retired after a 35-year career with Coca-Cola Co. but came out of
retirement in June 2004 to accept the job of chairman and CEO. He
showed up at his desk in Atlanta a week early, even before his pay
period began.
In his new biography, 'Inside Coca-Cola,' co-written with David
Beasley, Isdell remembers sitting down at his desk in Atlanta on
his first day as CEO and phoning Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO
of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and a member of Coke's board of
directors. 'I am working for the Coca-Cola Co. pro bono,' he told
Buffett.
'I think that's a very good arrangement,' Buffett responded. 'Why
don't we keep it that way?'
But by 2007, Isdell was making $21 million a year, helping the
company rebuild its worldwide brand name and restore its financial
strength during his five years in office.
In the book (St. Martin's Press, 254 pages, $25.99) he recounted a
Buffett rule in tennis, which also may apply to business dealings
that come close to being unethical: 'If it's on the line, it's
out.'
Later that year Isdell told the board of directors that he planned
to spend $400 million a year on advertising, asking the board to be
patient until the results showed up despite investors' negative
reaction to the increased spending. The board backed the plan, he
wrote, with Buffett saying, 'I bought into this company because I
believed in the brand Coca-Cola. If this is good for Coca-Cola,
then I'm fine with it.'
Student session
Buffett played host Friday to about 160 students from eight
universities, part of his long-standing effort to talk with
students about business and any other topic they care to bring up
in off-the-record question-and-answer sessions.
Last week's batch was from Boston College, Villanova University,
the University of Kansas, the University of Nebraska at Omaha,
Brigham Young University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the
University of Dayton (Ohio) and George Mason University.
The Dayton students had invited Buffett to a Global Students
Investment Forum. Buffett declined but invited them to Omaha
instead. The Dayton finance and accounting students help manage a
$14 million endowment through the university's Davis Center for
Portfolio Management.
Each university was allotted eight questions, the Dayton Daily News
reported, and each delegation was required to include at least
seven women.
$170,000 a share?
At a mere $109,000 per share, money manager Whitney Tilson viewed
Berkshire Hathaway's stock price as the 'cheapest we've ever seen
it,' Bloomberg reported, so his investment fund has been buying
shares.
He told a value investing conference in New York City that the
price for the Omaha-based company may rise to $170,000 and that the
stock buyback program announced this fall protects against a price
decline. For Class B shares, that would be an increase from the
current $72 to $113.
In June, Tilson had estimated Berkshire's value at $167,000 per
Class A share, $111 for Class B.
Tax policies and the rich
Buffett isn't the first wealthy person to become part of a tax
debate.
Forbes magazine writer Janet Novack recounted a list of rich
Americans who, like Buffett, found themselves embroiled in tax
policy proposals, such as President Barack Obama's proposal of the
'Buffett Rule' for ensuring that high-income people pay a fair
tax.
When President Lyndon Johnson backed the alternative minimum tax in
1969, it mentioned that auto company widow Mrs. Horace Dodge had
paid no income tax on $1.5 million in income because she had
invested in tax-exempt government bonds.
In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt's Treasury secretary, seeking
to close tax loopholes, cited tax-avoidance efforts by
industrialist John D. Rockefeller; Merrill Lynch founders Charles
E. Merrill and Edwin C. Lynch; electrical pioneer George
Westinghouse Jr.; publisher William Randolph Hearst; General Motors
President Alfred P. Sloan; and Amoco founder Louis Blaustein.
Buffett told CNN interviewer Poppy Harlow recently that his views
on issues such as taxation are more in the open now than 20 years
ago, but that's partly because people are paying more attention
when he says something.
'I don't think when you become a business leader that you put your
views on the world in a blind trust,' Buffett said. 'I was
president of the Young Republicans Club at the University of
Pennsylvania when I was 17 or 18. I was on a national radio program
called 'Youth Wants to Know' on CBS when I was 15.'
He said he grew up in a family where 'public policy ... belongs to
the public, and if you're a citizen and you think you have
something to say, there's nothing wrong with saying it.'
