School of Business

Business students drop in on billionaire Warren Buffett

At the end of the fall semester, more than 100 School of Business students made the 200-mile trek from Lawrence to Omaha to chat with the second-richest person on earth, Warren Buffett.

Students and the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. gathered for a private Q&A session at Buffett’s H.Q., Kiewit Plaza, where the conversation included everything from business to personal to politics.

This is not the first time the KU Business students have ventured north to meet with billionaire Buffett. Last spring Buffett hosted KU students for a similar meeting, and, although he has started to limit private meetings with students, he still made a point to welcome KU back.

The visits, arranged by School of Business professor Mark Hirschey, created a buzz in the financial media sphere. The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.com both filed stories about the trip, as did local media, including The Lawrence Journal-World, The Omaha World-Herald and The Salina Journal.

Students capped off the meeting by pitching investment ideas to Buffett. They proposed that Berkshire Hathaway buy Pella Corp., a manufacturer of high-end window and doors, and Schwan Food Co., a frozen food manufacturer and distributor. Both are private companies.

MBA Trek goes to the City of Angels

Eight KU School of Business MBA students explored career opportunities from Janurary 11-13 in Los Angeles. While in L.A. the students met with alumni and with business executives to talk about careers in marketing and finance.

The event, part of the MBA Trek series, focused on entrepreneurial opportunities in small to mid-sized companies. MBA Director Chuck Krider and Corporate Relations Director Jerry Raggett accompanied the students.

L.A. marks the fourth MBA Trek this school year. Launched last fall, the trips are organized to assist students in making career contacts with potential employers across the nation. Previous MBA Treks have included New York, Denver and Chicago.

Kansas Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, l’94, visits KU classroom

Kansas Senator Derek Schmidt, l’94, stopped by KU’s campus to talk with School of Business students in Greg Freix’s, g’99, Managerial Information Systems class. While there, he discussed one of the Senate’s hot button issues: Internet sales tax.

“With the growth of the Internet, of e-commerce, we now have a whole lot more sellers who aren’t in Kansas, who otherwise would be subject to paying Kansas retail sales tax,” explained Schmidt, who is also vice chair of assessment and taxation. “All they do is ship their items to Kansas consumers, which gives us no legal ability to force them to collect and remit sales tax.”

Schmidt said he and his colleagues noticed an erosion of incoming sales tax, which is the state’s principal source of revenue. To counter the losses, Schmidt and his fellow senators collaborated with other states to create the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP). 

In the past, sales tax was calculated at the point of the sale; however, with SSTP, sales tax will be applied to the destination of the purchase. Therefore if a Kansan buys a taxable item via the Internet, the seller would be required to collect and remit sales tax from the Kansas consumer to the Kansas Department of Revenue. Schmidt admitted this system causes more headaches for the seller, who will, in turn, calculate different taxes for different states, but he said the change will channel the tax to the proper state.

This was the second time Freix has invited Schmidt to speak to his students about the issue.  “The insights he brings from his Senate leadership role and service on the Assessment and Taxation Committee have provided the students with an uncommonly clear view of the issues from the vantage of State and local government,” Freix said.