I remember the concern expressed about Greg Abel after the Berkshire annual meeting last year. I was concerned, too. Therefore, it was really great to hear Charlie praise Greg at the DJCO annual meeting yesterday.

These are my notes - Charlie's comments about Greg:

Becky said that the questioner asked for Charlie to share some important things about Greg Abel and share examples of his being a learning machine.

Charlie answered that:

Greg is sensational at being a business leader. Both as a thinker and a doer.
He is also sensationally good at smoothly getting things done through other people.
He's a very remarkable human being and Berkshire is very lucky to have him.

He's also a tremendous learning machine. You could argue that he's as good as Warren in learning all kinds of things. The interesting thing about Greg is that there are some things he is better at than Warren is. And Warren knows that and he just keeps dumping things on Greg. Everything that Greg can do better and that's a lot.

And so the system at Berkshire is working ptetty damnn well.
We're very lucky to have a 92 year old sharp as Warren ... and very lucky to have a chief executive like Greg. Greg is very remarkable.

Greg is trusted by the utility regulators and rightly so. He is trying to run all those ultilities as though he's the regulator. Now how many people think that way? But it's a smart way to think. Why not please your ... why not have it done the way you'd want it done if you were on the other side of the transation. How can you fail if you treat other people the way you'd like to be treated yourself? It's the Golden Rule. Of course it works.

Question: Who are some of the people you looked up to and most admired? What about them made them so special?

Answer: Jim Sinegal at Costco ....
Greg Abel ....
The guy who ran TTI ....

You can listen to the detail of those named above at the yahoo link provided. Comments on those 3 men are very near the end of the interview.