Ted Weschler
Investment Manager, Berkshire Hathaway
One of the two investment managers hired to eventually help manage Berkshire's equity portfolio.
Biography
Ted Weschler is one of the two investment managers Warren Buffett hired to help run Berkshire Hathaway's equity portfolio and, eventually, to carry the investment function past Buffett's own tenure. He joined Berkshire shortly after the end of 2011, following Todd Combs, who had come aboard at the start of that year.
Weschler's path to Omaha ran through a charity auction. He won the annual Glide Foundation lunch with Buffett twice — in 2010 and again in 2011 — paying more than $2.6 million each time, over $5.2 million combined, for the privilege of a meal. At the second lunch, Buffett concluded that the man across the table was someone Berkshire should hire, and made the offer. Before Berkshire, Weschler had spent more than a decade running Peninsula Capital Advisors, a hedge fund he founded in Charlottesville, Virginia, which compiled an outstanding record. He wound the fund down and returned capital to his investors to take a salaried job in Omaha.
The 2011 letter introduced him to shareholders alongside Combs: both men, Buffett wrote, had outstanding investment skills and a deep commitment to Berkshire, and each had the brains, judgment and character to manage the entire portfolio when Buffett and Munger were no longer running the place. A lighter fact from the 2012 letter rounds out the picture: Weschler has run a marathon in 3:01, making him one of the faster men in a Berkshire leadership group unusually full of serious runners.
Key Stories
The $5 Million Lunches — Winning one charity lunch with Buffett is a story; winning two, at more than $2.6 million apiece, is a campaign. Weschler's second lunch ended with a job offer. The route from auction bidder to Berkshire investment manager became one of the more retold hiring stories in modern Wall Street — and, from Buffett's side, evidence that talent worth having sometimes has to be recognized wherever it shows up.
Closing Peninsula — Accepting Buffett's offer meant shutting down Peninsula Capital Advisors, the successful fund Weschler had built in Charlottesville, and returning its capital to investors. He traded the economics of a fund founder for a salary and a performance formula — 80% tied to his own results, 20% to his partner's — inside someone else's company. The move said plainly what he valued: the work and the institution over the fee structure.
From $1.75 Billion to $34 Billion — Buffett started the pair small. Combs built a $1.75 billion portfolio in 2011; Weschler was expected to create one of similar size. By yearend 2012 each ran almost $5 billion, by 2013 more than $7 billion, by 2015 about $9 billion, and by 2021 the two together held total authority over $34 billion of investments. Buffett learned what they were buying the same way everyone else at headquarters did — from the monthly trade sheets.
Chairman of Two Small Companies — In 2014 Buffett asked each man to take the chairman's seat at one of two newly acquired companies, arguing that evaluating investments and managing businesses are separate skills and that each man should exercise both. The arrangement, he wrote, would make them even better investors than they already were — "which is to say among the best."
Impact on Berkshire
Weschler matters to Berkshire less for any single position than for what he and Combs together solve: the hardest succession problem at the company, the investment function.
Succession for the Portfolio: From the first announcement in the 2011 letter, Buffett framed the two hires as the men with the brains, judgment and character to manage Berkshire's entire portfolio when he and Munger were gone. Each subsequent letter enlarged the mandate and repeated the assurance. In 2012 he told shareholders they could rest easy when the pair took over.
A Cultural Proof, Not Just a Performance Proof: Buffett's language about the two is consistent — smart, models of integrity, a perfect cultural fit, "Berkshire blood in their veins." After both beat the S&P 500 by double-digit margins in 2012 and again outperformed him in 2013, he confessed the comparisons were getting humiliating and joked he would have to stop talking about them.
Value Beyond the Portfolio: Buffett repeatedly noted that both men added value in matters unrelated to investing — sourcing and educating him on acquisitions, advising on businesses, and chairing subsidiaries. In the 2015 letter he called hiring the two one of his best moves.
The Mandate's Later Shape: The 2021 letter records the pair at $34 billion of total authority. The 2025 letter shows the arrangement evolving: Weschler manages about 6% of Berkshire's investments, including a portion of the portfolio formerly overseen by Combs, and continues to play a broader role assessing significant opportunities and advising on Berkshire's businesses.
Key Passages from Buffett's Letters
As 2011 started, Todd Combs joined us as an investment manager, and shortly after yearend Ted Weschler came aboard. Both of these men have outstanding investment skills and a deep commitment to Berkshire. Each will be handling a few billion dollars in 2012, but they have the brains, judgment and character to manage our entire portfolio when Charlie and I are no longer running Berkshire.
Todd Combs built a $1.75 billion portfolio (at cost) last year, and Ted Weschler will soon create one of similar size. Each of them receives 80% of his performance compensation from his own results and 20% from his partner’s.
Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, our new investment managers, have proved to be smart, models of integrity, helpful to Berkshire in many ways beyond portfolio management, and a perfect cultural fit. We hit the jackpot with these two. In 2012 each outperformed the S&P 500 by double-digit margins. They left me in the dust as well.
Consequently, we have increased the funds managed by each to almost $5 billion (some of this emanating from the pension funds of our subsidiaries). Todd and Ted are young and will be around to manage Berkshire’s massive portfolio long after Charlie and I have left the scene. You can rest easy when they take over.
In a year in which most equity managers found it impossible to outperform the S&P 500, both Todd Combs and Ted Weschler handily did so. Each now runs a portfolio exceeding $7 billion. They’ve earned it. I must again confess that their investments outperformed mine. (Charlie says I should add “by a lot.”)
I therefore think it’s worthwhile for Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, our two investment managers, to each have oversight of at least one of our businesses.
Though Todd and Ted Weschler are primarily investment managers -- they each handle about $9 billion for us -- both of them cheerfully and ably add major value to Berkshire in other ways as well. Hiring these two was one of my best moves.
At yearend, this valued pair had total authority in respect to $34 billion of investments, many of which do not meet the threshold value we use in the table.