By Koh Gui Qing and Jonathan Stempel
OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) – When Greg Abel successfully completes Warren Buffett at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of this year, he is expected to maintain the culture of the giants, even if it doesn’t match the power of the legendary boss star.
Abel, 62, is currently the vice-chairman of Berkshire, but hopes investors and analysts will maintain the $1.18 trillion conglomerate track record of avoiding long-term investments in companies and paying dividends to shareholders.
Berkshire, which owns a railroad, insurance company and ice cream maker, has been planning for decades when Buffett, 94, who has been running the company since 1965, has been planning for decades.
Still, it was a surprise when Buffett announced on Saturday that Abel should replace him as CEO. The Omaha oracle did not show any clear intentions as to when to step aside.
Buffett has long hinted at his senior age, and before announcing his planned departure at Berkshire’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Abel shows that he was in more work than before.
“Greg Abel works much better than me because I don’t want to work as hard as he works,” Buffett said.
One questioner asked Abel what his management approach to the subsidiary would be like. “More active,” he replied.
Abel also praised Buffett, saying, “Warren is clearly a surprising teacher and I have benefited from it for years.”
Detailed man
Gregory Edward Abel was born on June 1, 1962 in Edmonton, Alberta to a working class family.
He did a strange job, cleaning up discarded bottles and filling up fire extinguishers, according to the Horatio Alger Association of Distingued Americans Association, an education nonprofit that honored Abel in 2018.
“It was a real working class family, sometimes people were working, sometimes they didn’t,” Abel said of his childhood in a video posted on Horatio Alger’s website. “You realised we are trying to move our families forward.”
Abel graduated from the University of Alberta in 1984 and worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and the energy company Karenergy.
He joined Berkshire Hathaway Energy, known as Berkshire Energy in 1992, and later Berkshire took over and became chief of the Midalican in 2008.
Abel currently oversees Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses, including BNSF, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and dozens of chemical, industrial and retail businesses.
He took over some of Buffett’s capital allocation responsibilities last year.
