Buffett’s ‘Three T’s’ Open Up on CNBC

Ted Weschler first met Warren E. Buffett over dinner. A very, very expensive dinner.

During a rare interview on CNBC on Monday, Mr. Weschler, now a top lieutenant to Mr. Buffett, recounted how he ended up joining Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Buffett’s investment firm. Sitting with Mr. Buffett and two other top Berkshire executives known as “the three T’s,” Todd Combs and Tracy Britt Cool, Mr. Weschler talked about how meeting the famous investor had always been on his “bucket list.”

He finally got the chance through a charity auction organized by the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco charity. Mr. Weschler, then a hedge fund manager, made the winning bid for a meeting with Mr. Buffett, and flew down to Omaha, where Berkshire is based.

“I was expecting a stiff hour or so meeting, and it ended up being this long visit at the office and a terrific dinner,” Mr. Weschler said.

The following year, he did it again, bidding on a second meeting with Mr. Buffett. The two meals cost him more than $5 million. After Mr. Weschler got the chance to pepper Mr. Buffett with questions, he got one of his own: Would he be interested in coming to work for Berkshire?

“It was the last thing on my mind,” Mr. Weschler said. “I didn’t want to be dismissive, I mean this guy’s like a hero, you can’t just like say ‘no way.’”

Now, Mr. Weschler works as an investment manager for Berkshire, along with Mr. Combs. Mr. Buffett has publicly heaped praise on both men before, most recently in his annual letter to shareholders, which was released on Saturday.

“Todd and Ted have also created significant value for you in several matters unrelated to their portfolio activities,” Mr. Buffett’s said in his letter. “Their contributions are just beginning: Both men have Berkshire blood in their veins.”

Investors the world over comb Mr. Buffett’s letters for nuggets of advice, often given through homespun anecdotes that eschew complicated financial jargon. In the interview, Mr. Weschler said that he had been reading Mr. Buffett’s letters since he was in college in 1979.

Mr. Combs first met Mr. Buffett in Omaha, and spent the day “talking about everything from baseball to business and insurance.” He eventually moved his family to Omaha to begin working with Berkshire in 2011, and now manages $2 billion to $3 billion.

Ms. Cool came to Berkshire in 2009 when she was just 25 years old. She had already met Mr. Buffett during a trip with a student group, but decided to write him a letter asking to spend more time with him. To her surprise, Mr. Buffett agreed, and she was eventually assigned to work on a project that looked at the Lehman bankruptcy.

“I don’t think I ended up having too much value to add,” Ms. Cool said. “It allowed Warren and I to have an opportunity to have a variety of discussions about business, management, investing. And those were all great for me.”