Warren Buffett, the man

Warren Buffett (born 1930) made his billions (and became the second richest man in the world after Bill Gates) from the success of the companies held by his investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway, a publicly quoted company. He has described the extent of his involvement in these companies as being limited to the allocation of capital and people. “Charles T. Munger, Berkshire Hathaway’s vice-chairman, and I really have only two jobs,” he once said (Charles T. Munger being his long-time closest associate). “One is to attract and keep outstanding managers to run our various operations. The other is capital allocation.” That includes setting the compensation of the chief executive.