Alice Schroeder

Financial Columnist Author, The Snowball

Bestselling author of The Snowball, Bloomberg View columnist, and corporate director Alice Schroeder is a former all-star securities analyst, CPA, and regulator with senior experience in nearly every part of the financial world. From the boardroom to startups to the scandals of the financial crisis, Schroeder explains the big picture and its transformative lessons from the perspective of an inside player on the global financial scene.

Schroeder’s bestseller, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, is a revealing and complete look at the life of Buffett and the business secrets he never before shared publicly. The book debuted at #1 on The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists.

The Snowball has been called the “bible of capitalism” and “almost impossible to stop reading.” Named one of the best books of the year by TIME and The Financial Times, it was Amazon.com’s #1 Business and Investing Book of the year. The New York Times’ reviewer Janet Maslin hailed it as one of her top favorite books of the year, calling it a “definitive portrait.”

Schroeder began her career as an auditor for Ernst & Young before becoming a regulator with the Financial Accounting Standards Board where she drafted some of the most significant accounting rules affecting the insurance industry. A former managing director at Morgan Stanley, she participated in key episodes of the financial crisis with AIG and MBIA, and was swept into the dramas at the investment banks, Berkshire Hathaway, and the rating agencies.

Schroeder was ranked at the top of her profession in the Institutional Investor All-America Research poll. Risk and Insurance magazine called her "one of the most respected – and unafraid – thinkers on Wall Street."

Since the financial crisis, Schroeder dived into the world of venture capital and private equity as an investor. She currently serves on the board of directors for Prudential PLC, Webtuner Corp., and Cetera Financial Group. The chair of Cetera's audit committee, she brings her knowledge of corporate governance, investing and regulation to the table.

Schroeder writes for Bloomberg View and is at work on two books: one that will explain for the first time how Warren Buffett really selected his investments and got rich; and another on “adaptive entrepreneurship" following the Great Recession.

Alice Schroeder was the highest rated speaker at the conference. She was also fun to deal with in advance. California Credit Union League

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com Alice Schroeder

Suggested Topics Navigating and Profiting in a World of Changing Business Models The "New Normal" means more than an economy with lower employment and slower consumer demand. Entire industries are being disrupted by globalization and rapid advances in technology that are commoditizing even highly skilled work forces. Over more than two decades, Alice Schroeder, a former regulator, analyst, CPA, and author of The Snowball, has studied how companies in different industries adapt business models and financial strategies to changing business climates, how they manage risk, and how they respond to evolving regulation. She currently is applying this expertise to understand how successful industries and businesses are adapting to the changing economy. Join her in an exploration of the principles that can be applied in different industries by C-suite leadership and empowered managers to navigate through the turbulent new global business landscape.

Risk Management and Value Creation in Times of Uncertainty Why do some organizations thrive during periods of extraordinary risk and volatility? Why do others miss the meteor headed their way? Every company disgraced in the headlines, from Lehman to BP, had a risk management department that worked diligently, yet failed. It is all too easy to pursue an ill-advised risk disguised as an opportunity to create shareholder value. Alice Schroeder describes how successful organizations use scenarios to circumvent the built-in weaknesses of conventional risk management techniques. From her work as an auditor, a regulator, a financial analyst and a close observer of Warren Buffett, Schroeder draws from first-hand study of risk management decisions made by hundreds of insurers, financial institutions and risk managers at large corporations, the value they have created, and their success or failure after natural disasters, mass tort claims, 9/11, and economic bubbles.

How Buffett Invests — And Beyond Warren Buffett explains his investing style in simple-sounding concepts: buy stocks in companies with a "durable competitive advantage," pay a price that includes a "margin of safety," and "be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." But how do you apply these concepts in the real world? And is it really necessary to hold investments "forever" and avoid technology stocks? What if you could know the specific details of how Buffett applies these ideas. and which parts of Buffett's style are self-imposed limitations that come from personality quirks. Alice Schroeder will explain.

