Warren Buffett Names Next Berkshire Hathaway CEO
Ending years of speculation, the legendary investor confirmed who will be succeeding him as chief executive of his business.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has confirmed that Greg Abel, vice-chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway investment conglomerate will succeed him as its chief executive.
The 90-year-old revealed his succession plans during an interview with CNBC broadcast on Monday.
“The directors are in agreement that if something were to happen to me tonight, it would be Greg who’d take over tomorrow morning,” Buffett confirmed.
One of the most well-known investors and business magnates in the world, Buffett built a $100 billion fortune as the head of the $644 billion Berkshire Hathaway investment group, which owns stakes in a broad swathe of successful companies. Geico, Duracell, Dairy Queen and countless other household brands are owned by the firm, which also counts stakes in Apple and Coca Cola among its portfolio.
Buffett has made allusions to his successor for years. In 2012, he revealed that the Berkshire Hathaway board had identified the company’s next CEO, and that it was someone they knew well.
58-year-old Abel was a key figure in building Berkshire Hathaway’s energy unit into a major US provider and has been overseeing its non-insurance businesses since 2018. “He does a far better job of that than I was doing previously,” Buffett remarked in the interview.
Berkshire Hathaway returned compounded annualised gains of 20% between 1965 and 2020, outperforming the 10.2% gains posted by the S&P 500, though its returns have since fallen below the index, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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