Hourly Update

Billionaire Buffett visits Tucson call center to laud workers

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett visited Tucson on Monday to deliver ice cream bars to Geico employees whose local call center led the company in sales growth in 2005. Buffett chatted with workers, posed for photos, autographed clothing and dollar bills, and brought Dairy Queen Dilly Bars for everyone. Geico, an insurance company, and International Dairy Queen Inc. are subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a holding company which Buffett leads as chairman and CEO. According to Forbes magazine, he was the world's second-richest person in 2005. Buffett had promised to visit the Geico call center that won the company's 2005 sales competition, said Martha Furnas, the Geico assistant vice president who oversees the company's Tucson service center. Tucson employees earned first place, and on Monday, Buffett delivered on his promise. Roughly 500 local employees received a metaphorical pat on the back from Buffett. Quite a few received a real one, too. He was hard to miss. Surrounded by navy and black business suits, the 75-year-old Buffett wore a lime-green Hawaiian shirt with a design featuring dozens of geckos. (A talking, animated gecko serves as a spokeslizard in Geico's television advertisements.) Outdoors on a morning that was chilly by Tucson standards, Buffett posed in his shirtsleeves for photos with employees and waved off an offer of a jacket. "I don't need that," Buffett said good-naturedly. Geico employees said Buffett lived up to his reputation as someone whose wealth hasn't robbed him of a folksy, plain, Midwestern style. "He's just warm and open," Furnas said. "I don't think you can find anyone more down-to-earth. I guess you could call it homespun." Michael Spaulding, sales and service director for Geico in Arizona, said Buffett told Tucson employees about the first time Buffett set foot in a Geico office — in 1951. It was a Saturday, and Buffett was a graduate economics student at Columbia University. Only one person was at work at Geico that day — one of the company's top executives — but he invited Buffett in, and they talked about the business. Buffett was so impressed, Spaulding said, he started telling others to invest in the company. Buffett had a net worth of $44 billion in 2005, according to Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's wealthiest individuals. He trailed only Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Geico opened its Tucson call center in March 2003. Tucson employees won the national contest with a 17 percent increase in number of policies in force, Furnas said.