Warren Buffett shocked an arena full of his shareholders when he announced his intention Saturday to step down as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year.
The 94-year-old legendary investor also said he will recommend to his board that Greg Abel should become CEO.
Buffett said at his annual shareholders gathering, often called “Woodstock for capitalists,” that he thinks the “time has arrived” for Abel to move into the corner office.
“I would still hang around, and could conceivably be useful in a few cases, but then, but the final word would be what Greg said in operations, in capital, appointment, whatever it might be,” Buffett said.
Two other investment managers will take charge of the company’s stock portfolio.
Buffett has repeatedly reassured investors that he’s confident in the pick, but who is Greg Abel, his designated successor?
Who is Greg Abel?
Warren Buffett said in 2021 that Greg Abel, his top lieutenant for many years and an energy executive, would become CEO when he retired. Buffett also often famously said he has no plans to retire.
Abel, who currently oversees all of Berkshire’s non-insurance companies, was born in Alberta, Canada, according to a 2016 Fortune profile of the executive. The former amateur hockey player and avid golfer joined Berkshire in 2000 when the insurance company acquired MidAmerican. Abel was CEO of the Iowa utility, a regional energy provider with just $122 million in sales.
Once at Berkshire, Abel rebuilt MidAmerican into Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the largest producer of wind energy in the country. Berkshire’s utility operations now generate billions in annual revenue.
Abel was named vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway in 2018. Although he has been at the company for more than two decades, he is considered to be much more guarded and hands-on than Buffett.
“I think we’ll get a more hands-on manager and that could be a good thing,” Steven Check, who runs Check Capital Management, said beforehand, the Associated Press reported. But he said Abel also knows that those managers enjoy the freedom to run their businesses and Abel isn’t going to do anything to turn them off.
Abel is well regarded by Berkshire’s managers and Buffett has praised his business acumen for years, the AP said. But he will have a hard time matching Buffett’s legendary performance, and since he doesn’t control 30% of Berkshire’s stock like Buffett does, he won’t have as much leeway.
Abel lived in Omaha for six years in the 1990s, just a few blocks from Buffett. During that time, the two had never met, according to Buffett.
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