Students can dine with the world’s third richest person if they are willing to put up some of their own money.
Alpha Kappa Psi, the campus business fraternity, is auctioning five open spots available in their trip to meet investment tycoon Warren Buffett in a lunch scheduled for Mar. 30. The minimum bid is set for $300 with the auction closing at 11:59 p.m. Saturday. The five packages include airfare and hotel stay, according to an email sent by the fraternity to other business-oriented student groups on campus. Duke’s chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi has sent a delegation to lunch with Buffet once a year since 2007.
“It’s an awesome opportunity,” said junior David Martorana, Alpha Kappa Psi executive vice president.
Several times a year, Buffett—president, chairman and CEO of Fortune 500 holding company Berkshire Hathaway—holds day-long events where about 100 students from five schools visit him in Omaha, Neb., ask him questions, eat lunch and take pictures.
Alpha Kappa Psi sold open spots on the trip at a set price in the past two trips in 2009 and 2010, said member Judy Jow, a senior who participated in the 2010 trip. The fraternity has about 85 members, with 15 fraternity members participating in this year’s trip. Members declined to comment on the flat price charged to attendees in 2009 or 2010 and declined to comment on this year’s transition to a silent auction.
The lunch with Buffett is held at his favorite restaurant in Omaha, his hometown. A student from each of the five participating schools is selected by lottery to join Buffett at his table.
“It was actually a very down-to-earth experience,” Jow said. “Even though it’s a hundred students, it doesn’t feel that big.”
Buffett cracked jokes during the 2010 meeting and did not limit students’ questions just to business topics, Jow said. The questions students asked Buffett in the question-and-answer session ranged from finance-related topics to life advice to casual inquiries such as his favorite foods.
Buffett’s coordinators decide the number of student slots, Martorana said. They also require women to make up one-third of the participants in the trip. In past years, up to 25 students have gone on the trip. This year, 20 are allowed on the trip, which has resulted in the five left over seats up for auction. Fraternity members declined to comment as to what the money raised from the auction will go toward.
Alpha Kappa Psi advertises the annual chance to meet Buffett as a recruiting tool for new members, Martorana said
“It was definitely a drawing factor for me coming in as a freshman, that this group goes to see Warren Buffett every year,” Jow added.
Martorana, who worked in sales and trading at J.P. Morgan, has not yet met Buffett but said he hopes to do so this year, noting that Buffett’s investment strategy has been successful despite the sluggish economy.
“I absolutely want to go,” he said. “There are not many people who have not gotten weeded out from the markets—I definitely have questions for him.”
All the students pay for their own trips to Omaha, including airfare and hotel stays. The same day the students meet Buffett, they take behind-the-scenes tours of Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries, including Nebraska Furniture Mart and jeweler Borsheims, where CEO Susan Jacques gives students a personal tour and discusses her friendship with Buffett.
“It’s very interesting to hear her talk about him because she’s so close to him and knows him really well,” Jow said. “It reinforces how great of a person he is.”
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