Billionaires gather in Arizona to discuss giving
What do dozens of American billionaires talk about when they get together? Their topic this week was of course money; not how to make it, but how to give it away.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Friday that a private gathering was a great chance for the billionaires who have pledged to give away at least half their wealth to meet each other, compare notes, eat and laugh.
The media was banned from Thursday's first meeting of the group that has accepted the giving challenge by Buffett and his friend Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Since last June, 69 individuals or couples have made the giving pledge.
Buffett knew only about 12 of the 61 people at the dinner at the Miraval Resort in Tucson before the famously gregarious Berkshire Hathaway CEO worked the room and made 40 new friends.
"They all more than fulfilled my expectations," Buffett told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said she was delighted by the openness of