 Thank you The format that we're going to follow this morning this afternoon. I'll get I get it right eventually This afternoon is I'm going to start by asking how would a few By the way, I'm not being overly personal. I've been told that mr. Buffett greatly prefers Howard As the term to to address him with I hope that's accurate. It's better than what most of the staff call me So I mean so I will ask a few questions to set the stage will then open it up for Questions from the audience and I'd like to begin with a discussion about the reality that this war college educates already experienced leaders Who will be facing a variety of challenges some of them new in this complex leadership? Environment once they leave this institution and go back to the real world You as CEO of a private family foundation that invests over a hundred and fifty million dollars a year in Efforts to address global food security including water security and to mitigate conflict Have confronted a wide range of challenges Perhaps you could tell us a bit about some of those leadership challenges that you've had to grapple with in your capacity As the CEO well the the biggest leadership challenge is people It's and that's on both ends I mean finding people that fit with the organization and your culture and the way you want to behave And we're quite different as a foundation in a number of ways and hopefully we'll get into some of that So finding people who are comfortable with the way we approach things. It's not easy finding We don't invest in organizations when I mean we spent a lot of money, but we're not we don't we're not investing in Organizations or other NGOs. We're investing in other people. So on the other side of the equation. It's also people and So we look for people we can trust we're looking for Long-term partnerships and relationships and so if you looked at at our Sheet of people that we give money to I mean it might it might look like It might look somewhat typical in terms of the number of people, but if you looked at where 80% of our money went it went to probably four or five organizations, which we have continually done The majority of our funding over a long period of time And that's because we have people that Not that we just trust but we can disagree with and they can disagree with us and so I find it The most really the most difficult part is is people on both ends of it. I think that you It takes a long time to build trust and so I Go into a relationship thinking long-term, but realizing that it may be short-term and I Find it valuable to go into it thinking long-term just because then When there are mistakes made and people let you down you don't immediately give up and the biggest thing I think That I try to remember in my mind is my dad always told me remember your your circle of competence and and that doesn't mean you It's a it's a tricky thing because you stay in your circle of competence in terms of what your innate ability and skills are at The time of whatever you're dealing with but you never want to stay Comfortable staying in in your circle of competence in terms of what you try and what you're you're willing to risk so you have to know where your limits are in terms of Being able to analyze things correctly being able to assess things correctly and coming up with good ideas and good solutions but you never want something to stop you from adventuring out and being more innovative and taking risk And so I've done I've done that. I mean our foundation is I mean I Do a lot of things on my gut feel I do a lot of things without all the information Just like you would have to do in a battle. I mean you don't know exactly what how many troops the other guy has You don't know exactly where they all are you don't know exactly what weapons he has and his capabilities But you have to you have to be able to make decisions quickly and you have to be comfortable with those decisions So they're not all going to work out right when they don't work out right you move on you don't look back So for me, I think a lot of it is The people that you're that you can put around you and then the and then the people that you deal with and selecting them very carefully Conflict mitigation one of the one of the core Elements of your mission. What role does leadership from the private or public sector? need to play in addressing some of the issue of Perhaps you can give us some examples of where your organization has been involved in conflict mitigation Well, I can give you a couple examples that involve both the military and private individuals. I think I Had a great experience. I went to Afghanistan Kind of by accident because my sister had a conversation with general portray us and volunteered me to go and And actually it's great, but but so I went and You know At that time there was a task force that had been established. It's it's pretty well dismantled now I don't know the exact status of it But it it made me realize that to make good decisions in conflict areas You can't do it by public opinion and today that's a big problem and it's a big problem for our military When you're dealing with a warlord Up in the mountains and you're trying to establish a relationship He doesn't have a check-in counter an ATM or anything else So, you know, if you're going to drive a Toyota Land Cruiser up there with a hundred thousand dollars in cash and make a deal with them In terms of building schools or health clinics or whatever it is, you know that that lends yourself on one side to a lot of questions about accountability and transparency, but it also Lends you to needing to Get the public to understand That there is no other way to do it and you're fighting a different war and if you want to win that war You have to do it in an unconventional way. So I think that, you know, I came away from Afghanistan with a couple lessons First of all, I think general McChrystal. I know neither one of them were Navy guys But general McChrystal and and general Retreus are two of the greatest heroes of this country I mean they they they could think right they could act right they both make you know personal mistakes, but I don't I don't believe that a personal mistake is You know it erases everything you've done for a country over many years and and I I got the privilege of watching McChrystal operate in a way where he brought in civilians He brought in other countries and he developed a very different thinking about how to approach this war. That's not easy to do So and I also watch portray us do it and these guys are very personal guys very involved and engaged personally And cared about it and I think you know so in afghanistan I got to to spend time with his task force on several trips And watch how they operated and then I watched the politics dismantle And and when you know politics and war don't go together Because you have to be able to make these Decisions independently in the field and not be second-guest, you know five ten thousand miles away And that's a big challenge in Central africa republic we we work uh in in parallel with DoD one of one of the four different commanders we've worked with there was a navy seal and I think one of the biggest mistakes made in in that strategy was that every six months it would rotate the commander out Very hard to stab. I mean one of the key things was establishing relationships with the agandha military And very hard to do that if every six months you start over very hard and you know A couple of them were they were all good, but a couple of them were exceptional and a couple of them were not as good and you know, um Probably This is just the beginning and beginning in trouble. So, you know, I mean somebody but but um, you know, it's it's it's just it We have to learn how to adapt To the environment where we are and if we didn't learn that back in vietnam I I mean we just have not learned that lesson and so we go in And when you fly into this base You know, you basically see Uh the Taj Mahal, which are you know about a hundred containers stacked up Tents the swimming pool all this stuff for the u.s. Base and next to it, you know 500 yards away are these Ugandans living in these tents little straw huts on the dirt floor And how are we going to relate to these guys when we come in And try to bring america to the middle of south sudan or central afro republic. It doesn't work um when we were last there A few months ago One of the you got the colonel the colonel we call him colonel mike. It was an in charge of operation. He Was a static. He says oh they left these generators and these big tents and air conditioning all stuff So they were using all of it, but but it