Benjamin Graham (; born
Benjamin Grossbaum; May 8, 1894 – September 21, 1976) was a British-born American economist and professional
investor. Graham is considered the father of
value investing, an investment approach he began teaching at
Columbia Business School in 1928 and subsequently refined with
David Dodd through various editions of their famous book
Security Analysis. Graham had many disciples in his lifetime, a number of whom went on to become successful investors themselves. Graham's most well-known disciples include
Warren Buffett,
William J. Ruane,
Irving Kahn and
Walter J. Schloss, among others. Buffett, who credits Graham as grounding him with a sound intellectual investment framework, described him as the second most influential person in his life after his own father. In fact, Graham had such an overwhelming influence on his students that two of them, Buffett and Kahn, named their sons
Howard Graham Buffett and Thomas Graham Kahn after him. Graham also taught at the
UCLA Anderson School of Management.