During his childhood Abel did odd jobs like distributing flyers and returning bottles to make money. He also worked as a laborer for a forest product company.[3] He did not participate in too many extracurricular activities in school, aside from hockey and football.[4]
He earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Alberta in 1984, and is an AICPA certified public accountant.[2][5]
Abel began his career as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in their San Francisco office. In 1992, he joined CalEnergy, a geothermal electricity producer.[2] In 1999, CalEnergy acquired MidAmerican Energy, adopting its name, and Berkshire Hathaway acquired a controlling interest later that year. Abel became CEO of MidAmerican in 2008,[6] and the company was renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy in 2014.[2]
In January 2018, Abel was named Berkshire Hathaway's vice chairman for non-insurance operations and appointed to Berkshire's board of directors.[7]
In a May 2021 interview, Warren Buffett confirmed Abel as his future successor as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.[10][11] Abel's handling of CalEnergy’s take-over of a British utility in the 1990s is credited to mark the start of this transition.[12]
In June 2022, he sold his 1% stake in Berkshire Hathaway Energy for $870 million.[13]
In October 2022, it was announced that Abel purchased 168 shares of Berkshire Class A shares worth approximately $68 million. This equates to an approximate average share purchase price of $404,761.90. Prior to this latest purchase, Abel held five Class A shares, and 2,363 Class B shares, according to previous filings. [14]