it's Those guys, I mean the Ugandans have to be sitting there looking at us thinking what are we doing? Okay Now the the flip side of that is we gave them tremendous support and they know that I mean we we The flip side of it is we did what we do really well and what our military does really well And they could not catch anybody of significance And the first thing that uh, and this is one of probably 100 examples But the first thing our guys that has said look You're going after the largest group when they split up when you when you when you when you get in a firefight You want to go after the smallest group because they're going to have the most important guy because they're moving the quickest bingo Within a month they catch the general, you know, uh, the second guy in command of the lord resistance army They brought a level of sophistication in terms of intelligence gathering And intelligence analysis that was far beyond the Ugandan's capability So, you know We we helped change the game on the ground For this particular set of circumstances and I don't doubt for a minute we can do that anywhere in the world But we need to learn how to adapt to the context and the environment in which we are working Uh, I think much better in that scenario I think in a lot of ways we did that in afghanistan from the lessons that we learned in iraq but um You know conflict is difficult and you're never going to get it right and the most important thing I mean, I believe in taking risk and that means that those officers have to have the ability to make those decisions and make those decisions freely So that they are not reprimanded later or or have an issue later because they made those decisions. So um, I think we have an an incredible Amount to offer the world in terms of helping in conflict areas through our military Um, but I think we could improve Your Organization has worked through the u.s. Military many non-governmental organizations Are reluctant to say the least to do so. Do you see your foundation? Engaging more with the u.s. Military or other risks associated with that simply too high Well, now now i'm going to really get in trouble. Um, so So We had a great dialogue going through the pentagon A couple years ago two years ago a year and a half ago At the highest levels And we met with several two star generals as follow-up and we had other meetings and we had a list of projects nine projects that DoD felt would be very beneficial to them in the field About three or four of them completely aligned with what we were doing either in in congo or or other areas in africa And then and then it went just totally cold and we don't know why it went cold But I think it's an example of Maybe an attorney getting involved. Maybe politics getting involved. I don't know what it was But what I do know is that and I'll ask I'll answer your other part of the question in a minute But I what I do know is that We were very willing to work in additional areas with the military They have to learn How to work with us they have to learn how to work with with with private whether it's foundations or individuals or companies um, the second part of your question They do work. I mean, there's a group called spirit of america which they work with very well But when you hear the story when jim tells you the story what they've gone through to get there You know, it's a nightmare and it shouldn't be a nightmare. Okay, um, it should be something Where our government Can partner with people who want to partner with them and do things that the government cannot do Which is exactly what we did in central africa public We they needed k-19 teams we brought in 10 dogs and trainers. They needed a helicopter They they had they had two helicopters. I can't remember what kind because I wasn't familiar with what they were but Um, they were stationed like 250 miles away by the time they could ever get to to their response time was way beyond What what it needed to be we had a bell 412 that we paid for for a little over two years now We have limitations on what we can do Um, we could not have that helicopter and be funding it for military operations But we could have it, uh, bringing out, uh, we could use for humanitarian purposes Which meant if there were defecting soldiers, we could bring them out. It meant if there were, uh People who had been captured by the lra and they escaped we could bring them out That meant we could provide medical relief So, um, there were there were there were critical components of what we could do and there were obviously other things We couldn't do and and um, but we could fill in a bit of a hole that existed the k-19 teams were just something that From a money standpoint from a from a probably money being the biggest one but but from a you know, um, Just a logistical standpoint. They weren't going to get them there. It wasn't going to happen They've been a game changer on the ground just a game changer and that was easy for us to do We we knew right where to go, you know for the dogs. We knew how to do it. We knew where to get the trainers Um, you could have given us a list of 10 more things like that in that situation that we could do that the military couldn't do And we probably would have done them. Um, so That's that's a very frustrating thing for us uh to answer the key part of your question about Why we've done it? Do we worry about the risk? What do why do others not do it? There's absolutely a risk with associating yourself with the u.s. Government anywhere There's absolutely a risk with with associating yourself even further with anything that's related to the military I believe you pick those scenarios very carefully Um, you know, we would we would not do that in a lot of places But we would absolutely do it in places where we realize that The risk is lower because the need is great and no one else is going to meet the need So in central life from republic going after the lord's resistance army supporting a bigger operation there in a small way which we did we didn't We had the opportunity to work with another private individual who brought that to us. I mean we didn't and that's how we got involved but um You know to me there's little risk in that. I mean you look at what the mission is you look at what the end goal is And if somebody didn't like it because the military is involved I screw it. I mean, you know, I don't that's not my problem I mean, you know, they that's their problem because it takes it takes certain assets a church certain certain training certain discipline um, and If you don't have those things Well, you won't have those things and a lot of cases unless you have a military involved and sometimes that's what it takes to do it So I think you know, we would select it carefully Um, you know where we did it and why we did it But I have in there and there's still a risk with that, but I have no issue With someone criticizing me Because we partnered with the u.s. Military um, what they're doing that in the cases where we partnered in afghanistan and in In in central central africa Um, both of those were driven very strongly by humanitarian purposes and humanitarian goals um things that we could not accomplish without a partner like the u.s military and um We felt I felt privileged to work alongside some of the people that we worked with who are very committed To making change in those areas and and we just couldn't have done it without those kinds of assets and intelligence and training Thank you Well, I have lots more questions to ask but I suspect the audience does as well before I open it to questions And because i'm getting really old and we might make forget otherwise Uh, the foundation has provided the howard g buffet foundation has provided copies of his book 40 chances As well as a book that is not available publicly for sale that's Photographs that have been taken by uh, howards in his travels Each of you are allowed to take one of those books each Um, we have checked with the jag it is perfectly legal. You are allowed to take one each That's what he that's what he tells you now That in writing we're good to go So please who wants to uh begin first wait first. I have to say There's a photography book that accompanies it because the publisher wouldn't let me publish color photographs when you do that to a photographer I mean, that's like telling a sniper. You can't fire his weapon or something So anyway, I I should have mentioned one of the other interest areas is photography that howard had I'm going to start with greg Hi, howard greg growth on the state department foreign service officer studying national security here for a year I just came from