Happy accident: How Warren Buffett got succession spot on

Abel's name as successor had slipped out but the plan was perfect

- BETH KOWITT

Even though Warren Buffett is 94 and decades past the average retirement age, the end of his run as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway was always going to come as a shock. But it's given investors some comfort that, while they never knew when that day would arrive, they at least knew who would replace him. In 2021, Buffett announced Greg Abel as his successor, and would go on to use the subsequent years to hype him up. Abel is "ready to be CEO of Berkshire tomorrow," Buffett wrote in his 2023 annual letter.

Buffett made the handoff official at the company's annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, saying he would step down as CEO at the end of the year. The announcement stunned even Abel and most of the board; the only directors privy to what was coming were two of Buffett's children.

Berkshire stands out for its transparency on a governance issue that makes most other companies cagey. The default for boards and CEOs is guarding their succession plans like a state secret, shrouding the whole process in mystery.

Until 2021, Berkshire operated that way, too. Buffett and his former longtime vice chairman and right-hand man Charlie Munger, who died in 2023, always assured investors they had a plan—a necessity when you have people in their 80s and 90s running the place. They just wouldn't name names.