Warren Buffett has taken another major step in his long-running succession plan at Berkshire Hathaway, giving up the role of board chairman. Under the company’s announcement, he will stay on the board as chairman emeritus and will continue to offer what the statement described as his “valued judgment and perspective.”
In line with Berkshire Hathaway’s long-standing succession plan, his son Howard Buffett will become chairman of the board. In a letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett said Howard’s main responsibility will be to “guard [Berkshire’s] culture and values – both worth more than anything on our balance sheet.”
The move marks the third major stage in Buffett’s gradual handover. Over the years, he had already shifted more operating responsibility to longtime Berkshire executive Greg Abel. Then, in May 2025, Buffett said he would step down as CEO at the end of 2025 while remaining chairman, with Abel taking over as chief executive. He is now relinquishing the chairman role as well, though he is not leaving the company entirely.
Both Berkshire’s news release and Buffett’s shareholder letter stress continuity. Greg Abel said the culture Buffett built and the values he championed will remain at the core of Berkshire, with Howard Buffett acting as their guardian. Warren Buffett also noted that his son has served as a director for 33 years, suggesting shareholders should think of him as a kind of policy they hope never to claim against.
Investors appeared to take the announcement in stride. Berkshire’s Class A and Class B shares fell early on Friday but recovered to finish the session nearly unchanged. CNBC noted that Wall Street does not appear to see the move, at least for now, as a sign of a major deterioration in the company’s outlook.
Still, Berkshire stock has lagged the broader market in recent periods. Since Buffett announced in May last year that he planned to step down as CEO at the end of 2025, Berkshire shares have fallen more than 5%, while the S&P 500 has gained more than 34%. Since the start of this year, Berkshire’s Class B shares have underperformed the benchmark by more than 10 percentage points.
The article also looks at Howard Buffett’s background. He is far less known to the public than his father, but he is not new to corporate governance. Howard Buffett runs farms in Nebraska and Illinois, has been involved in law enforcement, and has served on the boards of Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Enterprises and ConAgra Foods.
He is also a major philanthropist. His foundation, which receives an annual donation from Warren Buffett, gave away $700 million last year, focusing on food security, conflict mitigation and countering human trafficking. Ukraine has been a major beneficiary, receiving around $350 million in 2025 and a total of $1.1 billion since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
While Howard Buffett is not a conventional business executive, The Wall Street Journal noted that he is no stranger to corporate boards. At the same time, the paper said his main qualification for the Berkshire Hathaway chairmanship is that he is Warren Buffett’s son. Buffett himself said in 2025: “He is getting it because he is my son.” Howard Buffett, for his part, said he feels prepared for the role because his father spent many years preparing him for it.
In his latest letter, Buffett also said he still has “the best job in the world” and has “never felt better about what comes next.” Even so, Friday’s announcement signals that Berkshire Hathaway’s succession plan is moving into one of its most important phases.
