Yahoo Finance Berkshire Hathaway director reveals what happens inside board meetings
Every year thousands of people descend on Omaha, Nebraska, to hear what Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger have to say.
The two leaders take questions from journalists and shareholders, who ask about anything from recent investments to politics. While the meeting gives shareholders an inside look into how Buffett and Munger make their investment decisions, do you ever wonder what goes on behind closed doors? Ron Olson, who has been a director at Berkshire Hathaway since 1997, tells Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer some of the topics that are discussed at Berkshire Hathaway board meetings.
“First of all it's fun because anything you do with Warren Buffett is fun,” said Olson. “We have an important agenda that Warren does not dominate. The single most important is always having a successor in mind. On top of that, he reports to us on any of the major businesses that are having any challenges. He wants us to understand the bad things more than he wants us to understand the good things and that's the focus of the meetings.”
In addition to his comments on Berkshire Hathaway board meetings, Olson told Yahoo Finance that one of the most interesting takeaways from this year's shareholders meeting were Buffett’s comments on a Berkshire subsidiary’s push to reduce incentives for Nevada homeowners to use solar panels.
“The way he handled that was interesting and as always done in a way in which you learned something,” said Olson.
Click here to view a full replay of the 2016 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting, which Yahoo Finance live-streamed exclusively. At this page you can also find our extensive coverage of the event.
