Faces of the week

Our regular look at some of the faces which have made the news this week. Above are Warren Buffett (main picture), with MARGARET BECKETT, BETHANIE MATTEK, THE DUCHESS OF CORNWALL and BILLIE PIPER.

Warren Buffett

The world's second richest man has just entrusted a huge chunk of his fortune to the only man with more money than he has. The American investor, businessman and philanthropist, Warren Buffett, has stated his intention to give away 85% of his wealth, mostly to the charitable foundation run by the Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates and his wife.

Warren Edward Buffett was born in Omaha in 1930, to Howard Buffett, a stockbroker and Republican congressman.

The young Warren took to numbers like a duck to water, with the impressive ability to memorise the populations of scores of American cities.

His precocious numerical acuity made itself evident when, at the age of 11, he began helping out at his father's brokerage. At the same tender age he bought his first stock.

Bill and Melinda Gates with Warren Buffett as he announces his gift

He bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred at $38 a go and learnt a valuable lesson when it dropped to $27 straight away. Luckily, the price rose again, to $40, so young Buffett sold, making a $5 profit. Quite a lot of money for a little boy, but if he'd held on to the stock, he'd have seen his investment climb to £200 a share.

That experience taught him the importance of investing in good companies for the long term. This early glimmer of financial acumen wasn't a flash in the pan, and Buffett Jr continued to chase a buck. But he didn't rely either on family money or his father's business and diversified from the stock market.

A hard worker from the outset, Warren Buffett had two paper rounds and, at the age of 14, used money he'd saved to buy 40 acres of farmland in Nebraska. He leased the land to a tenant farmer, giving him a further stream of income.

The young entrepreneur attended the University of Nebraska and, while he was there, read the hugely influential book The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham.

Woodstock for capitalists Warren Buffett on Berkshire Hathaway's AGM

Buffett was rejected by Harvard Business School, so instead he went to Columbia Business School in New York, studying under Graham himself. Buffett gained not only a masters degree in Economics but also the only A+ Graham ever gave a student in his Security Analysis class.

Perhaps surprisingly, this didn't earn him a job at Graham Newman, Benjamin Graham's company, and he went to work at his father's brokerage as a salesman.

Buffett had no specific career plans in mind until he met his first major client, who sought his investment management expertise. In 1957, he returned to Omaha and started his first investment partnership. A group of Omaha investors handed him $25,000 each. Buffett put in $100 of his own money, appointed himself general partner and began to purchase stocks.

Buffett's modest grey stucco-fronted house in Omaha

In 1952, Buffett married Susan Thompson, with whom he had three children: Susie, Howard and Peter. Outwardly their marriage looked conventional - his wife accompanied him on almost all of his public appearances, served on the board of his company and was one of Berkshire Hathaway's largest shareholders.

But they ceased to live together in 1977, when she moved to San Francisco. As a parting gift, however, Mrs Buffett had introduced her husband to Astrid Menks, a Latvian-born waitress working in Omaha. She moved in with Buffett and remains his companion.

The unusual friendship led the three to send presents to relatives from "Warren, Susie and Astrid". Warren and Susan remained married until her death in 2004.

Warren and Astrid still live in the relatively modest house in Omaha he bought in 1958 for $31,500. His annual salary from Berkshire Hathaway is similarly restrained at $100,000 and his tastes are those of the Average Joe. He drives himself to MacDonalds for burgers and has a penchant for steak, washing it down, not with vintage claret, but with Coca Cola.

He started investing in Coke in the 1980s, before other investors realised what they were missing out on. The share price of the company making his favourite beverage is now more than seven times what he paid for it.

Sage advice

One luxury Buffett does allow himself, though, is top flight air travel. He has a Gulfstream IV-SP jet but must be aware of its incongruity, since he calls it "The Indefensible".

His frugality extended to his children who were given very modest allowances growing up. One of his sons, Howard, says as soon as he started getting his own pocket money, his father installed a slot machine in the attic. And once the cash was frittered away, Buffett senior didn't give it back.

Later on, his daughter, Susie Buffett asked her father for a loan to extend the size of her kitchen so she could fit in her daughter's high chair. He told her to go to the bank and get a commercial loan like everyone else.

The Sage of Omaha

Warren Buffett, nicknamed the "Oracle of Omaha" or the "Sage of Omaha", has wise words of advice for parents: leave your children enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.

Explaining why he decided to give away such a vast part of his fortune to charity, he said he didn't want to bequeath it all to his children as members of "the lucky sperm club".

Warren Buffett's donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be more than $30bn dollars (in an initial sum and further contributions over subsequent years).

But he is also giving billions of dollars to charitable foundations run by his three children.

Last week Buffett wrote them a letter saying how proud he was of them and that their mother would be proud of them too, for all the work they've been doing, signed "love Dad".

Susie Buffett says although there are lots of funny stories about how her father hasn't given his money away to his family, they aren't representative. "The generosity has been enormous," she insists.

---

Margaret Beckett Now in charge at the FO, Margaret Beckett says it was a different F-word which escaped her lips when the prime minister offered her the job of foreign secretary. She became the first woman foreign secretary after the Cabinet reshuffle two months ago, which was prompted by the departure of Charles Clarke from the Home Office. Mr Clarke had been seen as the hot favorite to succeed Jack Straw in the Foreign Office.

Bethanie Mattek The unseeded Wimbledon hopeful, Bethanie Mattek, lost to Venus Williams both at tennis and in the fashion stakes. Wearing tiny running shorts, football socks, a huge white headband and enormous dangly earrings, she was beaten by the number six seed in 51 minutes. She was reported to have bought the socks at Harrods for £10 the night before the match. Perhaps if she had concentrated more on preparing more for the game, the score wouldn't have been a resounding 6-1, 6-0. Full story

Duchess of Cornwall Prince Charles's consort, the Duchess of Cornwall, cost the British taxpayer only £2,000 last year. The Prince's principal private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, said the figure reflected the amount of extra expense incurred by Camilla in the course of performing her official duties. The figure relates to travel as the costs of her hair and wardrobe are met by her husband personally. Full story

Billie Piper The soon-to-be ex-Dr Who star has said she won't be taking a penny from her husband, Chris Evans. The actress said it would be "disgusting" to try to get money out of the media mogul when they divorce. In an interview for the Radio Times, the 23-year-old said the pair remained friends. "Chris and I found each other when it could have gone badly for both of us and we saved each other from our worlds of madness."

Written by BBC News Profiles Unit's Natasha Gruneberg