DePaul MBA Program Students Meet Warren Buffett

For DePaul MBA program student Elise Vinup, class discussions about the stock market often felt “pretty theoretical” because she doesn’t invest very much yet. But that changed when she and her classmates had a chance to talk with one of the world’s most prolific investors—Warren Buffett.

“Getting to meet Warren Buffett and hear about his successes allowed the concepts to really start coming to life,” Vinup says. “This was an incredible experience, and I feel very honored to have been selected and grateful to DePaul for creating this opportunity.”

Vinup was one of 20 DePaul students invited to participate in a question and answer session with the Berkshire Hathaway CEO at the company’s headquarters in Omaha in January. This is the third time that DePaul students have been selected to meet Buffett and tour some of Berkshire Hathaway’s subsidiaries with other business graduate students from around the country.

The octogenarian "Oracle of Omaha" talked to students for nearly three hours, opining on a wide range of subjects from the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies to how to live a fulfilling life.  He urged students to pursue careers that they love and to surround themselves with caring people at work and home.

“What struck me the most about Warren Buffett is his humility,” says Vinup, an associate manager of merch​andising initiatives at Walgreens. “He has done incredibly well for himself and could go anywhere or do anything in the world. Yet, he continues to live in his same home, continues to work hard every day, and preaches that the most important things in life are love and time. Warren told us, ‘you can’t get more time, but you can decide the people to surround yourself with—for both your work partnerships and your personal relationships,’ and those people should be chosen wisely.”