Warren Buffett has stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, ending nearly 60 years in control of the company he took over in 1965. Buffett, 96, will remain on the board in the advisory position of chairman emeritus.
His son, Howard Buffett, has taken over as chairman. Greg Abel, who was given the chief executive role nine months before Buffett left the chairmanship, will continue to run the company’s day-to-day operations.
The handover completes a succession plan that separates the responsibilities at Berkshire Hathaway, valued at $1.1 trillion (£822b). Howard Buffett will act as the company’s chairman and safeguard its culture and values. Abel holds the executive role at a conglomerate with businesses including GEICO car insurance, Dairy Queen and the BNSF railway system, as well as large stakes in Apple and Coca-Cola.
Howard Buffett has been a Berkshire director since 1993 and brings more than three decades of experience on its board. He is a former farmer, philanthropist and sheriff.
The arrangement keeps a Buffett in the chair while placing the company’s operations under a professional manager who had already assumed the chief executive role. Warren Buffett’s continued presence on the board gives him an advisory connection to the group, though the extent of his involvement beyond that role is unknown.
Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, when it was a struggling textile mill. He built it into the $1.1 trillion (£822b) company now overseen by his son and Abel.
The company’s holdings also contain a small personal detail of its departing chairman’s long association with Coca-Cola. Buffett drinks five cans of Coca-Cola a day.
In a letter, Buffett wrote: “Father Time always wins”
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