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Warren E. Buffett

Warren Buffett in 2006
Born:	August 30, 1930 Omaha, Nebraska
Occupation:	CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
Salary:	$100,000 USD (2005)[1]
Net worth:	US$46 billion[2]
Website:	berkshirehathaway.com

Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) is an American investor, businessman and philanthropist. Nicknamed the "Oracle of Omaha" or the "Sage of Omaha," Buffett has amassed an enormous fortune from astute investments, particularly through the company Berkshire Hathaway, of which he is the largest shareholder and CEO. With an estimated current net worth of around US$42 billion^[2], he is ranked by Forbes as the second-richest person in the world, behind only Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. In June 2006, he made the commitment to give away his fortune to charity, with 85% of it going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.^[3] Buffett's donation was the largest act of charitable giving in United States history.^[4]

Despite his immense wealth, Buffett is famous for his unpretentious and frugal lifestyle. When he spent $6.7 million of Berkshire's funds on a corporate jet in 1989, he jokingly named it "The Indefensible" because of his past criticisms of such purchases by other CEOs.^[5] He continues to live in the same house in central Omaha he bought in 1958 for $31,500,^[6] in the Dundee neighborhood although he also owns a summer house in Laguna Beach, California. His annual salary of $100,000^[1] is particularly modest by the standards of senior executive remuneration in other S&P 500 companies, which averaged about $9 million in 2003.^[7]