Why Warren Buffett has stayed as Berkshire Hathaway CEO, the job he loved, into his mid-90s

Warren Buffett, 95, is celebrating his last birthday as CEO of one of the most valuable companies in history.

The world’s most famous investor has been Berkshire Hathaway CEO since before fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were born. But he’ll step back from the job at the end of this year.

Business Insider asked retirement gurus and Buffett acolytes why they think the legendary investor kept working so long — and why he’s calling it quits.

Kerry Hannon, author of the upcoming “Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future,” told Business Insider, “Work is identity for many people.”

She said working late in life could benefit a person’s mental and physical health by making them still “feel relevant, needed, valued,” adding that Buffett “knew that and was all in.”

Often, people pass the conventional retirement age of 65 and still feel they have “juice to contribute,” Hannon said. That drives them to keep working, especially if they feel a sense of purpose and can see that their output matters to the world, the retirement and career strategist added.

Buffett may have stayed as CEO because he felt “energized and empowered by the possibilities of his work,” which generated huge financial returns for himself and others and had a global impact, Hannon added.

Giving back

Over the past 60 years, Buffett has turned Berkshire from a failing textile mill into one of the world’s biggest companies with roughly 400,000 employees, a $1 trillion market value, a $300 billion stock portfolio, and a long list of subsidiaries that includes Geico, BNSF Railway, and Fruit of the Loom.

The soaring value of Berkshire stock has made Buffett one of the 10 richest people on the planet with a net worth of $150 billion, even though he’s given more than $60 billion to the Gates Foundation and other good causes.

When recognizing it’s time to quit, Hannon said that older people often know themselves and can gauge when their mental and physical stamina is no longer enough for the work.

“The ideal scenario is to exit when you want, how you want,” she said. She added that Buffett’s immense clout as Berkshire’s CEO, chair, and largest stockholder meant he was “uniquely positioned to do just that, pressure-free.”

Hannon said that once people hit the personal and financial goals they set out in their 20s, they often reflect and figure out how to give back to society.

Buffett cofounded the Giving Pledge as he turned 80 in 2010, to encourage the uber-wealthy to gift part of their fortunes to charity. The initiative is a “jaw-droppingly powerful” example of giving back, Hannon said.

Leaving on a high

Buffett “appears to love what he does and he does it very well,” Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners, the authors of “Don’t Retire, REWIRE!” told Business Insider via a joint email. But even he couldn’t go on forever.

They said that since the death of Buffett’s right-hand man, Charlie Munger, in 2023, “reality has really set in” about the fact that Buffett’s “time working would end.” Munger, with whom Buffett had a colorful double act for decades, was 99 and never formally retired.

“No one appears to be forcing Buffett to retire,” the pair said. “In his gut, he just knows it’s time,” they continued, adding that health concerns and the desire to “pass the baton” can hasten the decision to move on.

“He is blessed with robust health beyond the average individual,” Sedlar and Miners said about the stock picker, who plans to stay as Berkshire’s chairman. “He took his longevity bonus and lived it to the fullest,” they wrote.

Berkshire has been more than a job to Buffett

Two Buffett scholars agreed that he helmed Berkshire into his mid-90s because he loved the company, which was integral to his identity.

“Warren poured his whole ego into Berkshire,” Lawrence Cunningham, the director of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center and author of several books on Berkshire, told Business Insider.

It was “more than a job, more than an adventure, a life, one that fully included his family and friends,” he said.

Cunningham agreed Munger’s death may have prompted Buffett to leave center stage.

He acknowledged Buffett increased his philanthropic giving in old age but underscored that he was charitable before launching the Giving Pledge.

“His generosity compounded just like his capital — consistent with his view that reputations and legacies, like wealth, are built steadily over time,” Cunningham said.

Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University and a former economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan, said a deep passion for Berkshire was the “essence of the Buffett story.”

Hanke nodded to Buffett’s common refrain that he loved his job so much he would “tap dance to work.”

“Like me, Buffett loves what he is doing,” Hanke said, “And as they say, neither one of us has ‘worked’ a day in our lives.”

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