Warren Buffett is a very rare sort of chief executive one that hasn't asked for a salary raise in 18 years. But then, along with his $100,000 (£72,000) pay-check, the head of Berkshire Hathaway also holds some shares in the company; around 500,000. Each share costs $77,250, and estimates have put Mr Buffett's personal wealth at $38 billion.

The quiet-spoken man from Idaho began his career in 1956 and is the most successful money manager in the US. He has been the subject of dozens of "how to make a million" books. Mr Buffett has never run a mutual fund, but uses his company, Berkshire Hathaway, as an investment vehicle.

He is, according to Time magazine, a protege of Benjamin Graham, co-author of Security Analysis, the seminal 1934 work on value investing. He once told his co-investors: "I am not in the business of predicting general stock market or business fluctuations. If you think I can do this, or think it is essential to an investment program, you should not be in this partnership."

He says he has never met anyone who can predict the stock market, but adds that the secret of getting rich on Wall Street is "to be greedy when others are fearful, and to be very fearful when others are greedy". He tends to pick a company for its long-term prospects, than stick with it.

Mr Buffett's management team is expected to have the courage of its convictions. In a recent letter to shareholders, he wrote: "In line with Berkshire's owner-orientation, most of our directors have a major portion of their net worth invested in the company. We eat our own cooking."