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Meet Greg Abel, the 58-year-old Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman just tapped as Warren Buffett’s successor
Abel has long been suspected as the next in line to lead the $630 billion conglomerate.
By Will Daniel
Berkshire Hathaway held its annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, and Warren Buffett pointed to Greg Abel, the 58-year-old leader of Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses, as the next in line if the Oracle of Omaha steps down.
“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 told CNBC on Monday.
Speculation about a successor for the famed billionaire investor began in 2006, when a spry 75-year-old Buffett first discussed succession plans in an annual shareholder letter.
At the time, Buffett said that while how he had hoped Charlie Munger, his longtime right-hand man, would take over the business, he needed someone younger to fill the role.
Buffett added that Berkshire needed “someone genetically programmed to recognize and avoid serious risks, including those never before encountered.”
Abel’s comments at this year’s shareholder meeting suggest he may be exactly the “genetically programmed” risk manager that Buffett, now 90…
