The Age of Buffett Winds Down
His astonishing reign at Berkshire puts successor Greg Abel on the spot.
This column originally appeared in Canada’s Globe and Mail on May 5, 2025.
In the high-pressure realm of Hard Acts to Follow, Greg Abel, an unassuming Canadian, is now centre stage in the world of investing. Mr. Abel, a 62-year-old Edmonton native and University of Alberta grad, is set to become chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. by the end of the year.
The company is, of course, arguably the best investment anyone could have made in the decades since Warren Buffett took control 60 years ago. And now Mr. Buffett, for whom the adjective “legendary” seems inadequate, is departing. He announced to stunned shareholders at the company’s widely watched annual meeting on Saturday that he would relinquish the position by year’s end and recommend as his successor Mr. Abel, his designated heir long waiting in the wings.
The announcement, while a shock as it came ahead of schedule, should not be too much of a surprise. Mr. Buffett is 94 years old and has been preparing for this day for years. He obviously wants the change of leadership to be minimally disruptive, and Saturday’s announcement seems calculated to reassure. For one thing, Mr. Buffett isn’t leaving the scene abruptly or even entirely.
“I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases,” he said. “But the final word would be what Greg said, in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be.”
Steady Hands
By some accounts, Mr. Abel, who is vice-chairman, is already running the show. He has been associated with Berkshire for a quarter-century. In 2018, he became a Berkshire board member and vice-chairman for non-insurance operations. In 2021, Mr. Buffett announced that Mr. Abel would succeed him as CEO.
Mr. Abel is the definition of steady hands. He is a family man and hockey obsessive who started his career as an accountant. Mr. Abel has coached lacrosse and hockey, and the revelation of an old sports injury once led former U.S. president George H.W. Bush to label him the Canadian with no front teeth. But other than his record at Berkshire, little is publicly known about Mr. Abel. He keeps a low profile with the media and hides his political views. This is a man set on the singular task of making money for Berkshire.
Here’s how Mr. Abel’s friends described him in a 2019 Globe and Mail profile: “a fiercely intelligent, hyper-efficient guy whose work is his life and who hides his talents behind a wall of humility.” Mr. Buffett, who frequently lavishes praise on his successor, has called Mr. Abel a “rare talent,” with “Berkshire blood.”
If Berkshire’s recent performance is any indication, Mr. Abel is more than up to the job. The shares closed Friday at record highs, up 33 per cent over the past year and 19 per cent year-to-date, even amidst the Trump tariff circus. By comparison, the S&P is down 3.3 per cent and the S&P/TSX Composite Index up 1.2 per cent for the year.
No one expects Mr. Abel to achieve the stellar results Mr. Buffett has over the past six decades, simply because the latter’s performance has been so off-the-charts brilliant. Berkshire shares could fall 99 per cent and still be ahead of the S&P for the past 60 years. Berkshire has generated an average total return (dividends reinvested) of 19.9 per cent over that period, versus 10.4 per cent for the S&P. Put another way, US$10,000 invested in Berkshire in 1980, when it went public at US$290 a share, would be worth US$28-million now, as against US$1.55-million in an S&P index fund.