “founder centrism”, defined by a deference to managers with a founder’s mindset, an ethical disposition towards the shareholder collective, and an intense focus on exponential value creation. Along with Bill Gates, he founded The Giving Pledge in 2009 and has also been a long-time supporter of family planning, with the Buffett Foundation giving over $1.5 billion to abortion research to include $427 million to Planned Parenthood. Moreover, he was listed among Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the world in 2007 and President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
Born Name
Warren Edward Buffett
Nick Name
The Oracle of Omaha, Wizard of Omaha, The Oracle of Everything
Sun Sign
Virgo
Born Place
Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Residence
Buffett lives in a five-bedroom stucco house in Omaha that he bought in the late fifties for $31,500.
Nationality
Education
Warren Buffett started his education at the Rose Hill Elementary School.
He then got admission to Alice Deal Junior High School. He later got into Woodrow Wilson High School and graduated in 1947.
He then got enrolled in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947. After studying at the university for 2 years, he shifted to the University of Nebraska. He graduated from the University at the age of 19 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.
Warren had then applied for admission to Harvard Business School but his application was rejected. He eventually got enrolled at Columbia University’s Columbia Business School. At the Columbia Business School, he got to study under Benjamin Graham, who would have a major influence on Warren’s investment policy.
He graduated from Columbia with a Master of Science in Economics. He then studied at the New York Institute of Finance.
Occupation
Investor, business magnate, and philanthropist
Family
- Father – Howard Buffett (Businessman, investor, and politician)
- Mother – Leila Buffett
- Siblings – Doris Buffett (Sister) (Founder of The Sunshine Lady Foundation), Roberta Buffett Elliott (Sister)
- Others – Ernest P. Buffett (Paternal Grandfather) (Grocery Business Owner), Henrietta Duvall Buffett (Paternal Grandmother), John Ammon Stahl (Maternal Grandfather), Stella Frances Barber (Maternal Grandmother)
Manager
Warren Buffett’s personal management team handles his representation work.
Net Worth
According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, his net worth was $108 billion as of December 2022.
Build
Average
Height
5 ft 10 in or 178 cm
Weight
83 kg or 183 lbs
Girlfriend / Spouse
Warren Buffett has dated –
- Susan Thompson (1952-1977) – Warren Buffet got married to Susan Thompson in 1952. It has been reported that their shared interest in music had brought them together. In July 1953, she gave birth to their daughter, Susan Alice Buffett. In 1954, she gave birth to their first son, Howard Graham Buffett, who is a businessman and conservationist. They welcomed their second son, Peter Buffett into their family in May 1958. Susan and Warren decided to separate in 1977 as she wanted to pursue a career in the music industry. She moved to San Francisco. However, they didn’t get divorced and were legally married until her death in 2004.
- Astrid Menks (1977-Present) – Warren has been in a relationship with Astrid Menks since 1977. His wife Susan had arranged for them to meet before she left for San Francisco. The three of them had a very unusual equation as they were very close to each other and the Christmas cards were sent together from them. On his 76th birthday eve, Buffett got married to Astrid in a private ceremony.
Race / Ethnicity
White
He is of English, German, as well as smaller amounts of French Huguenot, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh descent.
Hair Color
White
Eye Color
Green
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
- Prominent nose
- Often wears rimmed glass spectacles
Brand Endorsements
Warren Buffett has appeared in a TV commercial for Geico.
He has also lent his voice to the TV commercial for 23andMe Inc. which is a California-based DNA testing company.
Religion
He was raised in a Presbyterian household. However, as an adult, he identifies himself as an agnostic.
Best Known For
- Being one of the most popular and successful stock investors. He is considered the leading proponent of value investing.
- Being one of the richest men in the world
- Being the co-owner of the multinational conglomerate holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. It is considered the third largest public company in the world. As of figures released at the end of 2017, the company owned assets worth more than $700 billion and had revenue upwards of $242 billion.
First Film
In 2015, Warren made his theatrical film debut in a guest appearance in the comedy movie, Entourage.
