---
title: Career Investment
date: 2025-09-15T10:00:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/career-investment"
section: Articles
---
# Career Investment

*September 15, 2025* — by [John Tucker](/authors/john-tucker)


- *Illustration by Lauren Biagini*

> Buffett Scholar Reflects on Role Model’s Retirement

*Illustration of Warren Buffett with money*

**THE PHOTOGRAPH FROM** 2005 (below) depicts a broad-shouldered Warren Buffett surrounded by UMD students, handing his wallet to a grinning undergraduate who tugs at the hunk of leather, nonplussed at his seeming luck. But Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass, smirking off to the right side in the photo, says Buffett was just having fun while living out his famous Rule No. 1: Never lose money. (Rule No. 2? Never forget rule No. 1.)

“It was a photo op—he doesn’t really let the wallet go,” says Kass, displaying the keepsake soon after Buffett announced in May that he would step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the company he turned into a $1.1 trillion juggernaut. Considered by many as history’s greatest investor, the 95-year-old will retire at year’s end but stay on as chairman, cementing a legacy that few know better than Kass.


*Warren Buffett hands student wallet, with David Kass smirking on the right — (Photo courtesy of David Kass)*




**Issue:** [Fall 2025](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/fall-2025)


**Types:** [Explorations](https://terp.umd.edu/category/explorations)