Warren Buffett announced Saturday during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting that he will step down as CEO of the $1.1 trillion (€973 billion) conglomerate at the end of the year.
The billionaire investor took over the reins of back in 1965, when it was a medium-sized textile manufacturer.
Buffett then acquired businesses across a range of industries and built the conglomerate into the economic powerhouse known to people today.
In doing so, Buffett also and, at 94 years old, is one of the world’s most famous investors.
Buffett taps Greg Abel to take over
Buffett said he would convene the board of directors to have 62-year-old Greg Abel, currently the vice chairman for non-insurance operations at Berkshire Hathaway, take over as chief executive officer of the conglomerate.
“The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said.
“I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases, but the final word would be what Greg said in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be,” he added.
Buffett said that he had not given any prior notice to other board members, catching people by surprise as he made the announcement at the end of the meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Edited by: Zac Crellin
The post Warren Buffett to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
