Can Greg Abel fill Warren Buffett’s shoes? Berkshire’s CEO Abel gets nod from investors, but big shoes to fill

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders largely welcomed Greg Abel’s debut as chief executive at the company’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, but the weekend also underscored how difficult it will be to follow Warren Buffett.

Reuters reported that Abel drew praise for his leadership and operational knowledge, while the crowds were visibly smaller than in previous years at the first shareholder weekend since he succeeded Buffett in January. Buffett, 95, attended from the audience and spoke briefly, but did not appear on stage.

Also Read | Election verdict today: What it means for Sensex, Nifty and your trades

Investor confidence builds as Greg Abel shows operational grip

Several attendees said Abel impressed them with his command of Berkshire’s sprawling businesses, which range from insurance and railroads to energy, manufacturing and retail.

“Greg did a good job,” said Alexandra Cook, an accounting and finance professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida. “He had a job to do to reassure shareholders, and he did that. It was clear he knew the operations intimately, and it wasn't just Warren's opinion that that was the case.”

Another shareholder, John Wichita, said Buffett and Charlie Munger had “built something to outlast them,” adding that the ideas they presented were more powerful than their physical presence.

Also Read | Pentagon signs AI deals with top tech firms, leaves out Anthropic over safeguards dispute

Smaller crowds, subdued mood

The event also looked different on the ground. Fewer and shorter lines, as well as unsold Berkshire-branded merchandise at the shareholder shopping event.

About 12,000 of the arena’s roughly 18,000 seats were filled when Abel started the annual meeting. Some investors said the experience felt less like the familiar Buffett-and-Munger gathering that doubled as an investing seminar and more like a business review focused on operations and future execution.

Xiao Zhang, a private investor from Boston, said she was “a little bit disappointed” because she did not hear the kind of investing and life lessons she associated with past meetings.

Long-term faith in Berkshire Hathaway intact

Still, not all shareholders saw the shift negatively.

Some said Berkshire’s culture should endure beyond its iconic founder, and that Abel’s emphasis on execution reflected the company’s next phase.

Abel is 63 and has signaled that he wants to lead Berkshire for a long time, perhaps decades. But as one shareholder put it, “Abel may grow into it. But he's no Warren Buffett.”