A VALUE INVESTOR THROUGH AND THROUGH, Gifford Combs landed his first job out of graduate school by cold-calling Warren Buffett, who referred him to Phil Carret, who recommended that he talk to George Michaelis, who steered him to Jim Gipson of Pacific Financial Research and the Clipper Fund, where he stayed for 10 years. In 1998, he joined Los Angeles-based Dalton Investments, with $1 billion under management, as a managing director and portfolio manager for its global hedged-equity strategy, where he has delivered annual gains of 22%, on average, for the past nine years. Erudite and urbane, Combs nonetheless leaves the dash and dazzle for his stock picks.