PAUL EFIRD
NEWS SENTINEL
Investor Warren Buffett holds an honorary doctorate that contains one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock during Tuesday's symposium. He gave one share of the stock to each of 40 graduate students at the event.
Sharing his wealth
Warren Buffett offers stock and advice to UT professor, students
By AMY NOLAN, nolana@Knews.com
October 15, 2003
The world's second-richest man came to the University of Tennessee and gave students degrees, stock and advice Tuesday.
Members of the university's Financial Management Association visited legendary investor Warren Buffett's Omaha, Neb., headquarters last year and gave him Knoxville businessman Jim Clayton's autobiography, "First A Dream."
Buffett made a $1.7 billion offer for Clayton Homes, and the sale was finalized earlier this month.
So prior to his speech Tuesday at UT's Fall 2003 MBA Symposium, Buffett gave the 40 students each a finder's fee of sorts - one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock, which closed Tuesday at $2,550 per share.
He gave one share of Berkshire's Class A stock, valued at $76,600, to Dr. Al Auxier, the UT finance professor who's taken his students to Omaha for the last five years.
He also awarded "honorary Ph.D.s in deal making from the University of Berkshire Hathaway."
"One of those certificates is a lot more valuable than the other," Buffett quipped. "Bring me another deal."
The surprise delighted students who - to a person - said they plan to hold the stock for the long term, a Buffett investing maxim.
"I know my eyes got big," said Chris Campbell, an MBA student from Charleston, S.C. "I definitely will hold onto it. I'll frame the certificate."
"It'll never get sold," said Andrea Kiltau, who graduated last year and is working for Wells Fargo in Knoxville.
Corey Neureuther and his twin, Cort, had carried in the boxes of certificates, and students had jokingly asked them if they contained Omaha steaks.
"We had no idea what was in them," Corey Neureuther said. He already has framed an e-mail from Buffett that confirmed details of last year's trip to Omaha and a photo from the meeting. He plans to add the certificates to his collection.
After the presentations, Buffett spent nearly two hours answering students' questions about investing, his business and his lifestyle.
The man who built Berkshire Hathaway into a diversified holding company with $42 billion in annual revenue allowed that he plays bridge on the Internet for about 12 hours a week, spends roughly an hour a day on the phone with managers of his far-flung companies and spends the remainder of his eight-hour workday reading annual reports, quarterly statements and other material.
"It would amaze you how little I do," the 73-year-old Buffett said. "The nice thing about investing is it's cumulative. Everything I learned 20 to 25 years ago is still in my head."
He gave a twofold answer to how he measures success.
"It's running a business successfully for a long period of time so you do well by your shareholders and well by the people who work for you.
"At my age, you are successful if the people who you want to love you, love you. The tough thing about love is you can't buy it. The more you get rid of it, the more it comes back to you. It's a simple equation, but many people don't learn until it's too late."
Ben Graham - whom Buffett studied under at Columbia University and who is known as the father of value investing - made a list of traits as a teenager that he most admired in others, then tried to embrace them.
Buffett urged students to do likewise.
His common-sense advice on investing remains grounded in the principles he exposes in his annual letters to shareholders, which have earned him the moniker "The Oracle of Omaha."
Look for good businesses with enduring value and good people who possess intellect, energy and integrity. Use the market, but don't let it use you.
In answer to a question about so much production moving from the United States overseas, Buffett said, "There's no question this country is becoming less competitive in many industries.
"That's got big social implications, and I'm going to write something about that soon," he teased.
Buffett spent the morning at Clayton Homes, an acquisition that was litigated for nearly three months before being consummated.
"I knew it would get done," Buffett said in a brief interview afterward. "We were just on the one-yard line for a long time."
He and Clayton Homes CEO Kevin Clayton said they've talked about twice a week about acquisition opportunities within the manufactured housing industry.
"We're ready," Buffett said. "We haven't had an overdraft yet."
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