three years with uh, jayden lane. Oh, wow. Yeah, good friend Thank you first of all for you and your foundation work around the world in global food and water security I'd be interested to hear whether You feel that global water and food insecurity poses a threat to us national security and if so What can we the united states? us government and us military do about that threat well it absolutely causes a threat to us um and I think that the more people you have that are disgruntled dissatisfied hungry And In a in a conflict or post-conflict area all of those pieces either combined or individually They will Add to unrest and if we if we haven't seen that in the last two or three years Then you know, we're not paying attention and so You know the area I'm most familiar with these days is um as eastern congo and I look at that and I see an unbelievably bungled attempt by the united nations And and this is I'm talking about a specific instance because I've seen the un do a lot of great things but you know I've seen it in you talk about leadership. You have a president of in drc Who has basically given the un a proxy To rule in eastern congo because he can't control it Um and that creates then the conflicts with neighboring countries and everything else but the point being that what that allows is There's a lot of hungry people because they're food insecure Um, they don't have access to water in many cases. In fact, I can tell you a great story if I remember to at the end of this, uh about a water story um and So I think what you know when you look at what the un did in terms of going in and dismantling the m-23 militarily um, I I personally think it's a big mistake not to sign a real peace agreement with them and The violence in that area has it is much worse than it was Uh, and and we have this as you know from the state department. We have this We we make two mistakes. We we try to pick the good guys and the bad guys In that environment most everybody's a bad guy. So you're trying to judge Who's not as bad and and that's not easy to do and you're going to make mistakes on that Um, and the other thing we do is we try to we set up, you know, okay, the m-23 is gone Now the problem's gone. That was a symptom. That's not the problem And so you have the fdlr the adf and all these people working there So kind of to your point not exactly focus on the food security and water security, but but the adf is Apparently becoming stronger the fdr is becoming stronger. They continue to attack cross from one and border There's a lot of these things the state department would know about that. We don't read about in the newspaper The long and short of that is Think about in eastern africa That has a strong radical islamic country under its control That is closer than we would like to think It can come down from samaya across into kenya It can come across from kongo into uganda As long as kagamis in rwanda, it won't happen in rwanda, but that could change in the next 10 years. Who knows You have strong islamic based militants that are operating freely In areas around those countries and if you don't think that's not a threat, you know, when you lose that It is 10,000 times more difficult to get it back Probably that's an underestimate, but We we need to decide in this country. Do we have the do we have and there's very very different opinions about this And i'm very influenced and biased because of what i've seen in africa But we need to decide and we need the leadership of this country to decide Are we going to Play a major role Now in trying to prevent some of the activity that can take place Or are we going to resolve ourselves to put on ourselves In a no-win situation like we've done and i say vietnam because i was in high school getting I graduated in 73 when they signed the armistice in february of 73 not knowing what would happen We've watched it in vietnam we watched it in iraq we watched it in afghanistan and iraq's playing out now I mean, you know in afghanistan will play out and So we have to decide Are we going to go in for the long term? and seriously commit resources and take the time To understand The culture the context and what those countries need not just what we want But what those countries need and make a 30 year commitment if you make anything less than a 30 year commitment You're going to end up in the same situation We've ended up in all these other examples that i've given And there's other ones that that you could give so I think it's it's a significant threat. What will happen is people will become wherever it is, you know, if they're hungry Or they can't get water They're they're you know, they're pretty easily recruited into a conflict situation and i remember going through The cono diamond mines and serially owned a few years after the conflict ended and there are Thousands Mile long I mean miles long because we flew over in helicopter thousands of these 18 19 20 21 year old guys You know mining for hope just looking for one diamond and i'm thinking That is a ready made military You tell them you're going to feed them you tell them you're going to pay them a little bit And i hate to say it this way but in in in many parts of the world you tell them they're going to have access to a woman And and you give them a gun and i will tell you what you've got a military now They're not well trained and they're not disciplined at all But they still take orders and and that's the worst kind because Then you have and we've seen this in eastern congo you have Every military faction you can discuss That comes in in under the auspices of what's going on in eastern congo and they've all raped individuals they've all Done terrible things and they are supposed to be the most disciplined people in there They're supposed to be the people you depend on they're supposed to end the conflict not contribute to it so It's a very it's actually quite depressing because it's very hard to see how you get from where we are to where we need to be But if you take water and food Those are big big drivers and we've seen it whether it's you know egypt or syria I mean people in syria 60 minutes just did a great great story on this People in syria are not dying from the conflict. They are dying from hunger Thousands of them are dying from hunger and so you know If you combine and i don't think you can separate these and you combine the people that hate this country And most of it's most of it's religious Under religious guys and some of it's philosophical But if you take people who hate this country and hate democracy um Those people become their best friend And not by choice necessarily and so it's a big deal. I'll tell you really quickly if I can just this water story So we this goes through a number of issues it goes to leadership because i'm going to tell you a guy that's a phenomenal leader It goes to trust and partnership, uh, and you'll see why when I explain the story But when the m23 went in and took Well Took over goma When the f rdc retreated They cut the power lines to the city In a way obviously get the m23 blamed for it But that's pretty irrelevant in terms of the outcome but but the power lines were cut so You had a scenario that had been played out about four or five years earlier Where there were no pumping stations and no filtering stations For the lake where everybody would come to get the water and so People started taking the water directly out of the lake And played out before they they they were having they literally had thousands of people a week hundreds and some thousands times dying of cholera And related disease as you as you would expect So we get to see mail the day before Thanksgiving From the manual who runs he's the he's the head park Well the game warden or whatever his title is I can't remember exactly for Varunga national park and eastern congo He's an amazing guy Since my books are free. I can say this there's a chapter about him in the book but um, uh, but He sent me an email because he couldn't get through on the cell phone and he said We need to get four generators to get these filtering systems running at the lake Now if it'd been anybody else, I would have laughed I mean it was a serious situation, but I mean I would laugh. I'm thinking Four generators into eastern congo. Let's see You're telling me you can do that in 24 to 48 hours, and I'm thinking I wouldn't believe anybody could do that in 12 months so Because it was a manual I knew that if he said he could do it he could do it Huge amount of trust on my side of it um We couldn't communicate by phone Thanksgiving came we got another email I asked trisha On on Thanksgiving. I said are the banks open