OMAHA — A top executive of Berkshire Hathaway who was believed to be on the inside track to one day succeed billionaire Warren Buffett as chief executive has resigned suddenly.
Buffett said Wednesday that David Sokol’s resignation letter, delivered by his assistant late Monday, came as a “total surprise.” But the resignation letter arrived less than two weeks after Buffett learned about stock trades that Sokol made before Berkshire announced its $9 billion acquisition of chemical company Lubrizol.
Buffett said Sokol, who had been serving as chairman of Berkshire’s MidAmerican Energy, NetJets and Johns Manville units, indicated that he wants to spend more time on philanthropy.
“It is my goal to utilize the time remaining in my career to invest my family’s resources in such a way as to create enduring equity value and hopefully an enterprise which will provide opportunity for my descendents and funding for my philanthropic interests,” Sokol wrote. The Associated Press
