9 Comments
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Martin Teigstad Moe's avatar

Thanks for this piece!

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Kingswell's avatar

Hi Martin — Thanks for reading! Much appreciated :)

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Dealmaker's avatar

Future ceo of JPM

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Raven's avatar

What about Ted?

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Kingswell's avatar

It will be very interesting to see whether Ted will shoulder the investing load alone now or if someone new will be brought in. Lots of questions remain after this surprising news.

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Matt Newell's avatar

For a man usually so lavish in his praise, his comments on Todd seem rather frugal.

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Sleepwell's avatar

that's because he didn't resign, he was fired.

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David Merkel's avatar

I wouldn't say I was close to Todd Combs. The last time I said anything to him was to congratulate him for getting the job at Berkshire Hathaway. I sometimes sat next to him at insurance sell-side presentations/conferences. He generally chose his insurance picks very well. Very bright and friendly guy.

This is quite a loss for Berkshire Hathaway. Todd could have been an able #2 to Greg Abel, with the possibility of succeeding him one day. He will be difficult, if not impossible to replace. He knew both investing and insurance well, and the other one who has that profile at BRK is reducing his efforts in 20+ days.

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Kingswell's avatar

Hi David - Agreed on Combs's mix of insurance and investing knowledge. That's an uncommon skillset that linked up well with Buffett.

Hopefully Combs will do more interviews while with JPMorgan Chase. I really enjoyed the few he did while at Berkshire and would love to hear more.

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