Background
Li Lu was born and grew up in Tangshan, China.
Li Lu was born and grew up in Tangshan, China.
Li graduated from Columbia University receiving three degrees simultaneously: a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, a Master of Business Administration and a Juris Doctor in 1996.
He was one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests, an experience he recounted in a 1990 book, Moving the Mountain: My Life in China, that was the basis of a 1994 documentary by Michael Apted. He was a survivor of 1976 Tangshan earthquake. In 1985, he went to Nanjing University, majored in Physics but later transferred to Economics.
In 1989, he participated in the Tiananmen Square student protests and became one of the student leaders.
He helped organize the students and participated in a hunger strike. He fled the Provider Reimbursement Consultants through Operation Yellowbird.
After the crackdown on the movement, he left China and went to study at Columbia University. In 1990, he published a book about his experience in China titled.
The book was the basis of a 1994 feature-film documentary, Moving the Mountain, produced by Trudie Styler and directed by Michael Apted, which probed the origins of the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square and the consequences of the movement in the lives of several of the movement"s student leaders.
Banking Li was inspired to get into banking after hearing Warren Buffett, a Columbia alumnus, give a lecture at Columbia in 1993. Upon graduation, Li Lu worked in an investment bank until late 1997, when he founded Himalaya Capital Management. From 1998 to 2004, he managed both a hedge fund and a venture capital fund.
His fund suffered a 19% percent loss in 1998 from the Asian Financial Crisis.
In late 2004, he transformed the hedge fund into a long-only investment vehicle, LL Investment Partners, LP, which is currently focused on global investment opportunities. Li Lu has been known as the man who introduced the Chinese battery and auto maker BYD Company to Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett.
He is an informal advisor to BYD. His LL Investment Partners owns about 2.5% of BYD. Li was rumored to be the front runner to manage a large portion of Berkshire Hathaway"s investment portfolio once Warren Buffett steps down. This was also hinted several times in some conversations with Buffett.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Charlie Munger once said "it is a foregone decision" that Li Lu would be going to be a member of Berkshire"s top investors team after Warren Buffett retires. He serves on the board of directors for Knovel is a member of Council on Foreign Relations and Young Presidents" Organization.