CEO Governance Digest

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Gregory E. Abel · Screened 12 July 2026 · Insurance & diversified holding company · Market cap ≈ $1.07T

$25M CEO cash salary, effective 1 Jan 2026

<0.1% Reported equity stake (proxy table)

0% SBC as % of revenue (stated policy)

<1 yr Tenure as CEO (33 yrs at BHE)

Role

Title: President & CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
CEO since: 1 January 2026
Founder: No — Buffett is founder/controlling shareholder
Age: 63

Joined Berkshire in 1999 via its acquisition of MidAmerican Energy. CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy 2008–2018 (Chairman until July 2025). Vice Chairman – Non-Insurance Operations 2018–2025. Director of the Corporation since 2018. Succeeded Warren Buffett as CEO on 1 January 2026; Buffett remains Chairman of the Board and is Berkshire's controlling shareholder. per FY2026 proxy (DEF 14A)

Compensation

2025 — as Vice Chairman, Non-Insurance Operations

Salary: $22,000,000
Bonus: $0
All other compensation: $17,500 (defined-contribution plan)
Total: $22,017,500
Equity grants: None

2026 — as CEO

Annual cash salary: $25,000,000
Increase vs. 2024 VC salary: +19%
Bonus / equity disclosed: None
Performance metrics: None — Committee policy excludes profitability and share price from CEO pay-setting

Salary was set by Warren Buffett prior to the CEO transition and formally raised to $25M on the effective date of Abel's appointment, per an 8-K filing. The FY2026 proxy states the Governance Committee will work with Abel over "the next several months" to evaluate further compensation changes — no bonus or incentive structure for the CEO role has yet been disclosed. per 8-K filed January 2026 and FY2026 proxy

Equity Ownership

Class A shares (proxy table): 249
Class B shares (proxy table): 2,363
% of aggregate voting/economic interest: <0.1%
Personal open-market purchase, Mar 2026: $15,000,000

Primary source finding: the FY2026 proxy discloses that all 249 Class A and 2,363 Class B shares attributed to Abel are held either through a trust for which he serves as trustee, or as custodian for family members — in both cases with beneficial interest explicitly disclaimed. The proxy's formal ownership table does not show an undisclaimed, personally-owned equity position. per FY2026 proxy, footnote 3

Secondary reporting: CNBC, citing FactSet, reported Abel held approximately $164.4 million of Berkshire stock immediately before a $15 million open-market purchase in March 2026 — an amount he said equals his after-tax annual salary — and stated he intends to repeat the purchase every year he leads the company. GAP This $164.4M figure has not been reconciled against the proxy's disclaimed-only ownership table; the March 2026 purchase post-dates the proxy's 4 March 2026 record date, which may explain part of the gap but not the underlying discrepancy in what counts as a personal stake. per CNBC, 5 March 2026, citing FactSet

Outside Interests

No family office or investment vehicle disclosed.
Former director, The Kraft Heinz Company (a Berkshire investee), until May 2024.
Former director, AEGIS Insurance Services Inc., until 2023.
Chairman Emeritus, Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans (charitable).

No current material outside directorship or competing venture disclosed in the FY2026 proxy. per FY2026 proxy

Dilution & SBC

Berkshire's Governance Committee has an explicit, stated policy: "Berkshire never intends to use Berkshire stock in compensating employees." No equity grants appear in the Summary Compensation Table for the CEO or any named executive officer in 2023–2025. SBC as % of revenue is therefore effectively 0% at the corporate level — not a residual or immaterial figure, but a stated structural policy. per FY2026 proxy, Compensation Discussion & Analysis

Share repurchases resumed: March 2026 (first since May 2024)
March 2026 buyback: ≈$234M (33 Class A + 431,462 Class B shares)
Cumulative buybacks since program inception: ≈$78B (since mid-2018)
Buyback trigger: Only below CEO's conservative estimate of intrinsic value, after consultation with the Chairman

per Q1 2026 10-Q and secondary reporting (The Motley Fool)

M&A & Capital Allocation

OxyChem acquired from Occidental Petroleum for ≈$9.5B, closed 2 January 2026.
Taylor Morrison Home Corporation acquired for $72.50/share cash — ≈$6.8B equity value, ≈$8.5B including debt — Abel's first major deal as CEO, intended to be combined with Clayton Homes' site-built operations over time.
Alphabet stake built to ≈$26.6B cumulative, including a $10B incremental purchase in June 2026 ($5B Class A at an average $351.81/share; $5B Class C at an average $348.20/share) as part of Alphabet's $80B AI-capex-related share sale.
Net seller of ≈$8.1B of equities overall in Q1 2026 even while adding to Alphabet — selective repositioning rather than broad-based buying.
Cash and Treasury-bill holdings reached a record ≈$397B in Q1 2026 despite resumed buybacks and the OxyChem deal.

On the March 2026 buyback decision, Abel told CNBC: "I absolutely talked to Warren" — indicating continued informal consultation with Buffett even though capital-allocation authority now sits with Abel as CEO. per CNBC, 5 March 2026; The Motley Fool, June 2026

Board & Oversight

Warren Buffett remains Chairman and is Berkshire's controlling shareholder — ≈30.0% of aggregate voting power, ≈13.7% of aggregate economic interest — subject to a voting agreement capping his effective control at 49.9% of voting power if his holdings exceed that threshold.
Independent directors are paid nominal per-meeting fees ($900 in-person / $300 by phone, plus $1,000/quarter for Audit Committee members) — 2025 totals of $2,700–$7,000 per director — a level immaterial relative to the independent wealth and career bases each brings (e.g., Chenault, Davis, Decker, Burke, Murphy, Weitz, Witmer each have substantial outside executive, investment, or professional standing).
No unusual director or executive departures identified in the FY2026 proxy for the 2025–2026 period.

per FY2026 proxy

Reasons to Own

Personally purchased $15M of Berkshire stock in March 2026 — his full after-tax annual salary — and publicly committed to repeating the purchase every year he leads the company.
Zero equity-based compensation at Berkshire by explicit, longstanding policy, removing the primary channel for CEO/shareholder misalignment through SBC dilution.
Compensation is entirely cash, with no bonus and no performance-metric structure to game — pay is not tied to profitability or share price by Committee policy.
Early capital allocation decisions (OxyChem, Taylor Morrison, buybacks strictly below intrinsic value) show continuity with a disciplined, value-based framework rather than empire-building.
No family office, competing investment vehicle, or material outside directorship disclosed that would divide his attention from Berkshire.

Reasons Not to Own

CEO cash salary rose 19% to $25M on taking the role — a sharp departure from Buffett's $100,000 salary norm and, per Wall Street Journal analysis cited in secondary reporting, potentially the highest single-year cash salary of any S&P 500 CEO between 2010 and 2024.
The proxy's formal beneficial ownership table shows Abel's reported shares held entirely via trust/custodial arrangements with disclaimed beneficial interest — the primary-source filing does not itself evidence a clean, undisclaimed personal equity stake, despite secondary reporting of a ~$164M personal position; this has not yet been reconciled in a subsequent filing.
Less than one year of tenure as CEO, with Buffett still informally consulted on capital allocation calls ("I absolutely talked to Warren") — too early to independently verify a CEO-led pay-for-performance or capital allocation track record distinct from Buffett's continued involvement.