Dairy Queen CEO explains what a job interview with Warren Buffett is like

Theron Mohamed

Sun, May 18, 2025, 11:03 AM 4 min read

• Troy Bader had to pass an interview with Warren Buffett to land his job as Dairy Queen CEO.

• Bader told BI he was struck by the investor's desire to keep learning and his emphasis on passion.

• Buffett, 94, continues to pay close attention to Berkshire Hathaway's businesses, Bader said.

Warren Buffett won't be conducting many job interviews once he steps down as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO at the end of this year.

Dairy Queen CEO Troy Bader revealed what it's like to be grilled by the legendary investor, and shared two big takeaways from the experience, in a conversation with Business Insider in Omaha ahead of Berkshire Hathaway's historic 60th annual meeting.

Berkshire paid nearly $600 million to take Dairy Queen private in 1998. As a big fan of the chain's Blizzard soft-serve ice cream, Buffett joked at the time that he brought a "modicum of product expertise" to the deal.

Dairy Queen now develops, licenses, and services a system of more than 7,700 restaurants across more than 20 countries, according to its website.

Bader flew from Minneapolis to Omaha to interview for the company's top job. He recalled feeling a mixture of worry, anticipation, and excitement as he studied his notes before the meeting.

"It was the fall of 2017, I'll never forget the day," Bader told BI. "I was very anxious going in because OK, I felt like I knew our business, but you're sitting down with Warren Buffett."

"What questions is he going to have about our business that I'm just going to sit there and be like, 'Oh my gosh, I never even thought about this,'" he added.

Many people of Buffett's stature would be "very arrogant" in an interview, sending the message: "Here's who I am and you better impress me," Bader said.

"From Warren it was just the opposite," he continued. Buffett swiftly put him at ease, then spent the first 15 or 20 minutes of their conversation asking about a particular area he thought Bader might know something about, as it was relevant to another deal he was working on.

"Warren is a constant learner," Bader said. "He wants to know what you know and what he can learn from you."

The fast-food chief took away a big lesson from that: "Anybody you meet, I don't care who they are — they know something you don't."

Buffett probed Bader's knowledge of the restaurant business, his vision for Dairy Queen, and what he planned to do differently as the chain's CEO. He also gauged Bader's love for his work.