The master CEO showman just orchestrated his ultimate wow moment.
As the two-hour afternoon session of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting wound to a close, the conglomerate’s chief of 60 years declared that he’d just gotten the “five-minute warning, exclamation point,” signaling that it was time to uncork a surprise known only to Buffett himself, and his children and board members Howard and Susan. Buffett declared that he would recommend to the directors at their meeting the following day that they name Greg Abel, the longtime heir apparent, to succeed the Sage of Omaha as CEO at the close of 2025. Buffett announced that “though I would hang around…and could be helpful in certain respects,” that in “the final word would be with Greg on operations, capital deployment…and acquisitions. Greg would be the CEO, period.”
