Taking over the chairman’s position is Buffett’s eldest son, Howard G. Buffett.
Howard, 71, has been a Berkshire director since 1993, meaning his elevation is hardly an abrupt arrival by an outsider. The move is instead the latest stage of a succession strategy that Berkshire has been preparing for years.
The change brings Warren Buffett’s extraordinary tenure at the top of Berkshire closer to its conclusion.
Buffett has served as Berkshire’s chairman since 1970. His association with the company stretches even further back: he took control of what was then a struggling textile business in 1965 and eventually turned it into one of the largest corporate empires in the world.
Today, Berkshire’s operations reach across insurance, rail transportation, energy, manufacturing, services and retail. Its businesses include GEICO and BNSF Railway, while the company’s enormous investment portfolio has included stakes in some of America’s biggest corporations.
But the transition away from Buffett’s leadership didn’t begin Friday.
Buffett relinquished the CEO position at the beginning of 2026, handing operational control to longtime Berkshire executive Greg Abel. Abel now runs the company’s sprawling collection of businesses while Howard Buffett will serve as non-executive chairman.
That division of responsibilities is important.
Howard Buffett isn’t expected to take over his father’s old job in the traditional sense. Greg Abel remains the man responsible for running Berkshire. Howard’s chairman role is focused heavily on protecting the corporate culture his father spent decades building.
Abel made that mission clear while responding to Friday’s announcement.
“Warren’s impact on Berkshire and its owners is without parallel in the history of American business. The culture Warren built and the values he championed will remain at the heart of Berkshire, and Howard will be their guardian.”
The statement underscores just how unusual Berkshire’s succession plan is.
Rather than handing both the chairman and CEO titles to one successor, Berkshire has effectively divided Buffett’s enormous former influence between two people: Abel handles the business while Howard helps oversee the board and safeguard the company’s identity.
Howard brings decades of experience on Berkshire’s board to that assignment.
Outside Berkshire, he has served since 1999 as chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which focuses on issues including global food security and conflict mitigation. His résumé also includes service on a number of corporate boards, including Coca-Cola and Archer Daniels Midland.
For shareholders, however, Warren Buffett’s continued presence may be the most reassuring part of Friday’s announcement.
He isn’t walking away entirely.
Berkshire specifically said Buffett will remain a member of the board and continue contributing his judgment and perspective. His chairman emeritus title recognizes his historic role while allowing the company’s next generation of leadership to take center stage.
The stakes are enormous.
Berkshire has grown into a conglomerate valued at roughly $1.1 trillion, a stunning outcome for a company whose roots were in a deteriorating New England textile operation. Buffett’s investing philosophy — built around patience, disciplined capital allocation and buying businesses he understood — turned him into one of the most influential figures in modern capitalism.
His departure from the chairman’s office therefore represents far more than an ordinary corporate personnel change.
For generations of investors, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway were virtually inseparable.
Now that era is giving way to something new.
Greg Abel controls Berkshire’s day-to-day future. Howard Buffett occupies the chairman’s seat. And Warren Buffett, after more than half a century at the center of one of America’s greatest business success stories, moves into an advisory role.
The Oracle of Omaha may still be in the building.
But Berkshire Hathaway has officially entered the post-Buffett leadership era.