tomorrow? She said yes I said okay When I got out of the emails he needs 187 thousand dollars, but send him 200,000 because he's going to need it for something uh so We we sent him the money without him knowing we sent him the money He believed we would send him the money so he had already started to get the generators um So when he found out we had the money he said well, I'm going to have the generators in 12 hours So I I was not in an arrogant way, but I was hoping and assuming and praying that you would send the you know the money and um Within about what was an animal within 48 hours Well within 24 hours he had three yeah within 24 hours He had three generators hooked up and people had filtered water in that city and he got powered back in the hospitals So that was that was the best 200 thousand dollars. I've ever spent my life. I can tell you that You cannot go backwards and say okay. How many lies did we save how many people did we save? But based on history, um, it was thousands and and um, so that was leadership That was related to water security It was trust. It was partnership Those are the key things this country to be able to implement a similar type of philosophy Needs to look at our Foreign relationships differently. It needs to look at long-term allies we can't hold them to be perfectly In the in the mirror image that we want to see them in and we have to go into it Understanding that they are not going to do everything we wanted to do the way we want them to do it It's a tough pr cell. I think the biggest challenge today Is that You know anything that happens Everybody knows about it in a minute Or five minutes and so everybody's got an opinion Everybody can express that opinion with zero accountability Okay, you can make statements on the internet or I don't do twitter and all that stuff because my wife calls me Low-tech and high maintenance and she's right, but you know you can You can spew anything out there you want to and now you're in a defensive mode And on top of it it could be absolutely not true And and and there's no accountability. So I think we live in a world today Combined with your question about water security and food security And with with the kind of groups we have that target this This country in our own philosophies and you combine that with social media I mean that is something we have never dealt with before new challenges Did I see I'm also with the department of state but Greg to my questions. So I have I've tweaked it just a little bit. I served in the gambia on my very first assignment And we did a lot of projects with the embassy with small groups women's groups Farming projects and that be hives those kind of things One of the things we found in just observations and in talking to people was that The food shortages or the water issues were not because you couldn't grow things there They were because of gross mismanagement of the government I don't know what you see as these transnational issues can bring us into conflict What's the underlying issue under a lot of these shortages? I mean climate people throw out climate change. They throw out bad governance What do you think is the one issue that we need to address? To try and alleviate some of these? Well, I have to answer. I have to give you two Okay, because they go together in the long run We can spend all the money we want to spend The gates foundation the u.s. Government u.s. The id I mean we can all spend all the money we want to spend in africa Until there are two things that change It'll never have a significant impact at scale You have to have rule of law And you have to have property rights And the property rights really come back to the more to the question that you're asking Well, I mean they both do but I can tell you that every Successful society in terms of agriculture Has both rule of law and property rights and property rights are critical and property rights And I just think okay, you have a title I can use that I can trade that I can sell that I can protect it in a court of law I can use it as an asset to buy another piece of land or improve my land or whatever it is Until you have those two things I don't see how you change anything to where you can Walk away from a country and feel really good that this is a self-sufficient country doing what it should do and what it wants to do And that this when I say what it should do I mean that the citizens are are free and and they're and they're well fed and they have access to what they need So I don't think you can do it without those two things now It's easier for us to say that because From the standpoint of what we do as a foundation because if you look at where we are and what we're doing We're doing things pretty much that no other foundation will do pretty much where they won't do it So in that in that scenario I say We are trying to take an identified geographic area And have a significant impact on it and we are doing stuff the government should be doing and that's a problem long term That is a big problem. I mean when we're building the largest infrastructure project in eastern congo a 20 million dollar hydroelectric plant And we're building roads or building water system. That is not the solution We're doing it, but it's not the solution because The government has to do certain things and that's something those are things they should be doing We're doing it. We did it. We did it for a couple reasons one one is We we started that engagement Because we wanted to do something before the conflict in it because we wanted to have an opportunity For the congolese government to make a different decision than what they've made historically Which was to allow people to come back and integrate into their communities And have jobs available We could guarantee if the m-23 put their weapons down we could guarantee if the fdlr put their weapons down Those who did not commit crimes we had to pay for crimes At a certain level because you're you're always going to deal with that But but we could guarantee that those people could go to work at least for a year and make a decent wage We could guarantee that with the projects that we have in place today There are too many people that don't want that to happen There are people with other agendas that don't want that to happen There are the the hardest thing I mean, I got to tell you there's a couple agencies in the un that I that I think do Amazing work they do yeoman's work. They are they are amazing what they do unhcrwp But when you have menisco sitting there For you know over a decade With you know tens of millions of dollars Distorting the economy participating in activities that um are not positive This probably means I won't get into congo next week, but um That's where I'm going um You know that's a problem when you have a government that's a sovereign government relying on an external force To control an area that hasn't had elections for years. That's a problem. So You know You have to look at it From my perspective And and I have to look at it and I have to say There is an absolute role for the united states to play in this and a military role is a big part of it Not going in guns blazing going in and helping them understand the logistics And the intelligence um and the successful What it takes to use technology successfully To defeat some of these groups that keep this area destabilized the un is not going to do that They got a very specific mission. They got a couple countries say we'll show up And they went defeated one enemy. There's a hundred enemies in eastern congo in just that one province. Okay, so We have to make our mind up. I said this earlier. I mean we have to make our mind up What role do we want to play and how long are we going to commit to it? There there is nothing that you can do on the international side of things That you can figure out it's like farming you can't you you can't say You know that i'm going to figure this out in two or three years. I'm going to figure this out in five years Everything the landscape changes In farming the weather is different. I mean everything changes. So you have to be patient And you have to I'm going to say it again. You have to realize That everybody isn't going to do it your way So we have to figure out Are we willing to do that and if we're not willing to do that You will see a lot more conflict around food security a lot more conflict around water security Not not that we can solve all the problems. Don't get me wrong But we can help mitigate some of them and particularly in the hot spots. So You have to have leadership That will go against public opinion That isn't scared to lose their job Um That