Abel taking center stage with Berkshire Hathaway
CEO Buffett says Des Moines resident is ‘in all respects, is ready to be CEO of Berkshire tomorrow’
OMAHA, Neb. – Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett slipped at the company’s annual 2024 meeting, throwing his first question to Des Moines resident Greg Abel, the 93-yearold’s choice to replace him as CEO when he decides to step down. “Charlie?” said the oracle of Omaha. A friend and business partner, Charlie Munger sat beside Buffett for decades, answering questions from shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting, called a “Woodstock for capitalists,” attracting thousands to Omaha each year.
But Munger died in November at the age of 99.
“I’ve actually checked myself a couple of times, but I’ll slip again,” Buffett said.
Buffett chose 61-year-old Abel, who oversees Berkshire Hathaway’s non-insurance businesses, to be his successor in 2021, saying in his annual letter that Abel, “in all respects, is ready to be CEO of Berkshire tomorrow.”
Buffett and Abel, joined on the stage by Ajit Jain, Berkshire’s vice chairman of insurance businesses, at the May 4 meeting, discussed needing billions of dollars of investment to meet the nation’s energy needs and the company’s transition to renewable energy.
Buffett honored Munger in his annual letter and in the meeting’s opening film, calling the late Berkshire vice chairman the architect of the $862 billion conglomerate that owns companies like Dairy Queen, Geico and the Benjamin Moore paint company and heavily invested in Coca Cola, American Express and Apple.
“I acted as the ‘general contractor’ to carry out the day-by-day construction of his vision,” Buffett said in his letter and in opening film.
Here’s what to know about Buffett and Abel at the annual meeting:
Who is Greg Abel?
A Canadian, Abel has run Berkshire’s non-insurance operations since 2018, a vast operation that includes Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the parent of MidAmerican Energy, both of which are based in Des Moines, and Homemakers Furniture in Urbandale.
Buffett marveled Saturday at the work that Abel accomplishes. “One way or another, there’s more than 24 hours in his day,” Buffett said. “I don’t know how he covers the ground he does. … Anything happens to me, it will work very well the next day.”
What did Greg Abel or Warren Buffett say about Iowa?
Questioned about challenges to the energy industry, Abel and Buffett said tremendous amounts of money will be needed to meet growing energy demand and climate change goals.
With data centers and artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT under development in Iowa, MidAmerican expects energy demand will double by the mid-2030s, Abel said.
“That will require substantial investment from MidAmerican and from shareholders” as well as supportive regulatory policies, he said, adding that MidAmerican had already made “substantial investments.
MidAmerican received state approval last year to invest $3.9 billion to build nearly 2,100 megawatts of wind and solar energy generation. The utility says it will be at “no net cost to consumers,” in part because of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, which earmarked $369 billion in tax credits and other support for renewable energy generation that cuts greenhouse gas emissions.
Should Berkshire Hathaway Energy companies shift to renewable energy faster?
Members of the Iowa Environmental Council and other groups protested outside the annual meeting Saturday, criticizing MidAmerican for not retiring coal plants more quickly.
“From leading the charge to gut energy efficiency programs, killing efforts to require utilities to consider the cost of new generation, and proposing to dump coal ash leachate into the Missouri River, MidAmerican constantly demonstrates that their profits are more important than their customers,” Kerri Johannsen, the environmental council’s energy program director, said in a statement.
Buffett and Abel said the move to renewable energy will take years.
“We’re transitioning from carbon to renewables, but it will not happen overnight,” Abel said, adding that so far, batteries are unable to store energy long enough to cover times when solar and wind aren’t generating.
Abel said in Nevada, a gas-powered plant is being built to replace two retiring coal, so that power is available “every day, every minute.”
“We have great examples in Iowa at times when 100% of our energy comes from wind,” he said. “I believe that we did that for example, on Earth Day … but the next day, if the wind is not blowing, we need our gas plants to fill that gap.”
What would Buffett do if granted another day with Charlie Munger?
Buffett said he and Munger have enjoyed their lives.
“We were happy doing what we did every day,” he said.
“What you should really ask yourself is, who do you feel you would want to spend the last day of your life with, and figure out how to meet them tomorrow and meet them as often as you can.”