Warren Buffett (95), the world-renowned investor known as the "Oracle of Omaha," has officially stepped down as chief executive officer (CEO) of Berkshire Hathaway, the U.S. investment company he has led for 60 years. Vice Chairman Greg Abel (63) will take over as CEO starting Jan. 1.
Buffett will remain as chairman and is expected to commute to the headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, to serve in an advisory role.
In 1965, Buffett acquired Berkshire Hathaway, then a struggling textile company, and grew it into an investment holding company with about $400 billion in annual sales (about 579 trillion won). Over the 60 years he led the company, investors who held Berkshire shares earned a cumulative return of about 6.1 million%, far outpacing the S&P 500's roughly 46,000% over the same period.
The new CEO, Greg Abel, joined in 2000 when Berkshire acquired energy company MidAmerican (now Berkshire Hathaway Energy), and has since built management experience leading the non-insurance institutional sector. At the shareholders meeting in May, Buffett said he would retire at the end of 2025.
Berkshire is a holding company that has invested across diverse industries, from insurer GEICO and railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) to ice cream chain Dairy Queen, and owns dozens of subsidiaries. As of Sept. 30 last year, Berkshire's cash and cash equivalents were $381.7 billion (about 552 trillion won), and its stock assets were $283.2 billion (about 410 trillion won). Major holdings include Apple, American Express, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, and Chevron.
Berkshire has not yet announced who will take the role of chief investment officer overseeing portfolio management.
Meanwhile, Buffett is well known for a value-investing philosophy of "investing long-term in corporations you can understand," and his frugal lifestyle also earns respect from investors. He still lives in the Omaha house he bought in 1958 and enjoys McDonald's and Coca-Cola.
His asset is currently about $150 billion (about 217 trillion won), ranking 10th in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He has been donating a significant portion of this wealth to charities.