Investment manager Todd Combs was reportedly hand-picked by Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett last year to approach Amazon and JPMorgan Chase about a proposed healthcare partnership, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan jointly announced their decision to form a healthcare company to lower the cost of healthcare for their hundreds of thousands of employees in January. However, one source told Bloomberg it was Mr. Combs — a former hedge fund manager with no previous healthcare experience and who stays almost entirely out of the public eye — who shuttled between the CEOs of Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan for months to convince them to participate in the partnership.
Here are seven things to know about Mr. Combs.
1. A Sarasota, Fla., native, Mr. Combs, 47, graduated from Tallahassee-based Florida State University in 1993 and accepted a position with the state's banking regulator. From there, he accepted a job at car insurance provider Progressive, where he studied risk and how much to charge consumers for auto insurance policies.
2. In 2000, Mr. Combs enrolled in an MBA program at New York City-based Columbia Business School. During a 2014 interview with CNBC, Mr. Combs said he first encountered Mr. Buffett when he had the opportunity to listen to him give a talk at the university.
3. Mr. Combs went on to start his own hedge fund, Castle Point Capital Management, in 2005. Drawing on advice he had heard during Mr. Buffett's talk, Mr. Combs managed to successfully navigate the 2008 financial crisis relatively unscathed, according to Bloomberg. While the S&P 500 plunged 37 percent, Castle Point ended down 5.7 percent that year.
4. In 2010, Mr. Combs asked Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charles Munger for a meeting, and the two hit it off — so much so that Mr. Munger reportedly suggested to Mr. Buffett that he meet Mr. Combs, according to the report. Mr. Combs was hired to the investment firm in 2010 and began work in early 2011, relocating to the company's headquarters in Omaha, Neb.
5. During the past seven years, Mr. Combs has become an influential figure at Berkshire and is reportedly in line to manage a large portion of the company's investments once Mr. Buffett retires. Some shareholders and analysts speculate Mr. Combs may even be named CEO one day, according to Bloomberg.
6. Mr. Buffett also reportedly introduced Mr. Combs to Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, who later invited him to join the company's board in 2016.
7. While Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan's current goal is to find a CEO to head the healthcare venture, one source told Bloomberg Mr. Combs may end up being named the company's nonexecutive chairman, allowing him to stay involved from behind the scenes.
To access the Bloomberg article, click here.