Guy Spier is a Zurich based investor, and commentator. In June 2007 he made headlines by bidding US$650,100 with Mohnish Pabrai for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett. In 2009 he was featured in "the Checklist Manifesto", by Atul Gawande regarding his use of checklists as part of his investment process..

Spier manages the Aquamarine Fund, an investment partnership inspired by, and styled after the original 1950's Buffett partnerships. He is a regular media commentator on economic and political affairs, and serves on the advisory boards of Horasis, a Swiss based think tank founded by Frank-Jürgen Richter, and of Value Conferences.

In 2003, Spier became the target, along with David Einhorn, Bill Ackman, and Whitney Tilson, of investigations by Eliot Spitzer, then the New York Attorney General, as well as by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding short sales of Farmer Mac, MBIA corp and Allied Capital. The melt down of these companies during the late-2000s financial crisis completely vindicated their short thesis and was the subject of books by Ackman and Einhorn.

Spier is a town in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Midden-Drenthe, and lies about 11 km north of Hoogeveen.

In 2001, the town of Spier had 91 inhabitants. The built-up area of the town was 0.036 km², and contained 35 residences. The statistical area "Spier", which also can include the surrounding countryside, has a population of around 370.

Mohnish Pabrai is an Indian-American businessman, investor and philanthropist. In his Pabrai Investment Fund, which is a family of hedge funds inspired by Buffett Partnerships, he successfully manages over 500 mln of assets and consistently achieves overaverage rates of return.

Pabrai worked with Tellabs between 1986–91, first in its high speed data networking group, and then in 1989, joined its international subsidiary, working in international marketing and sales.

In 1991 he started his IT consulting and systems integration company, TransTech, Inc. with about US$30,000 from his own 401K account and US$70,000 from credit card debt. He sold the company in 2000 to Kurt Salmon Associates for US$20 million. Today he is the managing partner of the Pabrai Investment Funds, which he founded in 1999.

Pabrai has high regards for Warren Buffett and admits that his investment style is copied from Buffett and others. He has written a book on his investing style: "The Dhandho Investor: The Low - Risk Value Method to High Returns". In June 2007 he made headlines by bidding US$650,100 with Guy Spier for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett.

John Mihaljevic is the publisher of The Manual of Ideas, an acclaimed independent research publication for investors. He is also managing director of ValueConferences and co-host with Guy Spier of VALUEx Zurich/Klosters.

Mihaljevic served as James Tobin's research assistant from 1996-98 and worked with Professor Tobin to refine the Tobin's q estimation method. Mihaljevic was also involved in research projects at the Cowles Foundation, including researching James Tobin's book entitled Money, Credit and Capital. Mihaljevic continues to update the Tobin's Q methodology in a quarterly report entitled "Equities and Tobin's Q".

Mihaljevic graduated summa cum laude from Yale University, having earned distinction in the study of economics. In addition to working for and studying under Professor Tobin, Mihaljevic studied under Yale Chief Investment Officer David F. Swensen and Sterling Professor of Economics William Nordhaus. While at Yale, Mihaljevic served as president of the Yale College Republicans. He led Bob Dole's campaign for president on the Yale Campus in 1996. He stirred controversy by editorializing in favor of the Communications Decency Act in 1997.