There is perhaps no one celebrated more today for making money than Warren Buffett. But the tens of billions of dollars he amassed — and the zealous investment groupies that followed — may have never materialised if not for one man: Charlie Munger. Munger, who died on Tuesday at age 99, was Berkshire Hathaway’s acerbic vice-chair and Buffett’s trusted business partner, instrumental in driving the man who eventually became known as the Oracle of Omaha away from his cigar-butt investment style where he could hope to get one last drag on a low-valued stock. The shift away from a style Buffett took from Ben Graham, the father of value investing, helped propel Berkshire into the juggernaut it is today. The sprawling conglomerate is now worth more than $780bn with stakes in Apple, Coca-Cola and Bank of America, as well as the owner of the BNSF railroad and Geico insurer. It all can be traced back to Munger. “Charlie shoved me in the direction of not just buying bargains, as Ben Graham had taught me,” Buffett once said. “This was the real impact he had on me. It took a powerful force to move me on from Graham’s limiting view. It was the power of Charlie’s mind. He expanded my horizons.”