Susan Decker

Susan Decker joined the Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors in 2006. At the time of her appointment, she was CFO of Yahoo! Inc. and 44 years old — making her one of the youngest and most operationally active directors Buffett had appointed.

📝 Why She Was Chosen

Buffett used Decker's appointment in the 2006 letter as a benchmark for what Berkshire actually wants in a board member — a direct contrast to the passive, rubber-stamp directors who became common at large corporations. His four criteria, applied explicitly to Decker:

1. Owner-oriented: Thinks like a shareholder, not a company loyalist.
2. Business-savvy: Has genuine operational knowledge of how companies work.
3. Truly interested: Engaged with Berkshire's actual strategy and businesses, not just performing governance.
4. Truly independent: Willing to challenge management; not financially or professionally dependent on the CEO relationship.

Buffett noted that her age was a plus — a deliberate signal that Berkshire's board needed directors who would serve over a long horizon and engage with the business's future, not its past.

📝 The Broader Commentary

Decker's appointment came in the context of Buffett's ongoing critique of "checklist governance" — the post-Sarbanes-Oxley tendency of boards to tick compliance boxes rather than exercise genuine business judgment. Buffett's ideal board member is an owner first, a director second. Decker exemplified that sequence.

🔗 Connections

• Concepts: Corporate Governance, Owner's Manual, Succession Planning
• Sources: 2006 Letter