After the 94-year-old announced that he will retire as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO and hand the reins to vice-chair Greg Abel, the leading figures in the business line up to pay homage to Warren Buffett.
Buffett shocked the arena full of shareholders over the weekend and announced that he will serve as CEO and chairman of the Trillion Dollar Conglomerate at the end of this year.
The investor known as the “Sage of Omaha” recommends Abel, who oversees most of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment, is appointed as his successor.
Thousands of investors at the annual meeting held at the arena in Omaha, Nebraska, gave Buffett a long standing ovation, recognizing his 60 years of leading the company for 60 years.
Buffett said: “I think it’s time for Greg to become the company’s CEO at the end of the year.
“I have no intention of selling a single share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will ultimately give it away. The decision to maintain all share is an economic decision, as I think Berkshire’s outlook is better under Greg’s management than mine.”
Buffett made the presentation at the end of the five-hour question-and-answer session and did not ask questions about his retirement plans. The only officers who knew about the announcement in advance were his children, Howard and Susie Buffett. Abel, sitting next to Buffett on stage, was unaware, but joined the crowd to praise his boss.
Born in Alberta, Canada, Abel (62), was the successor to Buffett’s CEO since 2001. He is a 25-year Berkshire veteran and already manages all the non-insurance businesses of the conglomerate, including dozens of fossil energy, chemicals, real estate and retail.
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Buffett “invests in the growth of our country and its business with integrity, optimism and common sense.”
He said: “I learned so much from him up until this day, and I am honored to call him a friend.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement that no one was like Buffett and that countless people, including himself, were “inspired by his wisdom.”
Cook said: “It was one of the great privileges of my life to know him, and there’s no doubt that Warren is leaving Berkshire with Greg and big hands.”
Buffett has been heading an Omaha-based company since 1965, transforming Berkshire from a burning textile maker into a 1.03 TN (£77.6 billion) conglomerate, gaining numerous companies in insurance, rail, energy and other sectors. He built the conglomerate along with his advisor and vice-chairman Charlie Munger, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 99.
Buffett ends his career to the best. Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock, the type held by Buffett himself and his earliest investors, rose about 20% a year. Over the past five years, they have more than tripled in value and closed at a record high on Friday.
For decades, thousands of investors have descended to Omaha to attend Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting.
Longtime democratic mover and shaker Buffett didn’t support Kamala Harris in 2024 and Joe Biden in 2020.
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Buffett previously said he plans to donate 99.5% of the wealth remaining in a charitable trust supervised by his daughter and two sons when he dies. Buffett’s net worth is $168.2 billion, according to Forbes.
Earlier on Saturday, Buffett warned of the dire global consequences of Donald Trump’s tariffs, saying at the annual meeting that “there is no doubt that trade could become an act of war.”
Buffett said Trump’s trade policy increased the risk of global instability by angering other parts of the world. He states:
“We should be trying to trade with other parts of the world. We should do our best and do what they should do best.”
In February, Berkshire reported its third straight-line annual operating profit in 2024, up 27% to $47.444 billion.
Buffett was a student of Benjamin Graham, a British-born American economist known as the “father of value investment” at Columbia Business School in the early 1950s. Over the next few decades, Buffett developed a very successful investment style and was respected for his practical approach to stock picking.
He is now considered by many to be the best investor in the world. The market value of Berkshire Hathaway stocks increased by 19.9% per year from 1965 to 2024, according to the company. This was a Blue Chip S&P 500 index that was almost twice as high over the same period, offering a 10.4% return, including dividends.
Nevertheless, Buffett faces a share of controversy, including anti-trust investigations and criticism from fire victims after Berkshire’s Pasicorp utility unleashed a deadly wildfire in Oregon and Northern California during the Labor Day weekend storm.
Speaking before the retirement bomb, Abel said “keeping the lights” is no longer a priority for conglomerate utilities when the threat of wildfires becomes excessive. He said: “It protects the public and I am sure the fire will not spread further.”