Secret meeting of world's richest people held in New York

Buffett, Gates, Rockefeller, Turner, Winfrey, Bloomberg, Soros in media-blackout conference

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NIALL O'DOWD,

IrishCentral.Com Publisher

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Bill Gates and Warren Buffett

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(Copyright 2009 IrishCentral LLC)

5/23 UPDATE: What they talked about... Click here

Photo gallery: Click here

Comment: How they could spend the money in Ireland

A top-secret meeting of the world’s richest people to discuss the global financial crisis was held in New York on May 5, IrishCentral.com has learned exclusively.

The mysterious, media-blackout meeting was called by Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire-Hathaway; Bill Gates, co founder of Microsoft; and David Rockefeller Jr., chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services.

In addition to Gates, Buffett and Rockefeller, the attendees included Oprah Winfrey, George Soros, Ted Turner, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among others.

It was held in the President's Room at Rockefeller University In New York at 3 p.m. on that Tuesday afternoon.

How so many giant figures in American life managed to interrupt and coordinate their schedules on such short notice, and meet in total secrecy in the world’s media capital remains a mystery -- as does the ultimate outcome of the billionaires' conference.

In their letter of invitation, Gates, Buffett and Rockefeller cited the worldwide recession and the urgent need to plan for the future. They said they wanted to hear the views of a broad range of key leaders in the financial and philanthropic fields.

Each attendee was given 15 minutes to deliver a presentation on how they saw the future global economic climate, the future priorities for philanthropy, and what they felt  the elite group should do.

According to one of the attendees, Gates was the most-impressive speaker of the day, with Turner the most-outspoken and Warren Buffet the most-insistent on his agenda for change.

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