Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, right, and Salida Capital CEO Courtenay Wolfe chat before lunch in New York.Seth Wenig
Is any lunch companion worth $1.7-million (U.S.)?
For Courtney Wolfe, chief executive officer of one of Canada's hottest hedge fund management firms, the answer is yes.
Warren Buffett, the famous value investor, delivered full value at a three-hour charity lunch with Ms. Wolfe Monday in New York.
Over steak and a side of hash browns - Mr. Buffett had a New York cut, Salida CEO Courtenay Wolfe went for a rib eye - the legendary CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. held forth on the economy, business, philanthropy and the all-important balancing act between work and play.
"He did not disappoint," said Ms. Wolfe of Toronto-based Salida Capital Corp. just after leaving a table that saw three Salida executives and six clients and friends of the firm enjoy the long-planned meal.
Mr. Buffett "was full of energy and insights that we all could take away and apply to our own lives. It was money well spent," she said.
The Salida professionals reached into their own pockets to pay for this meal, which benefits a charity for the homeless (their donation could pay for 500,000 meals).
With that gift at the heart of this gathering, Ms. Wolfe said the topic of charitable giving kept coming up, as the 10 diners went back and forth in a semi-private room at steakhouse Smith and Wollensky - a restaurant similar to The Keg, with better furniture.
"It was an open conversation, with Warren asking questions of all the guests, and taking questions from all of us," said Ms. Wolfe.
Eventually, the talk did turn to Mr. Buffett's views on markets and stocks, but lunch patrons agreed to keep his observations under wraps. Berkshire Hathaway's annual letter to shareholders is scheduled for release on Saturday, and the CEO didn't want to give leak the contents of the much-anticipated document.
Mr. Buffett couldn't be blamed for a touch of indigestion if the topic turned to the performance turned in by some of his lunch companions.
In the past, nine-year-old Salida lived and died on holdings in resource stocks, such as energy and mining companies.
When the market tanked in 2008, Toronto-based Salida's flagship fund dropped a gut-wrenching 66 per cent, then soared back with a 182 per cent climb in 2009. That drop, and the incredible recovery that followed, inspired Salida's owners to write a cheque for this event.
"We had talked about one day meeting with Warren Buffett. We decided to finally do this once-in-a-lifetime event in part to celebrate our success, with people who have been important to our firm," said Ms. Wolfe. She added that Salida was not looking for marketing exposure when it purchased the lunch last July in a charity auction, opting to keep their winning bid anonymous for 10 days before eventually going public to endorse the charity.
Salida's backers are wealthy families and foundations, and the company's employees have most of their net worth tied up in the funds.
Since taking over the job in 2008, Ms. Wolfe has followed a strategy of trying to build a money manager that uses a number of different investment styles to produce more stable results. That approach would sit will with the value-oriented Mr. Buffett, who has consistently warned against getting caught up in the fast-money side of the hedge fund world.
In nailing down the lunch with Mr. Buffett for $1.68-million (U.S.), Salida struck something of a bargain. The annual event sold for $2.1-million in 2008, when Chinese businessman Zhao Danyang stepped up.
Proceeds from the lunch with Mr. Buffett benefit the Glide Foundation, which provides social services to San Francisco's homeless and poor. The Salida team spent two days touring San Francisco with Glide after purchasing the event last year.
As the lunch wound down, Salida's executives presented Mr. Buffett with Inuit soapstone carving of a bear. It might have seemed an odd choice of gift for an investor with most of his wealth tied up in stock markets, but Ms. Wolfe said Mr. Buffett seemed grateful after being told that the Inuit consider the bear to be the most respected animal in the North.