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upcoming berkshire Hathway Chief Executive Greg Abell is reportedly reshaping it BusinessFollowing the departure of two key figures, before the takeover of his leadership team in January.
Todd Combs, one of the firm’s two investment managers warren buffett and former jico ceoGoing to join JP Morgan.
Mr Combs will take on the role of advising the JP Morgan CEO jamie dimon How to Invest $10 Billion While Working as a Special Advisor.
Concurrently, longtime Chief Financial Officer Mack Hamburg is retiring after four decades with the company.
Mr. Combs’ exit is considered the most significant development in the announcement, which also includes the creation of new positions such as general counsel and manager. berkshire’s extensive retail and consumer businesses.
The changes now raise questions over the future of other senior executives, including insurance vice president Ajit Jain and investment manager Ted Weschler, as well as the CEOs of several Berkshire subsidiaries.
“There are still two elephants in the room: What’s Ajit Jain going to do and what’s Ted Weschler going to do?”. said CFRA Research Analyst Kathy Seifert.
Geico’s chief operating officer Nancy Pierce was promoted to CEO, but Berkshire did not provide any details about how Abel would handle the company’s stock portfolio, which is worth more than $300 billion.
Buffett said last year that Abel would ultimately be responsible for picking stocks as well as trying to find acquisitions and deciding where to reinvest in Berkshire’s dozens of businesses while managing all those companies. But Abel has never been a stock investor, so the plan was to have Combs and Weschler help manage the portfolio.
But Dimon’s move to lure Combs away from Berkshire and off the board of JPMorgan, where he had served for nine years, prevented that from happening. “Todd Combs is one of the greatest investors and leaders I know, having successfully managed investments alongside some of the most respected and successful long-term investors of our time.” warren buffett,” Dimon said.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Meyer Shields, who has followed Berkshire for more than a decade, said he expects more turnover in the coming months as Buffett leaves the CEO job he has held for more than six decades. Buffett will remain chairman, but Shields said, “We expect more turnover in the coming months, because the level of work for Mr. Buffett’s successor is not (at least not yet) the same as working for Mr. Buffett.”
Most of the upcoming departures may not make headlines, but Shields said he expects that many of the CEOs of Berkshire’s subsidiaries, who have been working long past a normal retirement age, will leave now that they are no longer able to work for Buffett.
But CEOs who have reported to Abel for several years have said they have been impressed by the business acumen he has demonstrated while overseeing businesses as diverse as Dairy Queen, Brooks Running Shoes, Iskar Metalworking, Marmon Holdings and Helzberg Diamonds. Buffett has said that Abel may be able to get more from all of Berkshire’s businesses because Abel has more hands.
But acknowledging the fact that he would have less time available upon becoming CEO, Abel promoted NetJets CEO Adam Johnson to a new role overseeing all of Berkshire’s consumer, service and retail businesses. Abell will continue to oversee all manufacturing, utility and industrial businesses, including BNSF Railroad and Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
Shields said he doesn’t expect a huge change in direction or see Berkshire breaking up under Abel, but he is impressed that he is willing to break away from the way Buffett has always run things and implement a more typical corporate structure.