What to know about Warren Buffett's expected successor, Greg Abel
Warren Buffett announced on May 3 that he hoped Greg Abel would replace him after he leaves his longtime job as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
At the end of an annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, the 94-year-old billionaire investor said he’d be stepping down after 60 years at the helm. Buffett's conglomerate is valued at more than $1 trillion, with hundreds of businesses in its portfolio, according to Reuters.
Abel, a veteran executive in the company, should become Berkshire Hathaway's chief executive at the end of the year, Buffett said.
The announcement appeared to surprise Abel, 62. Buffett previously signaled Abel would be his future successor, though he hadn’t provided a timeline.
Abel, a Canadian-born businessman living in Iowa, is chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and vice chair of non-insurance operations at Berkshire Hathaway. He joined Berkshire Hathaway’s board of directors in January 2018, according to his company biography.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Alberta in 1984, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in his native Edmonton, according to a biography. After moving to its San Francisco offices, he worked for CalEnergy, a geothermal business, and became a senior executive there.
In 1999, the company changed its name to MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, and he later rose to CEO and chairman. By 2014, MidAmerican became Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a multibillion-dollar company operating in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Philippines. In 2022, CNBC reported he sold his 1% stake in Berkshire Hathaway Energy for $870 million.
Abel also serves on the board of the nonprofit Horatio Alger Association, which provides need-based scholarships. He has also served on the boards of Kraft Heinz, AEGIS Insurance and Drake University. He’s also served on the boards of the Mid-Iowa Council Boy Scouts of America, the American Football Coaches Foundation and the Hockey Canada Foundation.
His mother was a legal assistant and later a stay-at-home mom, his Horatio Alger Association biography said. His father worked in sales. He has described his Edmonton neighborhood as working-class and family-oriented. His first job was delivering flyers to homes, in addition to cleaning discarded bottles and redeeming them for money. He also worked as a laborer for a forest product company.
In 2018, he was one of 12 people to earn a Horatio Alger Association award for overcoming "significant challenges to achieve professional and personal success."
The Des Moines Register, part of the Paste BN, said Abel has been a fixture in Iowa. He's a dad who coaches his son's hockey and baseball teams.
Abel has three adult children from his first marriage and a young son with his wife Andrea.
Contributing: Des Moines Register, Reuters.