USA TODAY International Edition
Did Warren Buffett just name his successor?
Billionaire elevates 2 men to vice chair posts, board
Billionaire Warren Buffett appears to have whittled the field of executives who will one day replace him down to two.
Speculation over who Buffett would tab as his successor as CEO at Berkshire Hathaway — a conglomerate he has run since 1965 and that owns scores of businesses ranging from Duracell to Dairy Queen to Geico — has swirled in the financial industry for years.
On Wednesday, the Oracle of Omaha elevated two in-house executives — both of whom Wall Street long has viewed as the front-runners to replace him — to its board as well as vice chairmen. Gregory Abel was named vice chairman of non-insurance business operations. Ajit Jain was tabbed vice chairman of insurance operations, greatly broadening their management scope in the company.
The move, Buffett-watchers say, essentially positions either of the two leaders as Buffett’s successor. And given that Buffett is 87 — and Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger is 94 — now was the right time to make the succession plans clearer.
“There will be a transition down the road anyway, so why not give shareholders a better view of what that might look like and allow them to shift their focus to the new team that will eventually be in place,” said Jeffrey Matthews, au- thor of Warren Buffett’s Successor: Who It Is and Why It Matters and a retired hedge fund manager.
The appointments appear to position Abel and Jain on equal footing, likely giving each a shot at the top job when Buffett eventually relinquishes the post of CEO and chairman.
“They are the two key figures at Berkshire,” Buffett told CNBC, noting that he’s in good health and will keep working. “I know that if I were in the position of those two fellows, I would like to get some experience with supervising a whole group of businesses before I eventually took over.”
Abel, 55, who joined the company in 1992, has been serving as CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co. Canadian-born Abel, who Buffett has called a “deal maker,” has been instrumental in closing numerous acquisitions, including a $5.6 billion deal in 2013 to buy NV Energy, an electric utility serving Las Vegas.
Jain, 66, who joined in 1986, has been serving as executive vice president of Berkshire’s National Indemnity Co. and leading Berkshire’s reinsurance businesses. Jain, who was born in India, has made a name for himself in the insurance world by writing policies that cover unusual risks.
Nathan Bomey contributed from McLean, Va.