Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Berksshire Hathaway said on Friday that longtime director Ronald Olson would leave his committee for a change in policy that demands that the directors, except Warren Buffett, deviate after he was 80 years old.
In Proxy a statement for his annual meeting on May 3 in Omahi, Nebraska, Berksshire also said his committee unanimously called for the rejection of seven shareholder proposals, including three about the diversity of his branches and efforts against discrimination.
Berksshire also said that Buffett’s fee was $ 405,11111 in 2024, which made his usual salary of $ 100,000 plus personal and home security.
Vice -President Greg Abel, who is expected to inherit Buffett as executive director, and Vice President Ayit Jain saw that their fee increased from $ 1 million to $ 21 million.
Abel, 62, supervises companies that are not insurance, such as BNSF Railroad and Berksshire Hathaway Energy, while Jain, 73, overseeing insurance companies like Geico Car Insurance.
Olson, 83, is a partner at Munger’s law firm Tolles & Olson, and has been the director of Berksshire since 1997.
He leaves the Berksshire Committee of 14 members due to new age borders in his corporate control guidelines. All other directors except Buffett are 75 or younger.
Olson did not immediately respond to the commenting requests.
Buffett is said goodbye to the age limit for controlling 30.3% of the voting power of Berksshire, which has caused an exception to people who control at least 5%.
The 94-year-old billionaire also has about 14.4% of Berksshire shares. They would allow him to remain a director after retirement, if independent directors want to stay.
Shareholders’ proposals include the resolution of conservative investors to report Berksshire on how his business practices affect employees based on race, colors, religions, gender, national origin and political attitudes, and the risk of initiatives based on the races of their branches.
The Berksshire Committee called both reports unnecessary, saying that the branches set their own policies, and “Berksshire’s approach is simple – follow the law and do the right thing.”
The Committee also opposed the proposal to create a Committee for the Supervision of Diversity and Inclusion, saying that its audit committee was already overseeing the diversity of questions.
He also said that it was a proposal for independent directors to monitor the risks associated with artificial intelligence unnecessary and inconsistent with the decentralized Berksshire culture.
(Reporting Jonathan Stempel in New York; Richard Chang Mounting)
