Warren Buffett’s announcement Saturday that he can be retiring as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway got here as a shock to a number of individuals, together with the one who was elected to succeed him the subsequent day. Greg Abel has been Buffett’s right-hand man for a few years and the general public inheritor obvious for the previous 5, however Buffett, in making his announcement, mentioned he hadn’t informed Abel the second was coming.
Buffett, 94, will keep on as chairman at Berkshire Hathaway, however by the tip of this 12 months, Abel might be within the driver’s seat—and can have a giant legacy to comply with. Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965. Issues started to take off in 1978, when he satisfied his pal Charlie Munger to return on board. Collectively, the 2 created an organization that was the envy of the investing world. The value of Berkshire Class B shares (NYSE: BRK-B), essentially the most extensively held shares of the corporate, has gone up greater than 2,000% since they started buying and selling in 1996. The value of Class A shares (NYSE: BRK-A), held by Buffett and institutional shareholders, is up 42,413% since they started buying and selling in 1985.
Abel is pretty well-known to individuals who carefully comply with Berkshire Hathaway, however he’s much less acquainted to individuals who solely know Buffett. Right here’s a have a look at the person who will attempt to fill Warren Buffett’s sneakers.
Who’s Greg Abel?
Abel, 62, at present serves as vice chair of non-insurance operations at Berkshire. He’s additionally the chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which Buffett known as one of many firm’s 4 “jewels” in his 2021 shareholder letter. (The opposite three are Berkshire’s property and casualty insurance coverage companies, Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, and the corporate’s stake in Apple.)
He has been the designated successor to Buffett for at the very least 4 years and has joined Buffett onstage on the firm’s investor assembly for the previous a number of years, even earlier than Munger’s death in November 2023.
Away from the workplace, Abel is a big hockey fan and serves as assistant volunteer coach for his son’s workforce in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. He’s mentioned to have a fast wit and nurtures sturdy private relationships.
“He’s not loud or bombastic, however he’s 500% pleasant,” Mark Oman, a retired Wells Fargo government and pal of Abel’s told Fortune.
What’s Greg Abel’s background?
Abel began his profession on the PricewaterhouseCoopers consulting agency in Canada, ultimately shifting to the San Francisco workplace. He joined CalEnergy in 1992, which six years later would purchase Des Moines-based MidAmerican Power Holdings (which might ultimately be renamed Berkshire Hathaway Power). He started working that firm in 2009. In 2018, he was requested to affix the Berkshire board.
Why did Warren Buffett choose Greg Abel to succeed him at Berkshire Hathaway?
Abel’s efficiency with Berkshire Hathaway Power caught the attention of senior Berkshire executives. By a sequence of acquisitions, he reworked that firm into a serious participant within the energy trade, with earnings of $5 billion within the first quarter of 2025. In 2023, Buffett informed CNBC that Abel “does all of the work, and I take all of the bows.”
He’s additionally seen, in some ways, because the non secular successor to the plain-spoken, non-flashy Buffett, guaranteeing the tradition at Berkshire Hathaway doesn’t change.
What’s Greg Abel’s funding technique?
Abel, when requested Saturday to match his strategy in coping with Berkshire’s subsidiaries to Buffett’s, mentioned he noticed himself as “extra energetic, however hopefully in a really optimistic means.”
Buffett jokingly provided a extra succinct reply: “Higher.” He added, “You really want somebody that behaves nicely on prime and isn’t enjoying video games for their very own profit.”
Munger, in 2023, told CNBC that Abel was “an incredible studying machine” and one might “argue that he’s simply pretty much as good as Warren in studying every kind of issues.”
Abel’s not anticipated to select the businesses that go into the Berkshire portfolio. That might be dealt with by Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who already assist Buffett with that.
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