Buffett successor Greg Abel is a ‘regular guy’ from Iowa with a ‘shocking workload’

Buffett successor Greg Abel is a ‘regular guy’ from Iowa with a ‘shocking workload’

At a hockey rink in West Des Moines, Iowa, Greg Abel is just another dad, a volunteer coach on his son's team. He digs pucks out of the net after practice and hands out praise and fist bumps as the boys leave the ice.

Few would know the 59-year-old in the beat-up ballcap is next in line to run Berkshire Hathaway, the $761 billion conglomerate based in Omaha, Nebraska, founded and led by investment icon Warren Buffett.

Like other parents, Abel just wants to spend time with his kid, help him learn a sport and have fun, says Shayne Ratcliff, whose son's hockey team shares practice times with Abel's son's team at the new $45 million, 300,000-square-foot RecPlex.