Warren Buffett Steps Down After 56 Years, Son Howard Takes Berkshire Chair

Warren Buffett has stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, ending a 56-year tenure at the top of the company that began when he formally became chairman in 1970.

Berkshire announced on Friday that Buffett, 96, had been named chairman emeritus with immediate effect. He will remain a director and continue to offer his “judgment and perspective” to the board.

His son, Howard G Buffett, has been elected chairman as part of Berkshire's long-standing succession plan. Greg Abel, who became chief executive in January, continues to run the company's operations.

Howard Takes Chair

Howard Buffett has been a Berkshire director since 1993 and has now taken over the board's leadership from his father.

The change separates the chairman and CEO roles. Abel is responsible for the company's major capital allocation and investment decisions and for evaluating the performance of its operating businesses. Berkshire's subsidiaries operate under a highly decentralised model, with relatively few centralised functions.

Buffett himself described the division in his letter to shareholders: “Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture and values.” He said Howard's 33 years as a Berkshire director amounted to a longer apprenticeship than the one Buffett himself had before taking control.

Howard has also served as chairman and CEO of the Howard G Buffett Foundation since 1999. The foundation focuses on global food security and conflict mitigation, and he was a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Against Hunger for the World Food Programme for nearly a decade.

From Textiles To A Conglomerate

Buffett's association with Berkshire began in 1965, when the investment partnership he ran took control of the company.

Berkshire's roots were in the textile industry. Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates was formed through the merger of textile operations in 1929 and merged with Hathaway Manufacturing in 1955 to create Berkshire Hathaway. In early 1965, Buffett Partnership Ltd bought a key block of Berkshire shares and became the company's controlling shareholder.

Buffett's Berkshire gradually moved beyond its textile origins and increasingly focused on investments and the acquisition of operating businesses. By 2006, Buffett wrote that the company had become a large collection of businesses, with its capital increasingly being used to acquire operating companies rather than only marketable securities.

Today, Berkshire is a holding company with businesses spanning insurance and reinsurance, freight rail, utilities and energy, manufacturing, services and retailing.

The Buffett Way

The model Buffett developed at Berkshire was built around patience, capital allocation and a willingness to let managers run their own businesses.

In his 2006 shareholder letter, Buffett described his role as working through managers who “run their own shows”. He said his responsibilities were to help shape Berkshire's corporate culture and make major capital-allocation decisions.

That approach involved increasingly buying operating businesses and allowing their managers considerable autonomy. Berkshire's current annual report continues to describe its subsidiaries as being managed on an unusually decentralised basis, while its 2025 shareholder letter under Abel sets out the same principles: long-term thinking, disciplined capital allocation, managerial autonomy and accountability.

Buffett also consistently framed Berkshire's relationship with its investors as a partnership. In his 2001 letter, he said shareholders' economic results should parallel those of the company's leaders and criticised executives who treated shareholders as something other than partners.

A Succession Years In The Making

The change announced Friday follows the transition of operational control that had already begun.

Berkshire's 2025 annual report records that its board appointed Abel to succeed Buffett as CEO effective January 1, 2026. Buffett remained chairman at the time, making Friday's decision the next stage in the separation of the company's leadership roles.

Abel has described Berkshire's culture as central to its future. In his 2025 shareholder letter, he wrote that shareholders are treated as partners and that the company's decentralised operating model gives managers independence while holding them accountable for results.

Buffett said the timing was right to complete the transition after Abel had taken over the CEO role and been making the decisions that mattered for some time.

“I will become Chairman Emeritus and remain a Director. My son, Howard, will succeed me as Chairman,” Buffett wrote.

After more than six decades with Berkshire, including 56 years as chairman, Buffett will remain a shareholder and director. His final message was straightforward: “The company is in excellent hands,” and he said he looked forward to remaining a shareholder alongside Berkshire's other owners.