Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Value Investing Conference - Investment ideas presented in detail



First met him a few months ago so the you know I said that's great and he's like okay you know we're up to out of a hundred thousand I'm so wanna things he's trying to do is with the new administration is trying not yet have a change in policy to literally airlift out not just out of Iraq but at the neighboring countries qualifying refugees not a lift and directly in the united states they have to be processed in screen at center but airlift them to Guam where they can live and be processed make sure we're not letting anyone is dangerous to the country or anything like that arm but some so we're crossing our fingers and hope hopeful that the new administration will do they will do the right thing here soon let me just get back to why this is why I would argue that this is self interest and I hope it might nom encourage and inspire others one at one of the reasons that I sort of a lot about all these various activities is to tryin robe others into my activities arm it's not because I will not argue to you that it has made me more successful professionally there somehow.



The business contacts and there are business contacts and networking if you're involved in philanthropic stuff that can help your business but net spending half my time on these various activities rather than reading more annual report to center has no doubt cost me some to grieve investment returns and I would probably be wealthier today are my bank account would be larger my fun would be larger if I had allocated all of my time toward are my primary business at managing money coming for those you who later here Alice Schroeder talk about Warren Buffett in her book about magnificent book about of it snowball arm for sixty odd years he has been investing machine ominous spent you know to hours a day doing absolutely nothing but focus on investing in that combined with a lot of other factors and his is a the fact that he's a genius and so forth but his the fact that he's been so single-mindedly focused to investing is translated into his incredible track record being the world's richest man.

I will never repeat that are in part because the way I've chosen to spend my time and that's okay because what I would argue is the self-interest I'm talking about is na financial self-interest but rather I'm really happy arm and if you think about it once you re every study ever done a show once you reach a certain level of happiness I'm sorry certain level income and you can take care of your basic needs people who make are no hundred thousand dollars a year whatever new measure their happiness and then you measure people who have who make millions and millions or even be who billionaire's new measure their happiness actually billionaires are no happier then and people who are sort of you know reasonably well often don't have to really worry about money arm and trust me I know some really unhappy billionaires are so I guess so arm if not nom you know so what's the self-interest is that if you if you study the research on happiness and you say it's self-interested to want to be happy and to go to sleep feel good about yourself every night crime well if not money if that's not gonna get you there what years and the answers as I'll leave you with a book recommendation are Victor frankel are man's search for meaning which I give Kenny credit for he's the one who steered me the book it's a very quick read Viktor Frankl is an Auschwitz survivor.

The first half the book talks about his experiences and how he survived house which in turn out the people who survived and didn't survive in part was just randomness but in part was the people who gave up versus the people stayed mentally strong and I he ended up arm having a career after the war up counseling people and doing a lot of research on happiness money founders is that would determine happiness once she reached a certain income level was whether you felt like your life had meaning and purpose on that it wasn't just mine was pursued have your own our self-interest to making money and there are a lot of different ways people can find meaning and purpose often it's been very involved with your family raising kids et cetera arm but I would argue that that's people who spend time and pick in the area that the really passion about to make a difference in the world.

Somehow make a difference in one other person's life I would argue that the people in this room can probably aim higher that you can you think about leverage not the leverage in the financial sense that we've been talking about today but think about you know I've been involved with starting organizations are from Teach for America nineteen years ago coming at a college or serve employee number two after Wendy Kopp starting that to starting your whole handful of organizations like people in this room have the entrepreneurial ability the access to capital cetera to think bigger then I just being a Big Brother Big Sister for example making a difference in one person's life by tie-dyed I'd encourage you and inspire you to take advantage for the gifts the that all of us in this room have arm to not to make a bigger difference arm so you know I guess with that I'll alarm all stop and again thank a thank you for this are tremendous Award Dinner and hope that my example I would encourage you to be quite as extreme as I am hi it can be very stressful but pick one or two areas and really try make a difference in the world and you're not and you will it is in your self-interest as you feel very good about yourself so thank you thank you and you know when I add my congratulations as well and now I'm wanna take this opportunity to make sure we mention that the Print Center Foundation is a primary sponsor the conference so we appreciate that

Learn about the unique processes used by successful value investors



John Kenney and guy and I thank you Dan for organizing this and i UVA for inviting me down and hosting me I'm you give me a mic in audience numbers my happiest as any of your friends will tell you so so arm and you'll see a pic my friends very carefully they all know the flattery will get you everywhere with me seller I thank you again I just want to offer small she's not here tonight but i wanna thank the single most important person in in all of my endeavors in life are my wife Susan arm who are we hope we see the video tape this I wanna say I love you and thank you arm we have three little girls and she does yeoman's work chasing after them in raising them properly so to some extent frees me up to I go out on my various crusades to try and improve the world a little bit I also I think my parents and yeah I get the question a lot why Whitney why do you spend its it frighteningly enough I try not to Tom investors this probably half my waking hours on various a non-profit endeavors and are why do I do an ass I question myself a lot especially in winter fun has a bad day or worse yet a bad month for a bad year mom and I thought about it a lot because its it's not particularly rational arm and I guess there are there are three reasons are not one is genetic are my parents were the first couple to meet and marry in the Peace Corps in day arm they heard. 



