BRK to appoint two Vice Chairmen to BRK Board - Jain and Abel

[Guest longinvestor]

I suspect that these two have been "unofficial" directors for years.  This now makes it official.

jmho

+1. And they have been making capital allocation decisions in the tens of billions for years. So much for a headline.

 

 

[Guest longinvestor]

"Life expectancy of Mr. Buffett: 5 years

Life expectancy of Mr. Munger: 3.2 years."

 

The life expectancy of very rich investors could be a little bit higher, because of good prevention,

best medical care, using the best antidotes when ill and the "hard work" involved with investing.  ;)

 

 

Here is the CNBC transcript from today:

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/full-transcript-billionaire-investor-warren-buffett-speaks-with-cnbcs-becky-quick-on-squawk-box-today.html

 

Thanks for posting the full, no-commercial version.

 

One thing that caught my attention is that now we have three vice chairmen and what Buffett and Munger thought about that. Both Buffett and Munger said that recognition of the good contributions was overdue. But Buffett seemed to relish the prospect of the two additional vice chairmen...it's good for Berkshire but it is especially good for me.. I think they are just pulling out all the stops by freeing Jain and Abel. This is about the future but how sweet would it be if the deals start to flow faster, now!

[John Hjorth]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, longinvestor. To me, you're really good at picking up the important details in interviews.

 

Somehow, the oversight of Berkshire from an operational point of view must have been daunting for many years now. This is to me the right decision, to lift off some workload on Mr. Buffett. [i have no idea to which extent Mr. Munger has been involved in that part of Berkshire operations.]

[gfp]

Berkshire added an amended 8K today that has a nice description for the two new Executive Officers.  It will be interesting to see the Form 3 filings in the near future detailing for the first time if either of them own any shares of Berkshire.  Abel owns shares of BHE and both are quite wealthy but it will be interesting to see if Ajit bought the stock over the years.

 

"On January 9, 2018, Gregory E. Abel, age 55, was elected to be an Executive Officer of Berkshire as its Vice Chairman – Non Insurance Operations. Mr. Abel joined Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company (“BHE”), a 90.2% owned subsidiary of Berkshire, in 1992 and since 2011 has been BHE’s Chairman and CEO. Mr. Abel currently serves as a Director of The Kraft Heinz Company, a manufacturer and marketer of food and beverage products, and AEGIS Insurance Services, Inc., a provider of property and liability insurance for the energy industry, and Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, an insurer of nuclear power utilities.

 

Additionally, on January 9, 2018, Ajit Jain, age 66, was elected to be an Executive Officer of Berkshire as its Vice Chairman – Insurance Operations. Mr. Jain joined Berkshire’s insurance group in 1986 and since 1996 has been Executive Vice President of National Indemnity Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire. Mr. Jain currently serves as a Trustee of Rockefeller University, a leading biomedical research university.

 

Both Mr. Abel and Mr. Jain possess the attributes the Governance, Compensation and Nominating Committee of Berkshire’s Board of Directors as well as Berkshire’s Chairman and CEO, Warren E. Buffett, consider to be essential if one is to be an effective Board member. Specifically, both Mr. Abel and Mr. Jain have integrity, business savvy, an owner-oriented attitude and a deep genuine interest in Berkshire. These attributes have been evident during each of their careers as leaders of two of Berkshire’s most important business groups."