Students Attend 50th Berkshire Hathaway Meeting

Smith Undergrads’ ‘Woodstock for Capitalists’ Experience includes ‘Buffett v. Mayweather’

This year’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., annual shareholder meeting coincided with the conglomerate’s 50-year anniversary under Chairman Warren Buffett  – and the Floyd Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao boxing showdown.

Also, for a sixth consecutive year, finance professor David Kass led finance students from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business to the event in Omaha, held May 2, 2015.

The students – Emily Bowersox, Stephen Ford, Ben Hawtof, Conor Moore, Allison Reid, Taylor Roethle, Kaley Smith, Eric Urda and Yvette Yu – joined Kass and faculty colleague Elinda Kiss among roughly 40,000 investors and journalists for hours of high-level discussion of markets and investing – following a video spoofing that night’s hyped boxing match. The meeting’s traditional opening with a big-screen, hour-long presentation included Buffett in over-the-top prizefighter mode. He taunts Mayweather and brings the hype for his showdown with the welterweight champion.

Kass reviews the meeting, now iconically dubbed Woodstock for Capitalists, on his blog, where he recounts the entertainment and business discussion by the likes of Buffett and Vice Chairman Charles Munger. Read the account here.