Keynote Q&A Session on Investment Checklists

Mohnish Pabrai, Guy Spier and Michael Shearn presented their in-depth investment thesis on Keynote Q&A Session on Investment Checklists at Best Ideas 2014.

About the instructors:

Mohnish Pabrai is the Managing Partner of the Pabrai Investment Funds. Since inception in 1999 with $1 Million in assets under management, the Pabrai Funds has grown to over $500 Million in assets under management in 2012. The funds invest in public equities utilizing the Munger/Buffett Focused Value investing approach. Since inception, the funds have widely outperformed market indices and most investment managers. A $100,000 investment in Pabrai Funds at inception in 1999 would have been worth $651,400 as of September 30, 2012 – an annualized gain of 15.2% (versus 3.9% for the Dow). Pabrai was the Founder/CEO of TransTech, Inc. – an IT Consulting and Systems Integration company. Founded in his home in 1990, Pabrai bootstrapped the company to over $20 Million in revenue when it was sold in 2000. TransTech was recognized as an Inc. 500 company in 1996. Pabrai has been profiled by Forbes and Barron’s and appeared frequently on CNN, PBS, CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio. He has been quoted by various leading newspapers including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economic Times and The Times of India. He is the author of two books on value investing, The Dhandho Investor and Mosaic: Perspectives on Investing. The Dhandho Investor has been translated into German, Chinese, Japanese and Thai. Pabrai is the winner of the 1999 KPMG Illinois High Tech Entrepreneur award given by KPMG, The State of Illinois, and The City of Chicago. He is an active Member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO). He is the Founder and Chairman of the Dakshana Foundation (www.dakshana.org). The IITs in India have accepted over 340 impoverished Dakshana Scholars in the last four years. Mohnish strongly believes in a balanced life between work, family, and personal time. He enjoys spending time with his wife, Harina and children, Monsoon (16) and Momachi (15). He loves reading, playing duplicate bridge and being a value investor following Buffett/Munger principles. He lives in Irvine, California.

Guy Spier is a Zurich-based investor. In June 2007 he made headlines by bidding US$650,100 with Mohnish Pabrai for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett. Since 1997 he has managed Aquamarine Fund, an investment partnership inspired by, and styled after the original 1950′s Buffett partnerships. Prior to starting Aquamarine Fund, Guy worked as an investment banker in New York, and as a management consultant in London and Paris. Guy completed his MBA at the Harvard Business School, class of 1993, and holds a First Class degree in PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) from Oxford University. Upon graduating, he was co-awarded the George Webb Medley prize for the best performance in that year in Economics. While at Oxford he was a contemporary of David Cameron at Brasenose and attended economics tutorials with him. Guy is the CEO of the Spier family office. He also serves on the advisory board of Horasis, and is a co-host of TEDxZurich. Spier is a member of YPO, EO, Zurich Minds and the Latticework Club. Aquamarine has offices in New York, London and Zurich where Guy currently resides with his wife Lory and their three children, Eva, Isaac and Sarah.

Michael Shearn founded Time Value of Money, LP, a private investment firm, in 1996, to devote his attention to selecting and researching stocks and private investments. He launched the Compound Money Fund, LP, a concentrated value fund, in 2007. Shearn serves on the Investment Committee of Southwestern University, which oversees the school’s $250 million endowment. He is the author of The Investment Checklist: The Art of In-Depth Research. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the University of Texas MBA Investment Fund. Shearn graduated magna cum laude from Southwestern University, a small liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas, with a BA in business, with an emphasis in accounting and finance.