I read a very interesting article today in the February issue of Vanity Fair about Warren Buffett. The online version of the article, which is shorter, is located HERE.
The article (like many others) details Buffett’s modest lifestyle despite being a mutli-billionaire.
However most impressive is the articles discussion on who may helm the mega conglomerate post Buffett (Buffett himself has calculated that he has approximately 12 years left to live).
One person considered Buffett’s right hand man and potential successor is Ajit Jain. However, Jain declined to be interviewed for the Vanity Fair article and is fairly media shy.
I decided to look into who was this mystery man that the world’s greatest investor holds such high esteem and “with whom Buffett talks almost every day.” His rise to wealth is quite interesting.
Ajit Jain was born in India and received an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharajpur.
He then worked for IBM in India…….and then BOOM, moves to the United States to get an MBA from Harvard, later working for McKinsey and Co.
He later returned to India, and had an arranged marriage with a woman his parents had chosen (supposedly arranged marriages actually have fewer divorces. I actually heard Apu from The Simpsons say it once, so it must be true!).
After returning to McKinsey, Jain later took the job offered by Warren and now runs Berkshire’s cash cow insurance business, a post with huge responsibility. It goes without saying that Ajit has made a big, yet preferentially hidden, name for himself in the investment world.
Also, if one successful Jain is not enough, his brother Anshu Jain just happens to be the head of corporate finance for Deutsche Bank.
