Gregory Abel, Vice Chairman overseeing non-insurance operations for Berkshire Hathaway, meets shareholders within the exhibition corridor all through the Berkshire Hathaway Inc annual shareholders’ assembly in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., May 3, 2024.
Scott Morgan | Reuters
Warren Buffett plans to quit the reins of Berkshire Hathaway on the finish of 2025 to Greg Abel, who has been operating for the mythical investor for greater than twenty years and has an extended observe file as a industry operator in his personal appropriate.
Abel has been on Berkshire Hathaway’s board since 2018, and his present identify is vp of non-insurance operations. That position places Berkshire’s companies in spaces like utilities, railroads and retail in his purview.
The software and effort trade is the place Abel, 62, lower his tooth prior to turning into Buffett’s right-hand guy. He first joined Berkshire when Buffett’s company struck a deal for a controlling stake in MidAmerican Energy, the place Abel used to be an govt, in 1999. He later served because the CEO of that corporate, which used to be renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
One key position for Abel in recent times has been his involvement with Berkshire’s rising place in 5 Japanese conglomerates. Abel stated all through Saturday’s shareholder assembly that he expects Berkshire to carry on to these Japan investments for many years to come back.
Abel has been referred to as Buffett’s inheritor obvious since 2021, when the overdue Charlie Munger published the verdict at a shareholder assembly. The well-telegraphed transfer has given Abel time to win over shareholders and different key stakeholders at Berkshire.
“Greg is ready. I have no doubt about that. We’ve known if for a long time,” longtime Berkshire board member Ron Olson advised CNBC on Saturday.
Originally from Canada, Abel attended the University of Alberta and is lover of hockey. In his 2023 annual letter, Buffett stated that he and Abel lived only a few blocks excluding each and every different in Omaha within the 1990s however by no means met in individual all through that duration.