Emmet

So we're talking about 1999.

So they're known to each other for quite a while, 26 years.

He became the CEO

of what is now berkshire hathaway energy in 2008 and he ran it through 15 years of acquisitions and renewables build out and in 2018 was promoted to vice chairman of all non-insurance operations which like most people know that berkshire is in large part a house of insurance brands

Geico being the cornerstone.

But there's a giant portfolio of non-insurance stuff that includes BNSF Railroad, See's Candy, as discussed, Dairy Queen, Brooks, Pilot Travel Centers, the Marmon Industrial Group, and loads and loads, dozens and dozens more of brands.

But by 2021, Charlie Munger supposedly let it slip.

that Greg will keep the culture, but I don't really buy that because Charlie Munger rarely that anything slipped.

The guy was a human computer and he was, he measured his words.

He didn't speak all that often.

So the succession was a Wall Street open secret.

So you're dead right when eventually Warren said, oh, and he's the new guy.

And everyone pretended to be surprised, probably including Greg Abel.

But privately,

um he is very different to his predecessor's caricature he still lives in fairness in des moines we would call it des moines but in america i believe it's called des moines which is in iowa

iowa thank you not home i don't know if it's i also don't know if it's pronounced des moines well i think in america they call it des moines i was watching it des moines is how i pronounce it des moines i think is how it's pronounced but maybe sorry maybe okay well right and if you're from des moines tell us how you pronounce your i i was watching a a tv show and they were calling it des moines and i was quite surprised there was only recently um anyway yeah

It's also, by the way, the birthplace of one of my favorite authors, Bill Bryson.

And he wrote a great book about growing up in Des Moines called, I think it was The Life of the Thunderbolt Kid.

Oh, it's such a wonderful book.

It talks about the simple pleasures of growing up in suburban...