Howard Buffett says that following his father, Warren, as the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway will require upholding practices that have been prized for decades as the company grew to US$240 billion (Dh881.49bn) in market value.
Protecting Berkshire's culture "means that I need to make sure that people feel that they've been treated fairly, that whatever my dad committed to them remains committed", Howard Buffett, 58, said in a recent interview.
During more than four decades leading Berkshire, Warren Buffett, 82, has distinguished his company from other firms through his ability to allocate capital and boost investors' equity more than 5,000-fold per share. He has achieved those results by practicing a management philosophy that eschews the importance of quarterly financial results and gives autonomy to the heads of the company's more than 70 operating subsidiaries.
The billionaire, who is also the company's largest shareholder, has said the next generation of leaders should divide his duties among a chief executive, investment managers and his son, a farmer and philanthropist who has been on the board since 1993.
The younger Buffett is a director of Coca-Cola and once was the head of investor relations for Archer-Daniels-Midland. He says observing his father has helped him to get ready to lead a board that also includes Bill Gates.
"In a way, I've been preparing for it all my life," Mr Buffett says. "In another way, I've been on the Berkshire board now 20 years. That's a preparation."
The transition to a second generation of the family atop the board makes sense only if Howard Buffett does not have operational duties, says Jeff Matthews, a Berkshire shareholder and the author of Warren Buffett's Successor: Who It Is and Why It Matters. The father has encouraged public policies that reward people based on their merits, rather than connections, saying in 2007 that he favours "equality of opportunity".
It is "hard to argue that out of all the potential successors to Warren Buffett, that Howard Buffett is absolutely the best guy, unless you take into consideration what the role is," Mr Matthews says. "The role as chairman is not CEO. It's to preserve the Berkshire culture. And when you look at it that way, he's probably the right guy."
The elder Buffett has relied on the heads of units including the car-insurer Geico and the railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe to run their businesses, leaving him time to weigh how to invest the company's cash. He quipped in a 1999 message to shareholders laying out Berkshire's operating principles that he and the vice chairman Charles Munger "delegate almost to the point of abdication".
"You don't want a CEO who's going to change that and drive managers away," Howard Buffett has said. "That's probably one of the key parts of it, is just making sure that part of the culture remains intact. And people that are best suited to run the business run the business."
Warren Buffett said last year that Berkshire's board selected a manager to be the next chief executive, without identifying the person. The billionaire has also ceded more oversight of the company's $88bn stock portfolio to Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, investment managers he hired in the past three years.
Howard Buffett is the second of the billionaire's three children and the only one on the Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire's board. He says it's hard to predict how much time he would have to spend on Berkshire responsibilities once he becomes chairman.
He lives and farms in central Illinois, and travels the world as the executive director of the Howard G Buffett Foundation, which works to improve subsistence agriculture and resolve conflicts tied to food shortages.
One commitment he may have to scale back: serving as an auxiliary deputy sheriff in Macon County, Illinois.
"It's probably not great for me to strap a gun on and go out in the streets with the sheriff with that responsibility," he says. "So there will probably be some things I won't do, or shouldn't do, and that's fine. But I'm doing it now, because I have the opportunity to do it."
* Bloomberg News
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Disability on screen
Empire — neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis; bipolar disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Rosewood and Transparent — heart issues
24: Legacy — PTSD;
Superstore and NCIS: New Orleans — wheelchair-bound
Taken and This Is Us — cancer
Trial & Error — cognitive disorder prosopagnosia (facial blindness and dyslexia)
Grey’s Anatomy — prosthetic leg
Scorpion — obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety
Switched at Birth — deafness
One Mississippi, Wentworth and Transparent — double mastectomy
Dragons — double amputee
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
THE SPECS
Engine: Four-cylinder 2.5-litre
Transmission: Seven-speed auto
Power: 165hp
Torque: 241Nm
Price: Dh99,900 to Dh134,000
On sale: now
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
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SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20IPHONE%2015%20PRO%20MAX
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Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Other promotions
- Deliveroo will team up with Pineapple Express to offer customers near JLT a special treat: free banana caramel dessert with all orders on January 26
- Jones the Grocer will have their limited edition Australia Day menu available until the end of the month (January 31)
- Australian Vet in Abu Dhabi (with locations in Khalifa City A and Reem Island) will have a 15 per cent off all store items (excluding medications)