First TV Show
In 2003, Warren Buffett made his TV show debut by lending his voice to the character of James Madison in The Man Who Wouldn’t Be King episode of the adventure drama TV series, Liberty’s Kids: Est. 1776.
He made his first physical TV show appearance on the news talk show, Charlie Rose, in June 2006.
Personal Trainer
Warren Buffett tries to find time in his packed schedule for some exercise on a regular basis. However, he is not a fan of eating a healthy diet. He tries to keep his vegetable consumption to the bare minimum. He loves to eat fast food and sometimes takes his guests and colleagues out to eat at McDonald’s. In fact, he once took Bill Gates along for a meal at the popular fast-food chain.
He also guzzles a lot of sugary and carbonated drinks and as per some sources, he drinks five cans of Coca-Cola throughout the day. Buffett also loves milkshakes with strawberry milkshake being his favorite.
Warren Buffett Favorite Things
- Food – See’s peanut brittle, Veal parm, T-bone steak, Hash browns, Cheeseburgers, UTZ Potato Stix, Dairy Queen sundaes, and McDonald’s bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit
- Drinks – Root Beer Floats and Coca-Cola
- Books – The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher, Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises by Tim Geithner, Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch, The Clash of the Cultures by John Bogle, and some others
- Football Team – Nebraska Cornhuskers football
Source – Cheat Sheet, Business Insider, Wikipedia
Warren Buffett Facts
- After graduating from high school, he wanted to start his investment and entrepreneurial career. But his father overruled him and asked him to complete his college education first.
- He had a keen interest in business and investment at a very young age and it was further fanned when at the age of 7, he read One Thousand Ways to Make $1000, which he had taken from the Omaha public library.
- While in high school, he was earning money from doing various jobs including delivering newspapers, selling weekly magazines, selling stamps and golf balls, and detailing cars.
- In his sophomore year in high school, he and his friend bought a second-hand pinball machine and placed it in a local barbershop. Within a couple of months, they had placed several such machines in three local barbershops. The business was eventually sold for $1,200 to a war veteran.
- He filed his first income tax return in 1944. In the tax return, he wrote a $35 deduction for the use of a watch and bicycle that he used for delivering papers.
- At the age of 14, he bought a 40 acres farm that was worked by a tenant farmer with $1,200 from his savings.
- In 1951, he started working as an investment salesman with Buffett-Falk & Co. He worked with them until 1954. After he learned in April 1952 that his idol Benjamin Graham was a member of the board of GEICO insurance, he decided to travel to Washington, D.C.
- Buffett wanted Graham’s advice about his desire to work with him on Wall Street. Graham like Buffett’s father urged him not to. Buffett offered to work for him for free but Graham turned down his proposal.
- In 1954, he got an opportunity to join Benjamin Graham’s partnership, Graham-Newman Corp. as a securities analyst. He worked with Graham-Newman for two years as in 1956 Graham retired and closed his firm.
- In 1956, he had savings of over $174,000 and he used it to establish Buffett Partnership Ltd. He worked with the firm as a general partner till 1969.
- When he started acquiring stakes in Berkshire Hathaway in the early sixties, it was a textile manufacturing firm. After becoming the majority stakeholder, he started moving the firm into the insurance sector and in 1985, the last of the mills owned by the company was sold.
- In 1979, the price of Berkshire shares was $775 per share. However, by the end of the year, it had increased to $1,310 and his individual net worth had become $620 million.
- In 1988, Buffett started making one of the most iconic investments as he started acquiring The Coca-Cola Company stock. He spent $1.2 billion to acquire a 7% stake in the company.
- In May 1990, he officially became a billionaire after Berkshire Hathaway began selling class A shares. The market closing price was US$7,175 per share.
- In 2008, he was declared the richest man in the world by Forbes magazine. His net worth was estimated at $62 billion.
- In his free time, he likes to relax with a game of Bridge. He reportedly spends 12 hours a week playing the game. He even sponsored a bridge match for the Buffett Cup in 2006.
