Legendary investor Warren Buffet plans to step down as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway by the end of the year, he announced Saturday during the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Buffet said he will ask the company’s board to approve vice chairman Gregory Abel as his successor atop the trillion-dollar conglomerate, formalizing a plan Buffet first announced in 2021.
Abel, who currently serves as CEO of subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway Energy, already oversees all of the parent company’s non-insurance related business.
In Saturday’s meeting, Buffet told shareholders he would “still hang around and conceivably be useful in a few cases,” but insisted Abel would have the “final word” on all business decisions.
His announcement drew a standing ovation, after which Buffet joked, “The enthusiasm from that response can be interpreted in two ways.”
The announcement marks an enormous change for one the most successful American businesses of the last 60 years, with potential implications not only for the world of business but also politics. Buffet, 94, is one of the most prominent Democratic Party donors and has served as an unofficial kingmaker, notably in 2008 when he endorsed Barack Obama and in 2016 when he endorsed Hillary Clinton.
Buffet also criticized Donald Trump during Saturday’s meeting, saying in part that “trade should not be a weapon. I don’t think it’s right and I don’t think it’s wise.”
Instead, Buffet said, the U.S. “should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best.”
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