Buffett turns to deputies to help find successors for CEOs

Warren Buffett isn't the only chief executive officer that Berkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders have to worry about replacing. Managing CEO turnover has become more demanding with the company's expansion.

Last week the Benjamin Moore paint unit named its third chief in two years, bringing in an executive who worked before with Ted Weschler, 52, one of Buffett's investing deputies.

As the company grows and managers get older, Buffett, 83, can't always count on his preferred method of naming CEOs, which is to ask leaders of the more than 80 businesses to find their own successors.

Benjamin Moore shows that Buffett is relying on newcomers like the paint maker's chairman, Tracy Britt Cool, 29, and Weschler to help with the task.

"Occasionally, you're going to find subsidiaries that just don't have a second-in-command," Robert Miles, author of "The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers" said by phone. "But I think the system works."

Since 2007, there have been internal promotions to CEO at subsidiaries including ice cream seller Dairy Queen; Cort, a furniture-rental company; luxury-plane operator NetJets; and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which runs electric utilities and gas pipelines. Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire used a different playbook at Benjamin Moore, one of four units that counts Cool as chairman.