Buffett Taps Farmer Son as Successor
Friday, 09 Dec 2011 02:36 PM
By Forrest Jones
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Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has named his son, Howard, to be his successor at his company Berkshire Hathaway as non-executive chairman.
Howard, a farmer, will take the reins as non-executive chairman when Warren dies and not sooner, CBS News reports.
Berkshire's board must approve the move.
Howard, or Howie as he is known, will not serve as CEO but will oversee the company's values, Warren tells the news program “60 Minutes” to air this Sunday.
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"You worry that somebody will be in charge of Berkshire that uses it as their own sandbox in some way," Buffett tells “60 Minutes” reporter to Leslie Stahl in an interview to air Sunday, CBS News reports ahead of time.
Warren Buffett
(Getty Images photo) "That changes the way that decisions are made in reference to the shareholders," Buffett said. "The odds of that happening are very, very, very low, but having Howie there adds just one extra layer of protection."
Howie says he won't be making day-to-day decisions and adds he'd rather be planting crops instead.
"Absolutely not and I shouldn't," Howie says, adding he was surprised at being tapped but accepted under one condition: "As long as I can keep farming, I'm okay," says Howie Buffett.
Buffett said recently that his business units at Berkshire Hathaway are doing well, save those tied the housing industry.
"We have more than 70 businesses and some of those businesses have many businesses, so we've really got a cross section of American business. Of the 70-plus businesses, all but about five are doing considerably better than was the case a year ago," Buffett told CNBC in mid November.
"What is getting killed, and what is not in a recession but in a depression is anything connected with residential construction, and that includes things like our carpet business, our installation business, our brick business."
"Those businesses are in a depression. You have a huge segment of the American economy that's doing really quite well and then you have this other segment, which is in a depression, and that depression has much more of an effect on unemployment, I believe, than we generally realize.
Friday, 09 Dec 2011 02:36 PM
By Forrest Jones
More ways to share...
- inShare1
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has named his son, Howard, to be his successor at his company Berkshire Hathaway as non-executive chairman.
Howard, a farmer, will take the reins as non-executive chairman when Warren dies and not sooner, CBS News reports.
Berkshire's board must approve the move.
Howard, or Howie as he is known, will not serve as CEO but will oversee the company's values, Warren tells the news program “60 Minutes” to air this Sunday.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
"You worry that somebody will be in charge of Berkshire that uses it as their own sandbox in some way," Buffett tells “60 Minutes” reporter to Leslie Stahl in an interview to air Sunday, CBS News reports ahead of time.
(Getty Images photo) "That changes the way that decisions are made in reference to the shareholders," Buffett said. "The odds of that happening are very, very, very low, but having Howie there adds just one extra layer of protection."
Howie says he won't be making day-to-day decisions and adds he'd rather be planting crops instead.
"Absolutely not and I shouldn't," Howie says, adding he was surprised at being tapped but accepted under one condition: "As long as I can keep farming, I'm okay," says Howie Buffett.
Buffett said recently that his business units at Berkshire Hathaway are doing well, save those tied the housing industry.
"We have more than 70 businesses and some of those businesses have many businesses, so we've really got a cross section of American business. Of the 70-plus businesses, all but about five are doing considerably better than was the case a year ago," Buffett told CNBC in mid November.
"What is getting killed, and what is not in a recession but in a depression is anything connected with residential construction, and that includes things like our carpet business, our installation business, our brick business."
"Those businesses are in a depression. You have a huge segment of the American economy that's doing really quite well and then you have this other segment, which is in a depression, and that depression has much more of an effect on unemployment, I believe, than we generally realize.