- In April 2012, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer while undergoing a routine test. He had to undergo a 44-day radiation treatment cycle to take care of his condition.
- Although he has been a well-known supporter of the Democratic Party, he served as the financial advisor to Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger during his campaign for the position of California’s Governor.
- As a philanthropist, he has pledged to give away about 99% of his wealth to various charitable causes and foundations. Most of his donations until now have gone through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- In 2009, he collaborated with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg to establish The Giving Pledge. As a part of the campaign, they pledged to donate at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes.
- In the run-up to the 2016 US Presidential elections, he was a very vocal supporter of the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He also had a public feud with the Republican candidate Donald Trump, over the filing of tax returns.
- He has an interest in alternative energy sources as he owns wind farms and his company has invested billions in energy projects in California and Arizona.
- In 2012, he revealed that he had avoided making investments in social media companies as he found it hard to estimate their future value. He is also skeptical of the future of various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and once said, “In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending.”
- In 2017, he increased his stake in Apple to 3%. He also became the largest shareholder of Bank of America after exercising warrants for 700 million shares.
- In 2002, he was appointed as an advisor to the Nuclear Threat Initiative. He has also pledged to donate more than $50 million to the foundation.
- In 2006, he auctioned off his 2001 Lincoln Town Car on the e-commerce platform eBay to raise funds for the non-profit organization, Girls Inc. which works on the development and growth of girls.
- In 1999, he was declared as top money manager of the Twentieth Century by Carson Group after conducting a survey. He ranked ahead of legendary investors such as Peter Lynch.
- Warren has been included in the iconic Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World list on multiple occasions.
- While studying at the Wharton School, he was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.
- In the fifties, he used to serve as a teacher for the Investment Principles night class at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Most of his students in the class were at least twice as old as he was.
- In his free time, he loves to play ukulele which he had learned in the late forties to impress a girl he had a crush on. His romantic endeavor failed but his love for the ukulele has endured since then.
- In 1989, he used $6.7 million from Berkshire’s funds to buy a private plane. He decided to name it The Indefensible.
- In 2021, he became the 6th person to enter the $100-billion club.
- In May 2021, Warren announced that Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s vice chairman of non-insurance businesses, Mr. Greg Abel would take over his position whenever he steps down.
- In May 2021, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s share price went over US$421,000 per Class A share price which made NASDAQ upgrade their computer system. The biggest price NASDAQ could display was $429,496.7295. Hence, they had to temporarily halt the display of Berkshire Hathaway’s price.
- In 2000, Warren held his first lunch auction.
- In June 2022, Warren held the last auction for a private lunch with him. It was sold for a record $19 million. The last record was made in 2019 by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun who had paid $4.57 million to dine with Warren Buffett. The money collected from these auctions is donated to Glide Foundation which works for poverty and homelessness of people.
- In June 2022, he donated gifts (11 million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. worth $277.64) worth approx $3.1 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He donated another 3.4 million shares of his company to 4 other family charities. After the donation, Warren Buffett still owned 16% of Berkshire and controlled about one-third of its voting power.
- From 2006 until 2022, Warren gifted $35.7 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the actual value of which had become $45 billion by mid-2022 as these gifts were mostly stocks of Berkshire Hathaway.
- In November 2022, Warren’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased a stake in chipmaker TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) for $4.1 billion. At the same time, Berkshire also disclosed having a stake in building materials company Louisiana-Pacific for $297 million and invested $13 million in Jeffries Financial Group.
- In late November 2022, Buffett donated more than $758 million in value of Berkshire Hathaway’s shares to charities. He was the 6th richest person in the world at that time.
- In November 2023, ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Warren donated his company’s shares worth $870 million to 4 family-run foundations. In fact, he has been making such donations annually to various charities since 2006.
- In February 2024, in an annual letter to shareholders, Warren revealed that Berkshire owned around 6% of the entire universe.
Featured Image by USA International Trade Administration / YouTube / Public Domain