Berkshire Hathaway’s Board of Directors has unanimously voted to appoint Greg Abel, Vice Chairman Non-Insurance Operations, as President and CEO, effective January 1, 2026, following a recommendation from Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett.

Buffett, a renowned investor and longtime company leader, will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors.

At the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting on Saturday, Buffett said, “Tomorrow we’re having a board meeting of Berkshire and we have 11 directors. Two of the directors, who are my children, know what I’m going to talk about. The rest of them – this will come as news to them.

“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year-end. I want to spring that on the directors effectively and then give that as my recommendation.

“Let them have the time to think about what questions or what structures or anything that they want, and then the meeting following that, which will come in a few months, we’ll take action on whatever the view is of the 11 directors. I think they’ll be unanimously in favour of it.”

Buffett continued, “That would mean that at year-end, Greg would be the chief executive officer of Berkshire. I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases. But the final word would be what Greg said, in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be.

“I could be helpful, I believe, in certain respects, if we ran into periods of great opportunity or anything. I think that Berkshire has a special reputation that when there are times of trouble for the government, we are an asset and not a liability, which is very hard to have because usually the public and government get very negative on business if there’s a time like that.

“But Greg would have the tickets. Whether it’s acquisitions, I think the board would be more welcome to giving him more authority on large acquisitions, probably if they knew I was around. But Greg would be the chief executive, period.”

Buffett went on, “The plan is – and Greg doesn’t know anything about this until what he’s hearing right now – that the board will be able to ask me questions tomorrow about more of the specifics of what they should be thinking about. They’ll digest it, and then at the next board meeting after that, if they act, then obviously we have something to announce to the world as a material change and we’ll go forward with that operation.

“But I have no intention, zero, of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway – it will get given away.

“I would add this – the decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine. There may come a time when we get a chance to invest a lot of money, and if that time comes, I think it may be helpful with the Board that they know I’ve got all my money in the company and I think it’s smart. And I’ve seen what Greg has done.”

True to his comments, on May 4, 2025, Berkshire Hathaway’s Board formally approved Abel’s appointment, marking a historic leadership transition for the firm.

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