thinks that what they are doing is the right thing to do And you know, I mean you guys would be very familiar with and you probably laugh at it because you always have to put a bunch of drama into it But you know behind enemy lines, you know According to that story that animal lost his you know, uh command Because he made a decision that he thought he had to make As a commander and as a human being You have to allow people to do that I mean you you know when you talk about leadership in the military It's a little different because and it's closer to law enforcement because you do it by rank Okay So when the animal shows up you're going to salute this man and you're going to do what he tells you to do And that's how a military works Okay, you cannot lose that you have to have the discipline But you also have to have an element of decision making Where the people that you have put in those leadership positions Can make decisions and they can make mistakes and not pay so heavily for the mistakes And so, you know, I see a huge opportunity for Uh our military to play a role in mitigating some of the circumstances and particularly in the places where we work But that takes real work. I mean that takes relationship building That that takes something that I think We have tried at times to replace with technology and you can't replace people with technology So um I mean, I love technology and I love what we can do with it whether you're talking about The military or farming or whatever you're talking about. I mean the technology is cool stuff and it's amazing stuff But use it comes down To people and giving them the ability to lead and a lot of times we fall short on that Questions from others Finally Thank you for being here today and talking about this that question in particular is very specific It's water security Nearly 20,000 acres under uh, I guess cultivation production as well as in your experience in afghan, what do you see? specific to groundwater Are you witnessing? shrinking Ground water and how do you feel that we become a factor in food security? well There's no question in shrinking and a shrinking globally. Okay. We have we have a problem here in the united states Um, and we're living that problem a little bit one of the reasons why I bought this farm that we have in We have both a farm and a ranch in Arizona um And one reason about the farm is it's it's in an area where farmers are going out of business because they're running out of water Or they're running out of affordable water We have drilled five We're drilling our sixth 1300 foot well putting a 400 horsepower motor on it pumping from 700 feet You can imagine what that takes. I mean that's worth about 70 bushels of corn. Okay So An average farmer can't go do that We can do it for other reasons, but it but it's it's it's not sustainable So, uh, we have the same issue in south africa. We use surface water there That water, uh, there are years now where we have some of our ground we rent because we don't we don't we haven't used at all There are years where we can't rent it because we can't guarantee the water. Okay So when I look at water In the united states, I think that um It's like It's like everything we do it is so it's classic 101 human behavior We don't fix it till it's a problem. We don't deal with it until it affects us and so We're going to continue to unfortunately we're going to continue to behave that way and um We will see it become a bigger and bigger issue. It will affect food security Now we will probably be For a long time in this country We'll be able to come up with other ways To work around that because we'll have the money or we'll spend the money Or we'll use technology or we'll do different things. Um You can't there's a lot of places where food is grown Saudi Arabia is a a great example of this if you if you go back in 1970s look at a Satellite image you'll see thousands and thousands of center pivot irrigation systems Zero today Okay, they decided they were going to be self-sufficient on wheat that cost them so much money. They couldn't even afford it Okay, uh, and then you alkanize the soil you do I mean it isn't it isn't always as simple as people think Okay, it doesn't just give it water. There's a lot of other things that have to work with that so um In the united states, I'm hoping that we get smart enough about it fast enough That that we change our behavior. We have some solutions that we can put in place that help us um, and so I'm not I feel we can do that if we if we We don't wait until it's too late. Um, but it's a long ways before it's too late But we are still losing a lot that we could have been preserving The problems are much bigger. I think globally um You look at the Nile river and you look at the countries that are affected by that and you look at the old agreements that exist There's going to be war fought over that now whether it's an official war Or whether it's three countries fighting, you know in the bush or whatever it is There will be people killed over that. There will be people that that do not get water Um, the die is a result. I mean it's going to become more and more acute it is becoming more and more acute and so, um There is no I mean it's like all big problems. There's no easy answer to that Except the the smartest thing to do is recognize it and deal with it. But those are situations where um other than people from the us giving advice and maybe Helping with some technology, but but you can't solve this problem with technology Um Completely, I mean technology can can help but you know those countries are going to have to solve those problems themselves I mean and how that how that works works its way through I have no idea But it I don't have an answer for it, but it is going to be a significant problem and it will create more conflict globally And you never know when it's going to come or where it's going to come from Thank you very much before I ask for the next question I uh, and I will get around the folks We originally were scheduled to go to 1300 because we were a little bit late starting How it has agreed to stay on longer I recognize that some of you may have other commitments If you have to leave just get up and leave stop by and help yourself to a book on the way out. Okay Hands back there chiles, please So we've been studying several leaders here So from your perspective Can you give us some leadership advice in terms of what we should focus on? Well The one thing I learned from watching my dad was Always put people around you that are smarter than you and that is a leadership quality because Most people don't want to do that For their own self-interest and so You have to be willing To take that risk, but I'll tell you that risk will pay off a hundredfold. So the first thing is Be willing To get the right people around you and don't be worried about If they are better at certain things and you are or smarter than you are in certain certain ways That will make you do your that will allow you to do your job better and you will be a better leader um I think you know when I was at archer daniel's midland one of the Thing there's an old saying but one of the things I would walk in and ask dwayne andries if I could do something and he'd look at me and go I'll always give you enough rope to hang yourself And he had that philosophy and I believe in that philosophy Because I believe in let people be innovative. I mean that that is a leadership quality Many people can't live with that and many people don't know how to live with it because if you give people enough You know rope to hang themselves. You don't want to hang them every time Okay, you want to give them an opportunity to understand what they learned From what they did and be better at the next decision So, I mean you clearly want to develop people around you that that you want them to develop the confidence to make decisions and when they make mistakes There's a there's a fine line between holding people accountable and hanging them and Um, so I think that's that's a second thing Um, I said this earlier, but I'm going to bring I'm going to bring it back into this conversation or this answer because Know your circle of competence if you're a leader You need to know what you understand and what you don't so When you're a president and I'm not saying this I'm not I'm just saying in theory if you're the president of the united states And you're going to go in let's let's pick history go into iraq or go into afghanistan You better You better know how to get the right people around you and you better get the right people around you and then you better listen to them Know your circle of