Warren Buffett Steps Down as Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
Once more, there were no bells, no whistles, this time not even two cans of Coca-Cola and a box of See’s Candies. Just a post on the company website and wide-blast press release.
Warren Buffett is taking another step down, this time from his role as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B).
In a letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders (PDF) on Friday morning, Buffett said “the timing is right” to complete a leadership transition that began when Greg Abel became CEO in January.
Buffett, still the largest Berkshire shareholder with holdings worth approximately $145 billion, will stay with the company he bought in 1965 as chairman emeritus and remain a member of the board of directors.
Howard Buffett, who’s been a director for 33 years, will succeed his father as chairman. As the older Buffett took care to note in his letter to shareholders, his son put in “a longer apprenticeship than I served before taking the reins at the age of 34.”
“Recently,” Buffett wrote, “I celebrated my 96th birthday with family and friends, including one of my great-grandchildren, who had just turned one. He’s moving a bit faster than I am these days.”
Buffett said “part of the reason” he’s stepping down is “Greg. My expectations for him were sky high from the start,” Buffett said, “and he has exceeded them.”
Abel was designated CEO successor in 2021 and first joined Buffett and Charlie Munger on the stage at a Berkshire annual meeting in 2022.
A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he started his career as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Francisco. In 1992, he joined geothermal electricity producer CalEnergy.
In 1999, CalEnergy acquired MidAmerican Energy and took its name. Berkshire acquired MidAmerican later that year. Abel became CEO of MidAmerican in 2008, and the company was renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy in 2014.
The chairman emeritus said Abel “has been making the decisions that matter for some time now, and I have not had to think twice about any of them.”
“Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture and values – both worth more than anything on our balance sheet,” Buffett wrote. “Think of Howard as a policy the shareholders own and hope never to claim against.”
Buffett provided a full explanation for his decision in closing.
“Serving as your Chairman has been the privilege of a lifetime, and I have never taken your trust for granted,” Buffett wrote. “Father Time always wins. He has, however, been generous with me. He has given me the opportunity to see Berkshire reach a point where I am more confident than ever about what lies ahead.”
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