The Economic Road Ahead: Perils and Opportunities The now-deflating Bubble Era was a global phenomenon in which artificially cheap debt financed consumer spending to create worldwide trade and currency imbalances. The result was years of “malinvestment” – capital allocated to the wrong things – especially a U.S. service economy built on the back of leverage. As this unwinds, the service economy is beginning to experience the restructuring that took place in manufacturing in the 1990s. Companies will face perils accompanied by historic opportunities. For example, great wealth is accruing to those who excel at innovatively producing tangible products, and companies that ride the trend of flushing out cost inefficiencies they see in other businesses will prosper. Join Alice Schroeder for a journey through what led us to this moment and how great businesses are capitalizing on it.

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com Alice Schroeder

Books and Other Works Bloomberg BusinessWeek Cover Story March 8, 2010 What's it like to have America's greatest investor as your shareholder? Buffett's biographer talks to CEOs who know.

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life Published 2008 Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.” Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term “simple.” When Alice Schroeder met Warren Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself that he would never write. Never before has Buffett spent countless hours responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates—opening his files, recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, as The Snowball makes immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people’s lives. This book tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American success story of our time.

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com Alice Schroeder

Biography

Bloomberg News columnist and former regulator, CPA and Wall Street analyst Alice Schroeder is the author of the #1 bestseller The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, which spent four months on the New York Times bestsellers list. The Snowball was named Amazon’s #1 Top Business and Investing Book of the year. New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin called it one of her ten favorite books of 2008. Both TIME and People magazines named The Snowball one of the ten best books of the year, among other accolades.

Ms. Schroeder began her career as an auditor in the Houston office of Ernst & Young. After a stint in the firm’s the national headquarters, she joined the Financial Standards Accounting Board, where she drafted some of the most significant accounting standards affecting the insurance industry, FAS 113 and EITF Consensus Positions 93-6 and 93-14. Rather than take the typical route into industry after the FASB, Schroeder joined Dowling Partners, a boutique investment banking firm in Boston. Schroeder next became a managing director at first Oppenheimer & Co., then PaineWebber, where she was voted by clients a member of the Institutional Investor All-America Research team in recognition of her property-casualty insurance research.

In 1998 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired General Reinsurance, a company whose stock Schroeder followed. Buffett, generally dismissive of analysts, and of Wall Street in general, asked Schroeder to “do him a favor” by becoming the only analyst with whom he would speak. Her January, 1999 report on Berkshire became a best-seller for PaineWebber and launched a new valuation method for BRK that is used by many investors today.

In 2000 Schroeder joined Morgan Stanley, where she became a Managing Director and Institutional Investor’s top-ranked property-casualty insurance analyst. In addition to Berkshire Hathaway, Schroeder published a popular newsletter and was known for her coverage of insurance giant AIG, tough calls on stocks, hard-hitting industry coverage, and perspective on terrorism’s impact on the insurance industry following the 9/11 attacks. In the winter of 2002-3 Schroeder was named Analyst/Researcher of the Year by The Review magazine, one of “40 People to Watch” by A.M. Best, and one of “35 Rising Stars” by Business Insurance magazine.

Early in 2003 Schroeder went on leave from Morgan Stanley and began what would become five years of research and writing for the ultimate analysis – of Warren Buffett, for what became The Snowball. Granted unparalleled access by Buffett to his papers, family and unlimited time for interviews and questions, Schroeder gives a never-before seen look at Buffett’s upbringing and early history and a fine-grained level of detail of his relationships, investing and philanthropy. Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com Alice Schroeder

Her editorials and articles have appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, Bloomberg News, BusinessWeek, and The Huffington Post. She has appeared on The Today Show, Bloomberg's Taking Stock, Nightly Business Report, ABC World News Tonight and various programs on CNBC, CNN, NPR, the BBC and Fox Business.

A native of Texas, Schroeder lives in Connecticut with her husband David Moyer and their two trained therapy dogs. She currently is working on two books: an investing book that will reveal for the first time exactly how Warren Buffett selected his investments and got rich; and another book on “adaptive entrepreneurship" for "the new normal" following the financial crisis and great recession.

Royce Carlton. Inc.866 United Nations Piaza New York NY 10017-1880 1.800. LECTURE 212.355.7700 fax 212.888.8659. email:[email protected] website: www.roycecarlton.com