Susan Jacques

Summary

Susan Jacques is the President and CEO of Borsheims, the Omaha-based jewelry store acquired by Berkshire Hathaway. She is celebrated in Berkshire history for her rapid ascent from an entry-level sales role to Chief Executive.

Timeline & Role

1983: Joins Borsheims at age 23 as a sales assistant earning $4 an hour.
1983–1993: Demonstrates exceptional sales ability, gemological expertise, and management potential within the store.
1994: Appointed President and CEO of Borsheims. Buffett celebrates her promotion in the annual report. 1993 Letter

Strategic Importance

Jacques represents a classic Berkshire management success story:

Organic Talent Development: Her promotion highlights Berkshire's preference for promoting internal managers who thoroughly understand the customer experience and corporate culture, rather than hiring expensive outside executives.
Decentralized Excellence: Under her leadership, Borsheims continued to scale its high-volume, low-margin business model, maintaining its status as a massive cash-generating jewelry powerhouse.

🔗 Connections

Entities: Borsheims, Warren Buffett
Sources: 1993 Letter

📚 Historical Mentions & Citations (2)

Click a reference document below to expand and read the exact paragraph(s) containing this concept in the archive.

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1993 LetterExcerpt Available

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In past trips to Borsheim’s, many of you have met Susan Jacques. Early in 1994, Susan was made President and CEO of the company, having risen in 11 years from a $4-an-hour job that she took at the store when she was 23. Susan will be joined at Borsheim’s on Sunday by many of the managers of our other businesses, and Charlie and I will be there as well.

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1994 MeetingExcerpt Available

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WARREN BUFFETT: Now, I’d like to introduce some of the people that make this place work to you. And if you would hold your applause until the end because there are quite a number of our managers here. I’m not sure which ones for sure are here, some of them may be out tending the store as well. But, first of all, from Nebraska Furniture Mart, Louie, Ron, and Irv Blumkin. I’m not sure who’s here, but would you stand please, any of the Blumkins that are present? OK, we’ve — looks like Irv. I can’t quite see it. From Borsheims, is Susan Jacques here? Susan? There she is. Susan had a record day yesterday. She just — (applause) — Susan became CEO just a few months ago and she’s turning in records already. Keep it up. (Laughter) And from Central States Indemnity, we have the Kizers. I’m not sure which ones are here, but there’s Bill Sr., Bill Jr., John, and Dick. Kizers, stand up.

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