I recently flew to Omaha to see Warren Buffett’s successor, Greg Abel, host his first Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting as CEO.
I spoke to Berkshire shareholders, authors, and managers about the new boss, who took over from Buffett on January 1.
They were overwhelmingly impressed by Abel, and several offered fresh insights into his character and leadership style.
Brett Gardner, the author of “Buffett’s Early Investments,” told me after the Q&A session that Abel visibly grew in confidence as the weekend’s flagship event went on.
Gardner said he enjoyed Abel’s jokes about ice hockey, his favorite sport, and appreciated how strong he was on the details. He also praised Abel for answering a burning question he had: “What is his willingness to wheel and deal a little bit, maybe spin off businesses?”
“Absolutely not,” Abel replied when a shareholder asked if he would break up Berkshire.
The conglomerate’s new chief said its structure — a web of decentralized, autonomous subsidiaries — worked efficiently to limit bureaucracy and cost bloat.
Abel reiterated Buffett’s philosophy of owning businesses for the long term, and only selling for a compelling reason such as regulation, risk, or unsustainable losses.
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Gardner also credited Abel for sharing the stage with two of his top deputies during the second half of the Q&A: Adam Johnson, who Abel has appointed president of Berkshire’s consumer, service, and retail businesses, and Katie Farmer, the CEO of BNSF Railway.
“Nobody has Warren Buffett’s star power to hold a full meeting,” he said, referring to past years when Buffett — and his now-deceased business partner, Charlie Munger — would take questions for more than six hours.
Bill Hughes, 41, a financial advisor from Oklahoma, told me that Abel’s willingness to have Buffett say a few words and sit for an interview during the meeting suggested Abel was a “proven and confident leader” rather than an insecure one.
“I think it’s kudos to Greg that he doesn’t seem afraid to have Warren around,” Hughes said. “He recognizes how important Warren is — not just to shareholders, but to him.”
Jay Williams, 40, a real estate investor from Florida, told me she didn’t care whether Abel was as charming or funny as Buffett.
“Let’s be real: We’re shareholders, we’re here for the money,” she said. “I can look at YouTube if I want jokes.”
“As long as these numbers are steadily going up, and I hear the key components that I feel like Warren would say, or what Warren has taught me, that’s more the stuff I’m looking for,” Williams added.
Pat Egan, the CEO of Berkshire-owned See’s Candies, told me he’s known Abel for a “couple of decades” as Egan previously worked at PacifiCorp and NV Energy — two subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which Abel led before taking charge of all of Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses in 2018.
“He is about the consistency and the integrity that Warren and Charlie always brought to the business,” Egan said, adding that “knowing them and knowing him, it’s basically the same person in terms of integrity and ethics and the way you focus on the customer.”
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Egan said that Abel would always tell employees to “do the right thing, do it well, and if you need help, come and ask for it.”
He added that Abel excelled at giving direction, and helped him communicate better by advising him to “get to the point — basically put the punchline up front and then make sure you can back it up.”
Troy Bader, the CEO of Dairy Queen, told me that Abel is “hands on” and “very astute, a very quick study.”
Abel “understands the dynamics of your business really quickly, and he’s going to challenge you,” Bader added.
John Choe, 31, a real estate and stocks investor from Atlanta, told me he spoke to Abel last year, and the executive left a strong impression on him.
“Greg’s tough,” Choe said. “He’s nice, he’s very polite, but when I met him, I thought he was a force of nature.”
Choe said that during the Q&A, Abel was “much more thorough” in his answers than Buffett, and Abel and his lieutenants helped Choe understand both the big picture and the company’s new structure.
“I also learned a lot about how capital moves within Berkshire,” Choe said. “They referred to it before, but this year, the management helped me see it, so that was super cool.”
Adam Mead, the author of “The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway,” told me that Abel struck him as having a “nice balance” of being “knowledgeable” about Berkshire and being a “partner with the CEOs,” while holding them accountable.
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Mortez Washington, 52, an ICU nurse from Memphis, praised Abel for saying he’ll only intervene in subsidiaries when necessary.
“His thing was basically: ‘I’m not going to tell a .400 hitter how to hold the bat,'” Washington said, nodding to how Buffett has described his leadership style.
Malinda Williams, 40, a local financial advisor, said her impression was that Abel would demand “accountability,” and for those who “need more hands-on support, he’s willing to get in the trenches with them.”
