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Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman, Names Son to Replace Him

33 points saimiam 1 hour ago 14 comments

bell-cot 39 minutes ago | parent

Best wishes and all. But given Berkshire's scale, and the son's age (71), questions about the next succession plan seem appropriate.

Also, since the NYT says nothing else about the son: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Graham_Buffett In context, his recent involvement in local politics seems rather odd.

roryirvine 29 minutes ago | parent

Sounds like there's a grandson who's being groomed for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Warren_Buffett

They all seem very similar to the British "new nobility" in the mid-late 19th century, albeit with less syphilis and opium.

mitxela 28 minutes ago | parent

Rags to rags in three generations, don't forget. These people are not Warren Buffett and most likely do not share his skill, luck, and psychological investment.

echoangle 17 minutes ago | parent

Is grooming the right word here? The guy is 42, grooming to me has a pedophilic connotation.

avazhi 13 minutes ago | parent

This is how groomed is used, yes. The sexually overt connotation is a very recent thing.

SirFatty 8 minutes ago | parent

You should spend less time on 4chan.

theplumber 28 minutes ago | parent

So after all no one could be trusted

kittikitti 20 minutes ago | parent

People take what he does and says as gospel so knowing he went with monarchy tier nepotism is going to be very annoying.

eviks 3 minutes ago | parent

Or it could be very beneficial - you don't need to know anything about finance to judge the quality of this particular decision, so it's easier to cast doubt on other gospels

dugmartin 17 minutes ago | parent

I guess Warren’s quote only applies to other people, not him. "It’s like choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics." (https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/14/us/dozens-of-rich-america...)

datsci_est_2015 8 minutes ago | parent

Maybe the implication is that Warren thinks it’s significantly easier to run a wealth fund than get gold in the Olympics. I would probably agree.

dzonga 2 minutes ago | parent

there's nothing wrong with leaving things to your kids to run.

that's the point of the effort after all.

warren as smart as he is was tryna go against the grain of thousands of human evolution. if you train your kids - then most likely they would've values similar to yours. hit or miss but most times a hit.

keiferski 11 minutes ago | parent

Buffett has been planning this since at least 2011:

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Warren Buffett has told the CBS News program "60 Minutes" that after he dies, he wants his son to become non-executive chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Howard Buffett, a farmer with no college degree, would be a good successor, the elder Buffett said, because he understands the values of the company.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/warren-buffett-wants-farmer...

hn9zmdcaou 6 minutes ago | parent

Sat on a couple of boards and the non exec chair mostly just guards the culture and can fire the CEO. Abel runs the business. That's a very different job from Howard's.