The business college at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is getting in touch with its roots.
In this case, that means Buffettese, or Buffettology, or whatever you would call the study of Warren Buffett, who taught part time at the college as a young man.
The plan goes beyond this month's unveiling of a Michael Israel portrait of Buffett in the lobby of the new Mammel Hall, home to the UNO College of Business Administration.
Starting next fall, UNO plans a graduate-level course about Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., as part of the college's executive master of business administration program. The program attracts young executives from the region, with weekend and evening classes so they can keep their day jobs.
The teacher will be Robert Miles of Tampa, Fla., author of three Buffett books and a popular lecturer about Buffett in the United States and abroad.
Each year during the weekend that Berkshire shareholders meet in Omaha, Miles moderates a discussion about Buffett at UNO. He also is host for a dozen or more fellow authors when they sell and autograph their books at the Dairy Queen at 114th Street and West Dodge Road.
Next spring, the event will move to Mammel Hall. But shareholders looking for their usual free-with-meeting-credentials ice cream cones should take heart: Dairy Queen, a Berkshire subsidiary, might bring an ice cream truck to the site.
It makes sense for UNO to become a center of Buffett study.
Buffett taught occasional classes on investing from 1952 until about 1962, when the school was Omaha University and he was less known in the investment world.
These days, he's famous enough that the splashy Israel portrait, mostly painted during a 10-minute U2 song, raised $100,000 in a charity auction. Its purchaser, former Omahan John Morgan, donated the painting to the business college.
Miles attended the portrait unveiling.
UNO Business Dean Louis Pol said the plan is for Miles to teach a course in “the genius of Warren Buffett” next fall.
Miles said he still is developing material for the course. The idea would be to acquaint the student-executives with the management practices of Buffett and his division heads.
Miles hopes to tap into his contact list, which includes several CEOs of Berkshire-owned businesses who were featured in his book, “The Warren Buffett CEO.”
A possible final exam, Miles said, will be for students to find companies that Berkshire should acquire and present research reports supporting their choices.
“It's going to be unique,” Miles said.
Munger Jr.
The biggest noncandidate spender in California's recent election was Charles T. Munger Jr., son of Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported.
The younger Munger is a physics researcher, studying particles at Stanford University's linear accelerator.
He put $12.6 million of the money he received from his father — 10 percent of his net worth — into a measure to overhaul redistricting, the newspaper said.
The cause he backed, Proposition 20, passed with 61 percent voter approval.
It requires that the state's congressional districts be redrawn by a 14-member bipartisan commission rather than by the state's party-dominated legislature.
Voters defeated another proposal, backed by Democrats, to dismantle the commission.
“You need to go into the world and do something that's needed,” said Munger, 54 and a Republican. “So I gave California fair elections. I gave the voters back their democracy.”
Munger said the goal was to eliminate a deal reached by the politicians to draw election boundaries that would create “safe” districts so incumbents could win without much opposition.
Munger believes the wealthy have a social responsibility to do good, the newspaper said.
“I helped draft it, I hired the campaign manager, I read every campaign document, I read every mailer,” the newspaper quotes him as saying. “I talked to focus groups, I agreed on all the staff hires.”
Munger paid for ads and for 660,000 DVDs titled “Gerrymandering,” which were sent to undecided voters.
Claremont McKenna College professor Doug Johnson said the new law may loosen the hold of incumbents in both parties and give more newcomers a chance of election.
“It was fun, but it isn't something I'd ever want to do again,” Munger said. “Some people have said, ‘You've done enough for a lifetime.'”
Todd Combs
Todd Combs, the Connecticut money manager tapped by Buffett recently to invest some of Berkshire's cash, was in Omaha recently and met Berkshire's board of directors, according to Fortune magazine writer Carol Loomis. That included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tom Murphy, former head of Capital Cities/ABC.
Combs saw presentations by eight Berkshire managers, Buffett told Loomis, a longtime friend.
The presenting managers included Matt Rose, CEO of Burlington Northern Santa Fe; Berkshire reinsurance chief Ajit Jain; and David Sokol of Omaha, chairman of Mid-American Energy Holdings and CEO of NetJets.
Combs didn't attend the board's private business meetings, Loomis said. The group dined at Piccolo Pete's in Omaha and then took a BNSF train to Wyoming's Black Thunder coal mine.
“Buffett found the visit ‘fascinating,'” Loomis wrote.
Buffett said he told the Berkshire board that Combs initially would manage $2 billion to $3 billion of Berkshire's $113 billion investment portfolio.
“He can range wherever he wants to,” Buffett told Loomis.
That's about the same amount managed by Lou Simpson, 74, for Berkshire's auto insurance arm, Geico. He plans to retire at year's end.
Buffett said Combs will receive a salary and bonuses based on how much his investments beat the Standard & Poor's 500 Index over three years.
“You want to get away from the short-term ups and downs of the market when you're paying someone for running money, and a plan like this does the job,” Buffett said.
Doris Buffett
Buffett's older sister Doris, 82, mentioned the mental illness that plagued her mother's side of the family during a recent discussion about her book, reported the Star-Exponent of Culpeper, Va.
“I have a special empathy for people dealing with mental illness,” Doris Buffett said.
In her book, “Giving It All Away: The Doris Buffett Story,” she wrote about her challenging relationship with her mother, growing up with her brother, her four failed marriages, losing a fortune in the 1987 stock market crash and her donations through her Sunshine Lady Foundation.
She said she has given away more than $100 million. She credits musician and activist Bono of the band U2 with encouraging her to write the book, which has generated more attention and requests for financial help.
Buffett said helping others is just part of who she is, the newspaper reported.
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