I'm John F Kennedy ass now not weak your country can do for you but what you can do for your country in a row where a lot of people were feeling I suppose some word how they feel today arm and in really my parents up feel this is the first time in forty six years and that they felt similarly hired today and so there's a Anderson a genetic element if I guess do-gooder -ism that I was born with and then was lectured about this about you know throughout my entire childhood was told in reminded that up all the people who've ever walk the face of the earth I'm in the top one-tenth of one percent or the one percent of the luckiest in terms of all the gifts I've been given from having great parents to on not born into any kind wealth but certainly all of my basic needs were met at cetera and that ya had a great education was lucky enough to go to Harvard I and Harvard Business School on all in been basically I have never really suffered any major calamities in my life by in pretty much.

Everything is turned up roses and when you when you have that kind of fortune in your life there's a there's a sense of duty and obligation to hard to give back rather than use all those gifts to just me on pursue your own self-interest or and become as wealthy as possible and that's it so part of its genetic part of its my lectures that I got in the last piece that is arm is I'll say it's because I'm selfish Tom and you might see a scratch your head and say well how is it in your self-interest I to come to spend half your time doing this kinda stuff and I was actually sorta writing down among nonprofit boards to give you an idea of how extreme this missile behaviors arm and up its now I didn't know that until five minutes ago honestly mom I thought it was eight minute remember to others arm and that doesn't even count the list project the benefit the organization that's benefiting from tonight that's just one of my sort one of Crusades and I'll let me just tell you a little bit more about it cuz it's a wonderful organization but I was watching sixty minutes um and they did a piece on Kirk Johnson.

The young man who was serving in Iraq are who suffered a he was working he wasn't in the military but was working for USA I D and a while he was on leave he suffered an injury didn't go back to Iraq but he started hearing from the Iraqis who were on his payroll who'd worked for him and because they had worked for Americans they were despised and targeted for death in Iraq and arm they either had to go into hiding in Iraq and many of them fled to Syria Jordan cetera so there are hard to know the exact numbers but certainly hundreds of thousands %uh Iraqis who cannot return home or who live every day in fear are for their lives because they worked with us as translators when out with the troops are on missions diet center in many cases risking their lives in many cases there was one Iraqi on minutes to the interviewed lost his leg in a because he was out there with our troops and their ran into a firefight arm and there he was in Jordan arm unable he could not the United States nobody wanted him in Jordan he couldn't go back to Iraq in the United States wouldn't give him a visa to come to the United States despite having not only you know served but lost his leg you know trying to help our troops arm and I sorry got outraged and I thought this was just completely immoral and wrong-headed and so I went to the website and donate a thousand box and never thought I'd hear from it again what Kirk Johnson.

The young man who was profiled the minutes piece called me up turned out he lived in New York comment and you know we sat down for lunch nom and he told me about you know the incredible work he's doing I’m too for perspective on the United States has taken fewer than Iraqi refugees in total Sweden has taken Sweden which has no troops in Iraq has no interest at all in Iraq has taken forty thousand after we left Vietnam we took a hundred thousand Vietnamese who had cooperated with us and helped our troops in Vietnam who were whose lives were in danger we took them out of Vietnam and resettle them in the United States um yet we are doing virtually nothing I just spoke with Kirk this afternoon arm and a he said he was really pleased that the total number of Iraqis through his efforts that we've been able to resettle I is now about families so maybe a thousand people

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Meet investors from around the world in Value Investing Conference



Important we're going but hopefully you know where you are and navigators in at least in the olden days use extends this is a dates to the mid the century a sexting to was a navigational instrument that sailors used worry Britt home study the celestial bodies the planets stars the moon the Sun to determine their line a position I was in the marine corps in not then again sailors we use GPS but you know that's fine the way they do it is OK as I mentioned before the money raised for the war to the Prince Andrew foundation goes for charity arm the charity selected by this year's recipient is called the list project are the list project om works to help resettled Iraqi refugees who up who are living in Iraq an hour risk because the service that they rendered to American troops it's a very worthy cause when I was in Iraq I befriend befriended Iraqi or key Allah gist me after I came back I sent him letters and he send me letters on in till I was told that is probably too dangerous to send him a letter with an American postmark are so when I spoke today to Kirk Johnson is the founder and director the Iraq above the list project on he was very action. 



