{"id":79173,"date":"2026-10-07T06:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T06:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/warren-buffetts-successor-started-out-selling-empty-soda-bottles-for-5-cents-now-he-runs-berkshire-hathaway\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T06:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T06:49:10","slug":"warren-buffetts-successor-started-out-selling-empty-soda-bottles-for-5-cents-now-he-runs-berkshire-hathaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/warren-buffetts-successor-started-out-selling-empty-soda-bottles-for-5-cents-now-he-runs-berkshire-hathaway\/","title":{"rendered":"Warren Buffett&#8217;s Successor Started Out Selling Empty Soda Bottles for 5 Cents. Now He Runs Berkshire Hathaway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"@container mb-[25px] rounded-sm overflow-clip py-0.5 pr-0.5 pl-2.5 bg-success-100\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-m overflow-clip rounded-[6px] !bg-success-10 p-3 @[420px]:p-m\">\n<h2 class=\"m-0 flex items-center gap-s text-[19px] !text-[#1c1c1c] md:text-[20px]\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"10\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 10\" fill=\"none\" class=\"shrink-0 text-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M1 1.5h14\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><path d=\"M1 8.5h10\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><\/svg><span>Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"m-0 flex list-none flex-col gap-m pl-0\">\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Greg Abel turned 5-cent bottle runs into the habits now steering Berkshire Hathaway.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Berkshire\u2019s Jan. 1 handoff puts Abel in Buffett\u2019s old seat, with markets watching every move.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Abel opened with a $4.5B write-down, giving Berkshire investors an early taste of his style.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Greg Abel\u2019s first taste of business came on two wheels in Edmonton, scanning the route home from school for empty soda bottles he could wash and redeem for 5 cents apiece. That small hustle is now part of the origin story of the man who became CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on 1\/1\/2026, the board\u2019s unanimous pick to succeed Warren Buffett, who stayed on as chairman. Fortune captured the arc in a 1\/5\/2026 profile that traced Abel\u2019s rise from bottle returns to billionaire executive. In his first shareholder letter, Abel didn\u2019t pretend the transition would be easy: \u201cWarren is obviously a very hard act to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>A five-cent habit that stuck<\/h2>\n<p>Back in January, Fortune sketched a tidy origin story for <b>Greg Abel<\/b>: not a corner office, but a kid on a bike, scanning curbs for discarded glass. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2026\/01\/05\/meet-greg-abel-new-ceo-of-berkshire-hathaway-billionaire-boomer-start-in-business-selling-empty-soda-bottles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 5, 2026<\/a> profile, Abel\u2019s first taste of business came from collecting, cleaning, and redeeming empty soda bottles for <b>5 cents<\/b> apiece.<\/p>\n<p>He treated it like a system. Abel would optimize his route home from school to pick up more bottles, the kind of small operational tweak you hear later in boardroom lore, except this one happened on neighborhood streets in Edmonton. He also took on a paper route and other odd jobs, including distributing flyers, stacking early lessons about time, effort, and repeatable routines.<\/p>\n<h2>From Edmonton to the American power business<\/h2>\n<p>Abel was born Gregory Edward Abel on <b>June 1, 1962<\/b>, in Edmonton, Alberta, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Greg-Abel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Britannica\u2019s biography<\/a>. In high school he worked part time at Levitt-Safety and played football, then graduated from the University of Alberta in 1984 with a bachelor of commerce degree.<\/p>\n<p>After college, he began at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Edmonton before transferring to the firm\u2019s San Francisco office, then joined CalEnergy, a geothermal electricity producer, in 1992. The pivotal corporate turn came in October 1999, when Berkshire Hathaway announced it was buying a controlling interest in the company, later renamed MidAmerican and ultimately folded into Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Abel went on to serve as CEO and executive chairman of that energy unit from 2008 to 2018.<\/p>\n<h2>Becoming Buffett\u2019s successor, officially<\/h2>\n<p>The succession story turned from long-telegraphed to finalized when <b>Berkshire Hathaway<\/b> made Abel CEO on <b>January 1, 2026<\/b>. The board voted unanimously, while <b>Warren Buffett<\/b> remained chairman, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/greg-abel-berkshire-hathaway-warren-buffett-successor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CBS News reported<\/a>. Buffett put it plainly: \u201cthe time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year-end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Abel was 63 at the handoff, following Buffett, then 95, after a six-decade run that reshaped Berkshire from a struggling textile maker into one of the world\u2019s most successful companies. For American markets, it meant the Buffett era of day-to-day leadership had a date stamp, and investors had a new operator to study.<\/p>\n<h2>The first shareholder letter, and an early test<\/h2>\n<p>In late February 2026, Abel released his first letter to shareholders, landing with a concrete financial marker: a <b>$4.5 billion write-down<\/b> on the value of Berkshire\u2019s Kraft Heinz and Occidental Petroleum stakes. The moment was notable not because it tried to mimic Buffett\u2019s voice, but because it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Abel acknowledged the comparison pressure directly, writing, \u201cWarren is obviously a very hard act to follow.\u201d For readers who track leadership the way they track earnings, that line, plus the late-February write-down, set the early outline of his tenure: pragmatic, numbers-forward, and comfortable admitting the shadow he\u2019s working under.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/featured\/warren-buffetts-successor-started-out-selling-empty-soda-bottles-for-5-cents-now-he-runs-berkshire-hathaway-49201\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways Greg Abel turned 5-cent bottle runs into the habits now steering Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire\u2019s Jan. 1 handoff puts Abel in Buffett\u2019s old seat, with markets watching every move. Abel opened with a $4.5B write-down, giving Berkshire investors an early taste of his style. Greg Abel\u2019s first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":79174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}