Buffett's successor - Todd Combs

[Guest longinvestor]

I was listening to the 2009 annual meeting, a pesky someone who had been after Buffett for a long time about naming and mentoring the successor asked the question, yet another time! Buffett irritated by the needling, didn't think much of it, as mentoring would be like tossing the  NYT, FT, WSJ to junior when he was done reading them ;D He did say that building relationships with the likely sellers of business would be important mentoring!

 

Munger chimed in that it would be much more useful for the mentee to take charge of a large operating subsidiary. Todd Combs checks all of these boxes. He has board roles at JPM, the healthcare venture and now runs Geico, the mothership's favorite child. Besides, Combs brought PCP to the fold. The largest elephant to date. The only unknown is if he is building relationships with potential sellers/dealmakers.. Is Buffett letting Combs take those incoming calls first? 

 

Abel is simply going to be busy deploying capital in the capital intensive industries. He and Jain will remain VC. Weschler runs a larger portfolio.

 

Thoughts?   

[meiroy]

 

 

Buffett is going to be 90 in August.

 

If he already decided on who's going to replace him, then this person should be controlling majority of investments NOW and not when something happens.

 

[nickenumbers]

Longinvestor,

 

The future leader of BRK is certainly cloudy and opaque, but to me, it seemed like Greg Abel was/is the guy.  The other 3 are very important [4 Amigos], but it appears to me like Abel will make the call.

 

My 2 cents.

[CassiusKing1]

 

 

Buffett is going to be 90 in August.

 

If he already decided on who's going to replace him, then this person should be controlling majority of investments NOW and not when something happens.

How do we know that this isn't already happening?  As risk averse and safe as WEB is, I would not be surprised if the replacement hasn't been co-piloting or running things for awhile now.

[Guest longinvestor]

 

 

Buffett is going to be 90 in August.

 

If he already decided on who's going to replace him, then this person should be controlling majority of investments NOW and not when something happens.

How do we know that this isn't already happening?  As risk averse and safe as WEB is, I would not be surprised if the replacement hasn't been co-piloting or running things for awhile now.

 

+1

Bulk of the capital allocation over the past decade has been made by others. Buffett provides air cover.