competence The competence of that president any president is never going to be how to strategically go in and successfully implement a Program in a sort or whatever it is in a place like iraq. There's no way that president's going to know that Okay, so know what you know and know what you don't know and don't try to do what you don't know Find the people that can tell you how to do it and listen to them It's hard for a lot of leaders to listen to other people Okay, and it's probably sitting there thinking well. I'm not sure she'd call me a leader, but she'd tell you that Listen well, but um But you have to listen to other people and then you then you have to you have to have the confidence to act on that and you might have to have The you might have to have brought enough shoulders that when it doesn't work You don't go oh, well that was george's idea. I mean you're if you're the leader That was a decision you made based on whatever pieces you had in front of you And if it went wrong You you have to take the responsibility and you can't blame it on somebody else so You know and then again. I mean there's the basic things if you if you uh I've learned the hard way that once you lose trust in somebody you're not going to get it back and and and one of the hardest things and being any kind of leadership position is Having to dismiss people and um I'm not very good at that The mistake you make is allowing people to stay longer than they should stay Because you don't want to deal with it That's different than giving somebody a second or even a third chance when when you think they deserve it But recognizing You know when you when you lose trust in somebody um That's the end of the road and you need to deal with a deal with it quicker than than anything else So those are some of the things that that I can think of that One thing I know is you you can put all that down a piece of paper doing it's not so easy Uh, you know let me provide a little comfort for you behind your back and does call you a leader That's why you're here Now How appropriate it is that you're here today because today is the 24th anniversary of president h George h w bush sending in 1800 marines to samalia To help the united nations distribute food And humanitarian assistance to the people there who are being starved during the civil war and they couldn't have done it without the united states military and um Unfortunately, we were caught up in a civil war with the warring clans and in tribes And the following october, of course, we had the black clock down incident, but whoever controls the water the food and the power grid the energy grid really Controls the people food is power. It really is and um, I'm really encouraged to hear that it was your foundation that went in and established a hydrogen Uh Well, no, we do we do we do let me first of all say about samalia and I'll say this I'm totally out of place saying it but I'm going to say it is From what I know about it. You better understand your mission And and when you get cross missions you get in trouble and that That hurt a lot of people that we pulled out of there the way we pulled out of there when things went wrong And I'm not judging it because I would have no business judging it But I'm just saying, you know 20 years later you can look at that and you can look at at where samalia is today Um and not maybe we could have maybe we couldn't have you know had a different seen a different direction But but you got to know your mission and you've got to stay I mean actually there's another answer to your question in leadership. You must stay focused And and if you don't stay focused, um, you will not be as effective Uh, and you will you will waste resources and you'll lose opportunities So, you know a leader has to know how to how to pull your I mean all of us get distracted All of us will will wander a little bit But but a leader has to know how to pull that back in and you've got to pull it back in and you've got to control it um But I think um You know When you when you look at The history of of ourselves in those situations I think again it goes to What is your commitment going in and um are you willing to stick it out and and and you being in social media We are today so many things are judged unfairly and so quickly um and It just kills me that you take a guy like general mccrystal who is so talented and a great leader and is willing to um Take the risks that he took And he makes one mistake and he's out, you know and and so those things are killers You know those things are killers a real leader would have I think would have Try to figure out. I don't know all the facts. So there could be something. I don't know but You know Would have been trying to figure out not how to fire the guy but how to keep him there And and I'm not saying that wasn't done because I don't know the facts, but um, but what was the last part of your question because he Oh, yeah, the corporate. Yeah That's a good question. So we do we we've done several things with with a couple of different corporations um I I typically I think they're good partners and they can be good partners um Obviously depends on the company um, we were just talking on the airplane over here and and I we're funding uh a study for four or six hydroelectric plants six um potential new hydroelectric plants And we're we've both realized, okay, we we built this one On the relationship and trust we have in in one person now. He's got a great business plan But if he leaves What's that? That's the thing. Well, that's the thing. However, it's very fragile because let's say he's fired Okay That business plan can be Coopted pretty fast Also, how do you protect a hydroelectric plant? You know, I I'll answer that I I'll tell you what I mean, there are some elements that would Would you would worry about but I will tell you when we was when we sat down On different occasions with m23 rebels trying to figure out if we could play some role in that peace process um The very first thing they talked about Was the projects we were doing how appreciative they were because their people were going to benefit and they were sincere about that Okay, they might Have had other issues, but they did care about that And the first thing we would get is a list Of the other things they thought we should be doing now that list was often self-serving Um for certain populations don't I mean, I you know, we knew that but and we didn't do any of those um but You know, we also got you know an email once from Emmanuel saying well, there were you know seven rpg hits at the At the construction site, but none of them hit any of the equipment nobody was injured So we're okay, but I just buy another bulldozer. They blow bulldozer up I'll buy another bulldozer and I'll buy three more if that's what it takes as long as I think we're going to get it done You know, they're not going to stop me with that, but um What we have to do if we were to build another one We'll have to find actually most likely a corporation that we can partner with because we'll have to have a Uh a structure outside of the government That can protect the integrity of that project in a different way And that's really difficult to do and it also gets it it gets us bumping up against the line of of What then qualifies as charitable? Um because our money has to be charitable in nature Uh there you can use a broad definition in different places for that, but um We can't if you're talking about a corporation that may that that's a a for-profit corporation paying out dividends of shareholders How can our money? Help make help them make money now There may be a structure That you can put in place Where you can avoid that conflict and i'm not convinced there isn't um, and we're doing something in ganna with a Very large u.s. Company farm farm equipment company that um We don't have it done yet, but we're working on a couple ideas that i that i hope we get done with them that are Pretty innovative and the change we want to make will some Individual farmers benefit they benefit in the process But if if we can change the way the government looks at things if we can change how farmers are going to farm And how they're going to preserve their soil there's a huge public benefit to that So there's there's this this line that isn't always defined by the internal revenue services to You know a program expense that that is you know purely charitable and there's there's room to get in trouble there There's room for redefinition And there's room for interpretation, but I'm i i'm somebody who will go to a lawyer and say Is there a way we can do this and if there's a way to do it we'll try it