Greg Abel likely to be a successor at Berkshire Hathaway: Warren Buffet

Warren Buffett said that if the billionaire were to step down, Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s vice chairman of non-insurance businesses, will be elected as Chief executive officer.

Buffett told CNBC that the board has agreed that Abel, 58, will take over if anything happened to the 90-year-old CEO. Abel was thought to be the most probable candidate.

"The directors are in agreement that if something were to happen to me tonight, it would be Greg who’d take over tomorrow morning," Buffett said, CNBC reported.

The conglomerate had kept succession decisions a tightly guarded secret, despite assuring customers that it had a clear strategy in place.

At Saturday's annual meeting, Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 97, made a comment on fueled speculation that Abel was the preferred heir. Buffett was talking about how decentralization does not succeed anywhere because it requires a certain culture.

“Yeah, but we do,” Munger said. “And Greg will keep the culture.”

Ajit Jain, 69, was also mentioned as a possible choice, owing to Buffett's high regard for the Berkshire vice chairman in charge of the insurance division. According to Buffett, age was a determining factor in the selection.

“If heaven forbid, anything happened to Greg tonight then it would be Ajit,” Buffett told CNBC, adding that age is a determining factor for the board. “They’re both wonderful guys. The likelihood of someone having a 20-year runway though makes a real difference.”

Other facets of Berkshire's succession arrangements remain unchanged as a result of Buffett's announcement.

Howard, his son, is expected to become non-executive chairman, while one or both of his fund managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, are expected to become chief investment officer.

Abel and Jain were both appointed vice chairmen in 2018, as part of what Buffett described as a "movement toward succession." Abel, who formerly headed Berkshire's vast energy empire, was appointed to oversee all non-insurance operations, while Jain was in charge of the insurers.

Abel came to fame at Berkshire Hathaway as a central manager of its energy activities, helping to transform such units into a company of over 23,000 workers.

Abel was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, where he developed a lifelong passion for hockey and graduated from the University of Alberta in 1984, Reuters reported.

He began his career as an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers before moving on to the geothermal energy company CalEnergy. He began working with Berkshire Hathaway Energy in 1992 when it was recognized as MidAmerican Energy.