Li Lu, a Chinese-American hedge-fund manager, may be tapped for head at Berkshire Hathaway Inc., to succeed American billionaire Warren Buffett, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday July 30. Having Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger as a "mentor and good friend", Li may run a chunk of Berkshire's $100 billion portfolio, the newspaper said. "In my mind, it's a foregone conclusion," the 86-year-old Munger. said.
Through the successful introduction of the Chinese battery and auto maker BYD Company to Berkshire, Li got the attention of Buffett, who ranked No. 3 on the Forbes billionaires list published in March with wealth of $47 billion.
Li, an informal advisor to BYD, owns about 2.5% of the company with his LL Investment Partners Born and grew up in Tangshan, China, Li was a survivor of 1976 Tangshan earthquake.He also participated in the Tiananmen Square student protests and became one of the student leaders.
After leaving China, Li earned three degrees from Columbia University and went on to build a career in finance, the paper said. His funds have returned 26% since 1998 versus 2.2% for the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, the Journal said.
Li Lu was named a global leader for tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 2001, and a Henry Crown fellow by the Aspen Institute in 1998. .(Source: International Business Times, Jul 30, 2010).