JPMorgan Hires Vaunted Berkshire Stockpicker as Buffett’s Exit Spurs C-Suite Shakeup

Berkshire Hathaway’s C-suite is undergoing a makeover as CEO Warren Buffett’s hand-picked successor, Greg Abel, prepares to take over the top job. One of the big winners is an executive who doesn’t even work in their building.

That would be Jamie Dimon. On Monday, the JPMorgan Chase CEO celebrated the hiring of Todd Combs, the Berkshire stock-picking wizard who helmed the turnaround of its Geico car insurance subsidiary. “JPMorgan, as usually is the case, has made a good decision,” Buffett noted.

Dining on Buffett’s Dimon

Buffett plans to retire at the end of this year following a six-decade run as arguably Wall Street’s sagest and most admired investor, doing it all from his perch 1,100 miles away in Omaha (you can’t fulfill your Runza cravings in Lower Manhattan, after all). Abel, who runs Berkshire’s energy subsidiary and non-insurance operations, is expected to surround himself with some new faces.

On Monday, Berkshire announced that CFO Marc Hamburg, who has held the role for 40 years, plans to retire in June, when he’ll be succeeded by Charles Chang, Abel’s CFO at Berkshire Energy. And Adam Johnson, the CEO of Berkshire’s private business jet subsidiary, NetJets, has been bumped up to leading the conglomerate’s consumer products and retail business, which includes Dairy Queen and Duracell batteries. 

Neither move was a surprise. What did turn heads was the unexpected departure of Combs. Buffett hired him in 2010 when he was a relatively obscure if talented hedge fund manager, and the rest is history or, er, equity. Among his best bets was a massive stake in Apple that has proven highly lucrative. Markets registered their verdict:

• Berkshire shares fell 1.4% on Monday. Dimon, meanwhile, celebrated the arrival of “one of the greatest investors and leaders I’ve known.”
• At JPMorgan, Combs will be in charge of a $10 billion strategic-investment group at the bank’s “Security and Resiliency Initiative,” which seeks to drum up some $1.5 trillion for US innovation and manufacturing. He has been a director at the bank since 2016 and is stepping down to take the new job.

The Next Move: Nancy Pierce, Geico’s COO, will take over from Combs, but who will fill his shoes in the investment department is unclear. Such challenges will test whether future CEO Greg is ready and Abel.