Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy event of the week.
Each week our staff of educators tries to introduce you to a person of interest in the
financial world.
This could be a person in government or banking or an important investors or trader.
Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett is expected to release his much anticipated
annual letter to shareholders on Saturday.
The letter, which will mark his 50th anniversary at the company's helm, is expected to hit
20,000 words as he offers his thoughts on the past year and on investment ideas for
the future.
Everybody knows the name Warren Buffett but most people know very little about the man
himself although he is bigger than life.
Born Warren Edward Buffett on August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Buffett's father Howard worked as stockbroker and served as U.S. Congressman.
His mother, Leila Stahl Buffett, was a homemaker.
Buffett was the second of three children and the only boy.
Buffett demonstrated a knack for financial and business matters early on in his childhood.
Friends and acquaintances have said the young boy was a mathematical prodigy, and was able
to add large columns of numbers in his head-a talent he still occasionally shows off to
friends and business associates.
He attended Columbia University for his advanced degree and in 1956, shortly after graduation,
he formed the firm Buffett Partnership in his hometown of Omaha.
His investment successes, particularly in buying undervalued companies whose stocks
shortly began to rise, made him extremely rich and gained him the sobriquet, "Oracle
of Omaha."
In June 2006, Buffett made an announcement that he would be giving his entire fortune
away to charity, committing 85 percent of it to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
This donation became the largest act of charitable giving in United States history.
The majority of Buffett's considerable fortune was amassed through Berkshire Hathaway, a
company for which he is the largest shareholder and CEO.
Once ranked as Forbes' wealthiest man in 2008, his net worth was estimated at roughly $44
billion in 2012.
Now in his eighties, Buffett recently announced that he is battling prostate cancer.
He will begin treatment in July 2012 and expects to be able to fulfill his usual responsibilities
at Berkshire Hathaway.
"I feel great ... and my energy level is 100 percent," Buffett said in a statement.
As of early 2013, Buffett was rated No. 15 on Forbes magazine's "World's Most Powerful
People" list.