The Berkshire Hathaway board voted unanimously on Sunday to make Greg Abel president and CEO on January 1, 2026 and for Warren Buffett, 94, to remain as chairman,
Buffett shocked Berkshire shareholders and Abel by announcing in the final minutes of the annual shareholder meeting Saturday that he would be asking the board to replace him as CEO at year-end with the current vice chairman of non-insurance operations for Berkshire.
Buffett, who currently holds both the chairman and CEO title, did not make it clear whether this would mean he would relinquish the chairman title as well, although he did say he would be hanging around to help where he could. Buffett did make clear that the final word on company operations and capital deployment would be with Abel, 62, when this transition takes place.
However, with Buffett remaining as chairman, shareholders may be comforted that the ‘Oracle of Omaha’ will remain to help Abel with any big acquisition opportunities that may arise in possible volatile markets ahead as the conglomerate Buffett took over in 1965 sits on more than $347 billion in cash.
“I could be helpful, I believe, in that in certain respects, if we ran into periods of great opportunity or anything,” Buffett said on Saturday.
Berkshire shares were down only slightly in premarket trading, even after Buffett said he would be stepping down eventually as CEO and as the company reported disappointing earnings over the weekend because of a decline in insurance profit due to wildfires. Berkshire also warned about the uncertainty to its outlook that tariffs could bring.
Berkshire shares closed at a record Friday with a market value of more than $1.1 trillion.