The story in and we do Sul a negotiated her that he would continue to help me seek this young archaeologist out arm all of this is relevant and immediately after tonight's event starting at nine o'clock upstairs there's a fundraiser to benefit do you Phyllis project arm and I think it's going to be something on that's real fun guy Spier um wrote an article in Time magazine a few weeks ago called my six hundred and fifty thousand dollar lunch with Warren Buffett guys agreed to talk tonight for about minutes about his line she's got some slides I'm we have put together a very quick her easy to fill out donation form arm if you'd like to come upstairs we would welcome you would love to have you at nine o'clock no donation is too small might also point out no don't nation is too large I'm without further do it's an honor to present prominent hedge fund managers who present the award please welcome guy spear can should and Stein and John Griffin thank you prolific he has gotten more photographs on me on his of me on his computer hard drive than I have on my computer hard drive happy smarty pants he shares bloggers with his friends energetic competitive spam silly Obama African freelancer pissed.

The fast over generous teacher organizational fiend loquacious harbored in boundless generosity persistent gummy bears I always a source on confectionery when you need it with teacher okay the best now we could spend the rest the evening talking about the recipient or alternatively if you have enough band width we could share with you $ million emails that we have from him on our hard drives let me just give you one short in real time vignette yesterday the recipient had agreed to you spend two hours doing a teacher in on value investing the two hours ended any said pay I feel good who wants more two hours later there was still over half the people 'em who'd started entrenched the session ended I know about this because I do teach class year mcintyre's to call commerce on my students attended this teaching yesterday and he sent me an email about it and he said dear professor Russian the recipient its name is the best teacher I've ever heard now I fed the student for a whole semester don't think your grade will be reflected arm adjust your three it is very close friends appear in and let me just ended with something one of his closest friend said to me quote he embodies the very best qualities any human being I know with the volume turned up loud all three of us are honored and privileged to present this award to Whitney tools

value investors from around the world



Darn school and McIntyre to publicly thank you Virginia alumnus Dan Anglin whose hits from Prince intergroup he was dance Visioneer that we looted to the early idea the vision of this conference well as Answer dance vision and his tireless work that made this conference possible I can see out there very well know you're out there somewhere dance I'd like you to standup where are you Among areas and the as part of the dance contributions we actually have our next segment is a is an award which is going to be presented by which I'm gonna turn the mike over to Ron Fairchild in Matthew Boulet a prince intergroup so when we bring them up and let those who need to exit the stage to sell so are on a map gonna am will do the changing of the guard them thank you can and I'm good evening I'm Ron Fairchild with the Prince Henry group and Prince Henry foundation and on behalf of everyone at the foundation. 



I really wanna thank you for being here I mean for your support at this event tonight in especially fun thank wanna thank you be a for their I'm posting up this our conference wonderful panel to get started with arm and I thought in that steam %uh value investing be good idea to tell you a little bit about the foundation the Prince Henry foundation and how that came about because I do think it has it connects very powerfully to theme that we're talking about this evening and tomorrow the foundation really got started as a vision a small group of people and an England Matthew Boulet myself and other investors really had an idea that we ate we all have our day jobs on but we also wanted to do something to really have an impact on society into produced real change in nonprofit organizations that we worked with in for me using my own background as a nonprofit executive that men really working with nonprofit organizations across the country to help them grow and expand and as any new startup on does we really look at the field other foundations what they were doing and really studied on the field of our a foundations and grantmaking and really want to do something unique and what we saw when we looked around at what other foundations were doing as we saw that a lot of foundations were giving seed money and venture capital to test new ideas often foundations will do this on a time limited basis and to test new initiatives in new programs and we didn't see that as our particular niche is something that.

We wanted to do as a foundation will be trite what we're trying to do is a foundation is tackle a far greater challenge that we see in the foundation in the nonprofit community and that is backing proven solutions on in really providing sustained investment and support for nonprofits that are really making a powerful difference wanna spotlight those organizations surround them with support both financial and human capital support and really help them grow and expand and go to scale so the organizations were supporting this year are relatively small nonprofits that have a proven track record of success based on research and we're helping them grow and expand were helping us small program called Harlem RB I N in East Harlem in New York launch a charter school were helping an organization in DC called the higher achievement program. 

The really provides afterschool and summer programs for kids in high poverty communities grow that program an expanded in Baltimore in other communities and we're backing a group inom answer and %uh Mississippi Gulf Coast called the bigger McCarty foundation is working to rebuild youth programs that were really on destroyed after the after Hurricane Katrina so we really believe in these organizations we're working hard to support them and it's in that spirit tonight that we're recognizing our navigator of the year someone who's been a remarkable champion for public education reform and someone who's demonstrated how to attract Capital an investment to high performing nonprofit organizations so it really is a privilege to be with you tonight at this point gonna turn it over to Matthews going to tell you a little bit about the award so thanks good evening my name is Matty blame the director the fun for veterans education which provides college scholarships to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan given the next Tuesday is Veterans Day I thought we might pause for a moment and ask are there any veterans an audience and if there are would you stand and be recognized thank you thank you for your service the navigator the Year award is presented to an investment professional who threw whose guests have time and capital has improve society and motivated others to Sir the money raised for the award through the Prince Henry foundation benefits a charity selected by the recipient I'm gonna talk more about their charity in a minute first I just wanna show you the award some the panel asked panelist talked about a storm