Canadian-born Greg Abel will be the next CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the multinational conglomerate that Warren Buffett built into a US$1.16 trillion investing juggernaut over more than 60 years at the helm.
Buffett, 94, told the company’s annual general meeting in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday that he planned to hand over the reins to Abel at year-end — a decision he reportedly discussed with only his two children, Howard and Susie — surprising both company shareholders and the heir apparent himself.
The following day, the Berkshire board unanimously voted to make Abel president and chief executive on Jan. 1, 2026, and for Buffett to remain as chairman.
Abel, 62, was previously revealed as Buffett’s successor in 2021 after former Berkshire vice-chairman Charlie Munger let it slip at an annual meeting that Abel would “keep the culture.”
Who is Greg Abel, how did he rise through the ranks to be Buffett’s choice and what challenges does he face as he puts his stamp on the sprawling business empire of the Oracle of Omaha?
Born in Edmonton, Abel in his youth worked odd jobs such as delivering advertising flyers to homes and cleaning discarded bottles in return for cash. He also worked for a company filling fire extinguishers, through which he earned a small scholarship to the University of Alberta, according to the nonprofit Horatio Alger Association.
Abel earned a bachelor’s of commerce degree at the university before becoming an accountant. He worked at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in Edmonton, later moving to the company’s San Francisco office.
Abel’s journey to Berkshire began in 1992, when he joined utilities company CalEnergy. He became president of Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings in 1998 when CalEnergy acquired the group.
In 2000, Buffett bought a controlling stake in MidAmerican Energy (the company was later renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy in 2014) and Abel stepped up as MidAmerican’s chief executive.
In 2018, Abel became part of Berkshire’s board of directors.
He currently serves as the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and vice-chairman of non-insurance operations.
An avid hockey player in his youth, Abel is also a volunteer coach for his son’s team in Des Moines, his adopted hometown where Berkshire Hathaway Energy is based.
Abel and Ajit Jain, 73, vice-chairman of insurance operations at Berkshire, were both considered top contenders for the chief executive role at Berkshire in 2018, when they were promoted to the board of directors.
However, analysts at the time said Abel had the advantage of being younger than Jain and had more of a profile with investors, analysts and the press.
For the past seven years, Abel had oversight of Berkshire companies such as Fruit of the Loom Inc., See’s Candy Shops Inc., aerospace group Precision Castparts Corp. and Clayton Homes Inc., America’s biggest builder of modular housing.
In 2024, he oversaw a legal dispute over Berkshire’s US$11 billion acquisition of truck stop operator Pilot Travel Centers LLC, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ron Olson, Berkshire board director and one of the group’s main lawyers from Los Angeles-based firm Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, said Abel’s involvement gave him confidence that he was the right person to one day lead Berkshire, reported the Financial Times.
There’s no question Abel has a rather gargantuan pair of shoes to fill next year as head of a company that has generated returns of approximately 5.5 million per cent since 1964.
“Warren talks about curiosity being important as you go through things,” Abel said, according to CNN. “That would be my style, to have questions and comments around their business, their frameworks.”
Buffett, who is Berkshire’s largest shareholder with a US$160 billion stake, said he wouldn’t sell a single share of the stock after the transition, affirming his confidence in Abel.
“I would add this, the decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine,” Buffett said on Saturday.
“You really need someone that behaves well on top and is not playing games for their own benefit.”
Still, Berkshire’s large size means it has become more difficult for other potential investments to effectively “move the needle,” as Buffett himself once said.
Abel’s priority as the conglomerate’s next chief executive will likely involve extracting better returns from Berkshire’s existing pool of businesses, as opposed to the extensive deal-making that Buffett has been known for over the past decades, observers have said.
In his 2006 annual letter to shareholders, Buffett wrote about the desired qualities for his eventual successor at Berkshire.
“Over time, markets will do extraordinary, even bizarre, things. A single, big mistake could wipe out a long string of successes,” he said. “We therefore need someone genetically programmed to recognize and avoid serious risks, including those never before encountered.”
Abel will be taking the reins at Berkshire at a time fraught with uncertainty, including the current U.S. trade war, with Buffett himself warning the shareholder meeting that “trade should not be used as a weapon.”
Berkshire’s shares slid six per cent during early trading Monday following Buffett’s succession announcement and Berkshire’s first-quarter results, which showed a 14 per cent drop in operating earnings.
Berkshire said in the earnings report that its operating results could be affected in future periods due to “ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical events, as well as changes in industry or company-specific factors or events.
“The pace of changes in these events, including international trade policies and tariffs, has accelerated in 2025,” the report said. “Considerable uncertainty remains as to the ultimate outcome of these events.”
The new CEO will be faced with several difficult questions, such as what to do with Berkshire’s almost US$350 billion cash pile after Buffett struggled to find companies to invest in that could outperform the sky-high valuations of U.S. stocks.
Shareholders will also be waiting to see whether Abel can command the same confidence among investors as his predecessor — the so-called “Buffett premium.”
And some wonder whether Abel will be faced with the potential pressure for Berkshire’s sprawling businesses to be broken up.
Finally, investors will be wondering whether Abel has Buffett’s magic touch as a capital allocator, identifying investment targets and matching Buffett’s returns.
“He would make a huge mistake trying to be Warren Buffett, and he knows that,” Will Danoff, a Fidelity Investments money manager who counts Berkshire as a top holding, told the Wall Street Journal. “Shareholders want Greg to be the best Greg Abel he can be.”
• Email: slouis@postmedia.com
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