and and so But it's a really good question because in the end When we do something like that hydroelectric plant Um, I don't I don't see the risk as somebody you know doing damage to it. It's possible No, we don't have anybody No, let me move on now. We've only got time for maybe two more questions I think you had one back there and then q over here. Go ahead Sir don marron from the war gaming department here war gaming Wow, that sounds cool. I like that Question I have for you priority you talk about you spend invest about 150 million dollars a year a very broad mission How do you decide where to spend that 150 which is really a drop in the bucket compared to the need Um It might be a drop in the bucket, but it's that's so easy to give it away intelligently. I can tell you that Well, that's that's an's number one job is the is is the is to keep me focused on the right priorities I you know, it's hard when you have resources Not to respond to things Uh in an ad hoc way and and and I've done that all my life. I'll guarantee I'll do it more But I think one of the things that that that pulls me back To trying to keep the priorities limited, which is the key. I think Is that I've seen what happens When when we we go too much like this and you lose effectiveness Uh, you lose impact and particularly where we're in the places we're working Um You lose it pretty fast if you don't stay focused As far as selecting the priorities to be honest with you It's it's one of the the greatest things about having a private foundation you get to select your priorities I mean you get to think This year what's important next year what's important And I do believe that as a foundation we should do a couple things and one of those things is take a lot of risk We should be willing we should be the risk capital In terms of the money into places where There's great need and and unfortunately That's hard for a lot of foundations to do for for different reasons, but for us it's quite easy And so one of my priorities is to make sure that we are At least for the majority of our money We're somewhere where most people aren't and we're somewhere where most people don't want to be And believe me you can find those places. That's why we're in Liberia. Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Burundi, Congo I mean, you know, uh now we're even going to we're you we're actually starting this year To zero those priorities down even tighter So we can try to be more effective in in the areas where we work It's a difficult decision because you realize that as you as you scale that back and refocus more You'll have less impact You know overall, but hopefully we can have more impact where we are One thing I learned a very tough lesson over well over a decade and two or three hundred million dollars later Is Projects don't work very well and the truth is our government tends to work on a project basis so if I go Well the way I really learned it was when we were doing ag projects we were doing seven different ag projects in seven different countries in Africa and When I went back Towards the end of those projects. I realized We are leaving people In a situation where they're not ready to be left We are probably creating a situation and some if not most cases Where when we leave if you go back two years later, they could even be worse off than when we were there Because they're not there. We haven't changed the fundamentals. We haven't changed the policy. We haven't changed the impact What they live with so if they live with poor roads and no electricity and a government that doesn't give them what they need What has our project done? It's it's made them dependent for five years on something that we are we are Interjecting into their life that now we're not going to give them anymore So when you start giving people things And there are cases where you have to give people things. I mean, you know, but when you start giving people things you start to undermine The principles That make things work long term. It's that simple We're going to pull a pass program a great I think the best program in africa where it comes to agriculture Uh that we fund uh not our program, but we're we're we're going to pull them out of Sierra Sierra Leone library just because we we can't we just we can't continue to function the way we're functioning Joe sends us a letter and he says well They're going to go into library it and there's these NGOs that are just going to give thousands of seeds away to thousands of farmers His goal is to build seed businesses and to make people independent And help farmers be able to afford to buy seed rather than depend on NGOs That just wipes him out. He's done Okay, and when these guys quit giving it away Joe's not there the entrepreneurs that he wants to find and build into seed dealers aren't there And guess what? Nobody else is there. It's really damaging. It's really damaging Um and you know when you think about what the choices are In this example is something I kind of I leave you with to think about Because different people will answer in different ways, but it's kind of a combination of of all the questions that that have been asked them Because it goes to a leadership question as well When I was in south sudan a long time ago, uh with the spla Some of the some of the spla There's this is in the book too and it's I I think I called the Three beer story or whatever. I don't know but you get a couple beers and somebody and you get a lot more information I'm sure that's an old military tactic But but but uh, you know, I'm talking to this guy who'd lost the leg in in fighting and and was a colonel and and uh You know He said well I'll tell you a story you guys you guys you westerners think everything is black and white and easy He said, um, I'll tell you a story when we were fighting we we came across a situation Where some of the militants we were fighting had put minds around a village of about 500 people and The Food agencies were aware of it Obviously knowing that village would would walk outside to try to collect wood or collect food or anything else So somebody somebody had to make the decision. Are we going to airdrop? food into that village knowing That those insurgents will take 20 or 25 percent of that food And the insurgents are smart enough to know that they take 20 or 25 percent You might think about dropping it if they're going to take 50 percent or 75 percent You might not drop it. So they're pretty smart. Okay, and um Which reminds me another story which I won't tell you but we learned we learned about the revolving Refugees and idps in samaya and how the the warlords were so clever They would move people around to different camps so they could continue to clap. I mean, it's amazing how clever people are but anyway, so um You have to make the decision Are you going to drop food into that village and you know That a certain portion of that is going to go to the insurgents or militants or whatever you want to call them And those guys are killing people. Okay Or are you just going to let those people starve to death in that village because they will starve to death? That's a tough decision But somebody had to make it and they dropped this guy said, you know routinely they would make the decision to drop the food um now That's a leadership question. I mean that are you willing To make that decision and that's a that's a question on several different levels. Okay um, but I guarantee you the person making that decision Was willing to lose his or her job because somebody could easily come along and say well, you can't do that shit You just can't do that and so I think you know when you're in I mean this is this is so classic for a military situation when you are You're in it. Okay. You don't have a playbook You don't get the call back and huddle and get everybody's opinion. You have to make a decision. You have to make a call That's what leadership is about making the call Being being smart enough to put And develop the opportunities around you to be prepared to make that call And then make it at the risk of your own personal benefit Time for that one last question. Yeah A grunt isn't that what they call you guys? Okay My question is kind of you already answered part of it But the one other question I had was one of your biggest uh job challenges like the first Number one number two maybe job challenges that you have Trying to feel Well one of them is one you don't have here. We live in Decatur, Illinois Nobody wants to live in Decatur, Illinois unless you grew up in Decatur, Illinois Seriously, it that is one of our biggest challenges. I think the other challenge we have Which