Berkshire meeting updates: Buffett proposes Abel become CEO, talks trade policy, market volatility
To watch the meeting in the Mandarin translation, click here.
Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting ended Saturday with big news: Warren Buffett said he planned to ask the board to make Greg Abel the company’s CEO by year-end.
Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman of non-insurance operations, was at Buffett’s side on stage when Buffett broke the news, and didn’t know these remarks were coming, according to “The Oracle of Omaha.”
The 94-year-old has had a six-decade run at the company, and its annual meetings draw thousands of shareholders from around the world to Omaha each year. The gathering, known as “Woodstock for Capitalists,” is a chance for Buffett to share his views on the markets, investing and life, in general.
This year, Buffett was asked about global trade policy and the tariffs that President Donald Trump has proposed as well as the market’s recent volatility.
“Trade should not be a weapon,” Buffett said. Read a full account of the day’s events below.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Formal board decision on moving Abel to CEO will come ‘in a few months,’ Buffett said
- Abel calls maintaining Berkshire’s reputation an ‘absolutely critical’ value
- U.S. budget deficit is ‘unsustainable,’ Buffett says
- ‘Work at something you enjoy,’ Buffett says
- Apple CEO Tim Cook has ‘made Berkshire a lot more money’ than I have, Buffett says
Rep. Hill on Abel CEO request announcement: ‘What a happy day!’
Arkansas Rep. French Hill expressed glee following Buffett’s announcement about having Greg Abel become the new CEO, which came at the end of Saturday’s shareholder meeting.
″[Buffett] always loved tap dancing to work. Well, now he’s tap dancing out of work. What a day, what a happy day!” he told CNBC’S Becky Quick and Michael Santoli. “The board, and Greg and Warren have done a magnificent job over the last decade preparing shareholders for today.”
The Republican, who said he has been coming to the Berkshire meetings since the early 1990s, also expressed that the Oracle of Omaha has been “a hero of mine since I was in college.”
“When I got out of government in 1993 and went back to the private sector in investment management, it was Warren Buffett who was my role model – a man I’ve never personally met, but I’ve admired all these years,” Hill added.
— Sean Conlon
Berkshire board member on Greg Abel: He’s ready
Ron Olson, a Berkshire board member, expressed optimism around Greg Abel taking over as CEO.
“Greg is ready. I have no doubt about that. We’ve known if for a long time,” said Olson, who is stepping down from his role because he’s no longer eligible, to CNBC’S Becky Quick and Michael Santoli after the meeting.
He also lauded Buffett and his accomplishments. Buffett has “lived a life full of surprises. Very few of his decisions have been anything but sensational. I am very anxious to see Warren become the Charlie Munger for Greg Abel.”
— Fred Imbert
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