Alex Trzeciak, MS/Finance’13, shares with us his first-hand account of a recent trip to Omaha, Nebraska and a two-hour Q&A session with non other than Warren Buffett.

Here’s Alex:

“Twenty lucky students from the Specialized Masters and MBA Programs were chosen to travel to Omaha, Nebraska and spend time with renowned investor and manager Warren Buffett, also known as “the Oracle of Omaha”.

On Friday, Jan. 18, at 8:30 a.m., we arrived at Nebraska Furniture Mart, one of Warren Buffett’s first investments. With furniture stretching as far as the eye could see it was not a surprise that NFM is North America’s largest home furnishing store. After walking through several different buildings and seeing everything from kitchen appliances to the latest electronics, we could definitely appreciate the late Mrs. B’s motto “sell cheap and tell the truth.”

At 10:00 a.m., we arrived at the Kiewit Building for our question and answer session with Warren Buffett. As he entered the room, the crowd of students from six different schools roared with applause. At 82 years old he was surprisingly enthusiastic, entertaining and engaging. With each question—each school was allowed two—Mr. Buffett crafted a lengthy response capturing not only the stock market and finance implications, but also life lessons and integrity. He was qualitative and almost philosophical in his approach – not what some of us expected with such a disciplined investor. With his occasional humor and elaborate responses, the two hour question and answer session flew by and we were off to his favorite eatery: Piccolo Pete’s Restaurant.

At Piccolo Pete’s I was given a steak with a side of fries and pasta—a very interesting dish! Here we were able to visit and meet some of the other students from other schools visiting Omaha to see the Oracle. As the dinner came to a close I was able to greet Mr. Buffett with a handshake and then posed for our school picture.

We ended our trip at Borsheims Jewelry Store—another of Warren Buffett’s investments. Here we were stressed the importance of building relationships with clients. Then we were able to walk around the store—looking at pieces ranging in price from several hundred to over forty thousand dollars.

All things considered, the trip was great. It was surprising to see how sharp Warren Buffett is at 82 years old. Between his enthusiasm and his thorough responses we were really able to see how much he loves what he does.”