Contact the writer:
402-444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com
twitter.com/buffettOWH
Warren Buffett invites students to business dialogue
http://www.flyernews.com/articles/id/7047
Rachel Tovinitti, Staff Writer; Kevin Longacre, Asst. Photography
Editor
October 17, 2011 
Twenty University of Dayton students from the Davis Center for
Portfolio Management will be spending a day with U.S. billionaire
Warren Buffett on Friday, Oct. 21, according to a university press
release published Sept. 28.
Along with meeting and having lunch with Buffett, the students will
tour his Omaha, Neb., operations, and be able to ask him questions
about his success, according to the press release.
The operations students will tour include subsidiaries of Buffett's
Berkshire Hathway business, said Kate Morgan, a senior finance
major who is attending the event.
Buffett started building his $39 billion fortune in 1965 when he
'took over' the Berkshire Hathaway textile firm, through which he
has invested in 'banks, insurance, railroads and restaurants,'
according to his profile on the Forbes magazine website.
The university will pay for the students to attend the event,
according to John Rapp, chair of the department of economics and
finance, and director of the Davis Center.
'I'm very thrilled for them,' Rapp said. 'It's very prestigious ...
they will be getting insights and viewpoints from the third-richest
man in the world.'
Over 40 students from different majors learn about investment
through the Davis Center by managing over $9 million in the
university's endowment in equity and fixed income markets,
according to its website.
Buffett invited the UD students after declining a request to speak
at last March's R.I.S.E. XI Global Student Investment Forum,
according to the press release.
'He [Buffett] replied with a letter very soon after [the
invitation] informing me that he did not like to do appearances
such as that, but that we would be invited to come see him at one
of his Q-and-A sessions,' said Kelsey Stroble, a senior finance and
accounting major who is attending the event.
R.I.S.E., an acronym for Redefining Investment Strategy Education,
is an investment conference UD holds yearly in conjunction with the
United Nations Global Compact, according to its website. The event
hosts financial professionals and experts to discuss global
investment on UD's campus, the website said.
The U.N. Global Compact is an organization which works to provide
businesses strategies for worldwide economic and social betterment,
according to its website.
Rapp said there was an interesting story behind the invitations
with Buffett.
In the invitation sent to Buffett to speak at March's R.I.S.E.
event, a UD tie was sent along too in hope that he could wear it if
he chose to accept the invitation, Stroble said.
'In the reply letter, he said he would wear it [the UD tie] to the
Q-and-A session so we are going to keep a look out for that,'
Stroble said.
Seven other universities will also attend the event later this
week, Stroble said. Boston College, Villanova University, the
University of Kansas, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Brigham
Young University, the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and George
Mason University will all each send 20 students, she said.
Rapp said every school will have the opportunity to ask Buffett
eight questions. Buffet said he does not want to know what
questions he will be asked at the session, Rapp said.
Stroble said she is excited to meet with Buffett because of his
reputation.
'Mr. Buffett is a man who has a very large impact on the financial
world and the economy as a whole,' Stroble said. 'To be given the
opportunity to hear him speak and to interact with him is a very
big honor. He is very dedicated to making an impact on the students
in attendance and hopes to teach them as much as he can.'
The participating UD students met Sunday, Oct. 16, to discuss what
questions they want to ask Buffett, according to Stroble.
Stroble said the students wanted to devise their questions shortly
before leaving for Omaha so they could ensure any queries they have
about the economy are up-to-date with current events.
Buffett also requested each school to send at least seven women to
the event, according to the press release.
The students who will be participating in the event are looking
forward to meeting Buffett, Rapp said.
'I am extremely excited to meet Warren Buffet,' Morgan said, 'More
than anything, Warren Buffet is a man that all people in this
business admire for his strong moral character and smart investing.
He is proof that you can do well in life without greed.'
Other students said they think the invitation will help increase
national prestige for UD and the Davis Center.
'This is an opportunity of a lifetime and a dream come true,' said
Anthony Caruso, a sophomore accounting and finance major who also
will make the trip to meet Buffett. 'For the Davis Center for
Portfolio Management, to be invited to Warren Buffet's event is a
great way to spread the word about our great school and
center.'