has been discouraging for I know for annan for me and and trish and some of the people have been around for a while We have a very unique culture in our foundation and In some ways it's difficult, but if you find the right person it can be pretty exciting And so our challenge is finding People who fit into our culture and and you know many cultures are different, but And I don't know how to define our culture exactly except that we are We are quick to make decisions We are Willing to go you know go place other people don't go now that that so that some people don't want to do that because of personal risk Okay, some people don't want to do it because they just don't feel they're they're able to deal in those kinds of environments And I think that when you have this this is a this is a big problem. This is a problem for jimmy carter It's a proud not that i'm a jimmy carter don't get me wrong, but uh first of all i'm a republican but uh But you know when jimmy carter is no longer around. What is the carter center? You know when bill clinton around is no longer around. What is cgi? I mean So so so you have the howard g buffet foundation when howard g buffet's not around anymore. What is that foundation? It goes to a really difficult question in terms of culture because I'm very opinionated. I'm very driven It takes a I worked for somebody like this Uh dwayne andreas. I mean this guy was you know, I I mean I could tell you some stories about that and you just had to understand Don't take it personally tomorrow's another day The opportunity that comes with it is worth it so You know when you're in a situation like ours And in a way it equates to the military because if you got a lieutenant, you don't like But he's your lieutenant You're living with him Now that'll change someday But you got to be able to put up with that for as long as you got to put up with it and so you know I think i'm part of the problem in our culture, but I don't think that's unique I think if you take any situation where you have You know a very driven opinionated person that's in control um You will run up against that and and and so And I and I really do think there's a lot of parallel of that in the military. I mean you have A lot of decision-making concentrated in certain ranks And uh, it's going to come down And you can easily feel that you have no influence over how to change that and um So I think that's a really big challenge for us at our foundation And but I don't think that's unique to a lot of locations or a lot of places No, we would hire somebody Two things happen They rotate unexpectedly because we changed something and we go hey you did a pretty good job at this try that We took our we took our program officer central america And put her in charge of a the biggest single project we've ever funded 24 million dollars In south africa Because We had no one else who had the program experience That we felt comfortable You know to do this now she we tried to give her help with other personnel and other you know Other resources But we threw her into that and you know, some people would go Wait a minute. I speak spanish. I go down there where the climate's nice and the you know people give me tortillas I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I'm not going to sell that I mean, you know But you know her reaction was immediately to look at the opportunity to figure out how she could help and so You know that happens with us and There's I've I you know I lost a very good person four or five years ago Who just couldn't deal with that and just sat down and she said I can't do this I don't want to lose our friendship, but I can't I can't you know I need to be focused on this and this is what I got to do So we've lost some people over over that historically It's a very challenging thing. So we bring people in that at the time Where we are Are are able to apply a certain set of skills Um to something that we're focused on But I will tell you that Um and Ann will tell you this two years ago. We started down a track That we had no idea where it was going to lead us I got a phone call. I was finishing planting soybeans Um And I got a phone call from a a good friend and she said you need to be in africa tomorrow And I said, do you know how long it takes to get to africa? I said, you know, I'm on a tractor in Illinois And she said well, you got to be there the next day And so Ann was moving to Decatur at the time with her about three-year-old son then or whatever he was and Had her mother there helping her I called her up and I said Ann go to walmart get two sleeping bags one for you and one for me Get you make sure you have your passport and I gave her three other little Things and I said because if we don't leave tomorrow, we'll leave in the next day for africa Where are we going? Well, I don't know exactly where we're going But we're we're just we're going to go and we'll get that information next 24 hours And that's when we went over to um south sudan at a undisclosed temporary base and and interviewed general ceasar chellom from that point on we had we we did so many things I I never dreamed we would do and and and and um Some things I wasn't sure we could do until I asked enough lawyers I mean, you know, I mean and so our whole life has been different the last couple of years and Then anything close to what it was before that so in our foundation, you know, you have to adjust to that You have to be willing to You know not be so Stuck on a particular geography or a particular project or a particular whatever You have to I know I'm like keep looking this way. That's because I'm like but um, but that's because Um We want to be unpredictable We don't want to be predictable. We if we're predictable We're not doing our job, right? I mean one of the biggest things that we preach and what this book is all about Is you want to be out of business in in in 40 years? Whatever you start you want to be done in 40 years and you want to be out of business Think if every ngo around the world had to be out of business in 40 years Might be better if they're out of business 20 years, but but you know, but you had to start over Okay, it's like a zero-sum you know Bases for your your your finances. I mean, you know, you just you start over and when you start over it means you have You can look at it freshly. It means you can do things differently. It means you aren't held to the same you know ideas that you had before and I think that's probably one of the most important things you can have in a military is Um, you know think if you think if you were given the opportunity All right, you can go into Somalia You can build a plan you can assist with these guys and you have 40 years to do it And I'm going to give you 40 years to do it, but you're done in 40 years We've never done anything like that And it takes a different mindset and it takes a different risk now Granted, you know, you have different presidents stuff like that so things change, you know the state department guys would know well, but but We have to start Deciding if we want to think differently And it's going to take us thinking differently. I believe to deal with the issues that we're facing Uh in front of us. I I think chuck hagel was right when he said and probably got him fired Uh, but when he said that um, we have never faced anything like ices We have to we have to admit we have never faced anything like this That means we have to change our tactics. That means we have to change our thinking change our strategies um, it might change What our leadership capabilities look like in the men and women that are going to tackle it So, you know, I think too often we don't want to admit that we're wrong. We don't want to admit that there's a problem out there that we don't know how to solve And we don't want to take the chance of the risk to to go out and try to solve it at at at a personal Stake and and I we have to change that thinking I know there are a lot of other questions that would like to be asked We've heard responses to those questions that were raised We've heard about things like trust the importance of relationships of knowing and shaping your culture Um, we heard about the importance still of using intuitive decision making that gut decision making But I was also pleased to hear a recognition of the importance of having The critical thinking background represented by people like ann and matrasa who are doing that Using the criteria to help guide the the final intuitive. Oh, I need a lot of guides, believe me We do appreciate very much your coming all the way to newport specifically to speak to you folks. Thank you You bet. Thank you