Buffett lunch: And the winner is...Yongping Duan

Yongping Duan, a 45 year old California investor and former consumer electronics company owner (who"became a young hero of business in China") is the proud winner of Ebay's auction for Lunch with Warren Buffett.  Identified on Ebay as "fastisslow", he beat out a Taipai businessman named Rocky Liang whose Ebay name is "magicyourlife".  After reading one of Buffett's books Duan said "I mostly want to thank him'' for the advice."...

Duan gets to bring seven friends to a New York steakhouse to query Buffett, the world's second-richest man, about his business strategy and investment philosophy. The 75-year-old chairman and chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. transformed a failing textile manufacturer into a $142 billion holding company by acquiring out-of-favor securities and businesses in dozens of industries.

``We didn't pay for the lunch, we paid for the fundraising,'' Duan said. The Enlight Foundation, which his family founded and runs, will provide the donation, he said. ``Warren Buffett chose the pocket for me to donate to.'' ...

Duan was a ``proxy'' bidder, meaning EBay automatically topped the highest offer by $100 on his behalf. The world's largest online auctioneer was authorized to do so as long as the offer didn't exceed his limit of $650,000.

Mohnish Pabrai, who manages $300 million at Pabrai Investment Funds in Irvine, California, including about $30 million in Berkshire shares, stopped bidding at $502,300.

``My wife will treat me to a good dinner, and we will come back next year,'' he said of losing, in an interview before the auction ended....

Here's some more information that we found on Duan:

Mr. Duan Yongping went to Zhejiang University in 1978, majored in Wireless Electronics Engineering. After his graduation, he worked in Beijing for a while and then obtained a master degree in Econometrics from Renmin University.

After that, Mr. Duan started his career as an entrepreneur in South China in 1989. Ten years later, he achieved great success in building up two of the most famous brands in China ¨C Subor ( Xiao Ba Wang) and BBK ( Bu Bu Gao) and became a young hero of business in China....

Chance to Dine With Buffett Sells for $620,100 in EBay Bidding - Bloomberg