Berkshire Hathaway shuffles top ranks in runup to Warren Buffett’s retirement
Todd Combs, a top lieutenant to Buffett is leaving for a role at JPMorgan. CFO Marc Hamburg will step down from his role in June 2026.
Berkshire Hathaway’s top ranks are changing hands as it prepares for the imminent retirement of its founder Warren Buffett.
One of Buffett’s top lieutenants, Todd Combs, Berkshire’s investment manager and chief executive of its Geico insurance unit, is stepping down to join JPMorgan Chase to head up the bank’s recently launched security and resiliency initiative.
JPMorgan on Monday said Combs will lead the initiative’s $10 billion strategic-investment group and act as a special adviser to Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon.
Berkshire also announced its longtime CFO Marc Hamburg will step down from his role on June 1, 2026. The 40-year veteran of the company will stay on until 2027. Charles Chang, currently senior vice president and chief financial officer of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, will succeed Hamburg as finance chief.
“Marc has been indispensable to Berkshire and to me," Buffett said Monday.
The reshuffle comes less than a month after Buffett, 95, said he would be “going quiet" as he prepares to step down from the company he has led since the 1960s.
In May, the billionaire investor revealed his plans to step down as Berkshire’s chief executive at the end of this year. The company named vice chairman Greg Abel as Buffett’s successor.
Berkshire said Nancy Pierce, who had been Geico’s chief operating officer, will succeed Combs at the helm of the insurer.
Write to Gareth Vipers at gareth.vipers@wsj.com
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