After Price Waterhouse, Abel joined a small utility company called CalEnergy. He worked his way up through acquisitions, mergers, and a lot of soul-crushing paperwork. By 2000, he was running MidAmerican Energy, which Berkshire later bought.
How Did Greg Abel Grow at Berkshire Hathaway?
Here’s the kicker: he didn’t move to the U.S. until his late 30s. By then, he’d already built a reputation as the guy who could fix anything. When Buffett asked him to move to Omaha, Abel said yes—but he kept his Canadian citizenship. (Take that, bureaucracy.)
The Quiet Charisma of a Prairie Boy
Let’s be honest—Greg Abel isn’t a flashy guy. He doesn’t tweet, doesn’t do TV interviews, and probably owns one suit. His charisma is the quiet kind: he listens, he nods, and then he makes a decision that saves billions.
People who’ve worked with him say he’s “unflappable.” That’s Canadian for “doesn’t freak out when things go wrong.” And trust me, in the energy business, things go wrong every five minutes.
