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, the company said.
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 is both chairman and CEO, did not make it clear at the time 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 about 2% in premarket trading, even after Buffett said he would be stepping down eventually as CEO and as the company reported somewhat disappointing earnings over the weekend. 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, bucking the recent stock market downturn.
Abel has been the designated CEO successor to Buffett since 2021. The board vote result was first reported by CNBC’s Becky Quick early Monday.