Tracy Britt Cool (born September 7, 1984 in

Manhattan, Kansas Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 cen ...

) is an American business executive and entrepreneur who was widely noted as a

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net w ...

protégé. She chaired four

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...

subsidiaries before co-founding Kanbrick, a

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm, in 2020.

Background

Britt Cool was born and raised on a farm in Manhattan, Kansas, where, by about age 10, she operated her own produce stand, negotiating with fruit and vegetable distributors throughout her teens and learning business from the ground up. She graduated from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

with an MBA in 2009, where, as an undergraduate, she had interned at 85 Broads,

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...

, and

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

. Britt Cool served as president of Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business (HUWIB) and was voted "Most Likely to Become a Billionaire". She was a member of the Zeta Xi chapter of

Kappa Alpha Theta Kappa Alpha Theta (), also known simply as Theta, is an international women’s fraternity founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established for women. The main arch ...

. In 2006, while an undergraduate at Harvard, she co-founded Smart Woman Securities with future

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Teresa Hsiao Teresa Hsiao (born May 26, 1985) is an American television writer and producer best known for her work on the animated series ''Family Guy'' and ''American Dad!'' and for co-creating the sitcom ''Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens''. Background Hsi ...

, which educates its members on investments.

Career

Hired following her 2009 graduation, Britt Cool became the financial assistant and noted protégé of Berkshire Hathaway chairman

. In 2012, she was featured among "40 Under 40: Hottest Young Stars in Business" by ''Fortune'' magazine, then named to its "40 Under 40" list of emerging leaders in 2013. In 2014, she was named to the ''Forbes'' list of 30 Under 30

influencers An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

on global cashflow. In October 2014, she was named CEO of Pampered Chef. Overseeing over $4 billion in annual sales and a workforce of over 10,000, Britt Cool has chaired four Berkshire subsidiaries: Larson-Juhl,

Johns Manville Johns Manville is an American company based in Denver, Colorado, that manufactures insulation, roofing materials and engineered products. For much of the 20th century, the then-titled Johns-Manville Corporation was the global leader in the ma ...

Oriental Trading Company Oriental Trading Company is a direct merchant of value-priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys, novelties, and school supplies. It was founded in 1932 as one of the United States' first wholesaling companies. Oriental Trading has been reco ...

, and Benjamin Moore and also served on the board of

H. J. Heinz Henry John Heinz (October 11, 1844 – May 14, 1919) was an American entrepreneur of Palatine descent who, at the age of 25, co-founded a small horseradish concern in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. This business failed, but his second business exp ...

. On September 18, 2019, Britt Cool announced her resignation from Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries, including her intention to step down from

Kraft Heinz The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and beverage ...

's board in the first quarter of 2020. She left the firms in order to co-found Kanbrick, a

firm in Chicago, Illinois, with former Pampered Chef

CFO The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financi ...

Brian Humphrey. In an interview with ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', Britt Cool said that she wanted to work with and acquire "businesses too small for Berkshire," mimicking its business model for smaller companies. Kanbrick closed its first deal in July 2020, acquiring an interest in Thirty-One Gifts. Britt Cool is also a non-executive director of acquisition vehicle EverArc Holdings Ltd. which raised $340 million in an IPO.

Personal life

She married Omaha attorney Scott Cool in September 2013. Warren Buffett walked Britt Cool down the aisle during the ceremony.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cool, Tracy Britt Living people Berkshire Hathaway people American women chief executives Harvard Business School alumni American chief executives of food industry companies Year of birth uncertain Henry Crown Fellows 21st-century American women 1984 births People from Manhattan, Kansas