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ENTITY
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Ted Weschler
Ted Weschler is an investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway, hired in late 2011 (announced in September) to manage a portion of Berkshire's equity portfolio alongside Todd Combs. His hiring marked the completion of the "investment succession" framework envisioned by Warren Buffett.
🏁 Professional Background
Before joining Berkshire, Weschler ran Peninsula Capital Advisors, a hedge fund based in Charlottesville, Virginia, which he founded in 1999. He is famously known for winning two charity auctions (Glide Foundation) to have lunch with Warren Buffett, bidding over $5 million in total. During these lunches, he so impressed Buffett with his temperament and intellectual flexibility that Buffett decided to offer him a job.
🚀 Role at Berkshire
Weschler leads one half of the investment management team reporting directly to Buffett.
- Capital Allocation: He manages a multi-billion dollar portfolio with complete autonomy. His mandate is to find "wonderful businesses at fair prices" that fit the Berkshire ethos.
- Thinking Big: Beyond stock picking, Buffett has noted that both Weschler and Combs are "first-class" thinkers who help him identify potential large-scale acquisitions.
- Succession: He is a key pillar of the post-Buffett architecture, ensuring the portfolio remains in the hands of managers who share the "Omaha DNA."
📈 Operational Milestones
- 2011: Joins Berkshire. He begins by managing a ~$2 billion portfolio, which Buffett expects to grow over time as more capital is retained.
- 2012: Portfolio reaches $2.75 billion by March. Buffett identifies him as a "home run" for the company.
- 2013: Outperformed the S&P 500 for the second consecutive year. His managed portfolio grew to exceed $7 billion. Buffett formally noted that both he and Combs provide massive value in evaluating large-scale acquisitions.
- Collaborative Incentive: Weschler's compensation is tied 20% to the performance of Todd Combs, incentivizing the sharing of ideas rather than performance silos.
- Strategic Impact: Beyond portfolio management, Weschler's perspective was instrumental in evaluating large-scale acquisitions.
- 2016 Meeting: Portfolio crosses $10 billion. Buffett describes both managers as "perfect cultural fits for Berkshire" — smart, contributing to multiple areas beyond investment mandates, and sharing the same fundamental philosophy: find businesses they understand, priced sensibly, that will earn significantly more in 5–10 years. Buffett: "I'd add another zero to the size" as the main difference between his approach and theirs.
- 2018: Portfolios reach $13 billion each. Additionally, they manage roughly $1.8 billion of pension trust money (operating independently, outside the view of Buffett). This underscores the continued trust and expansion of responsibilities placed upon the "Two T's."
- 2019 Meeting: The purchase of Amazon stock by either Ted or Todd sparked questions about deviating from "value investing". Buffett vigorously defended the purchase, confirming that their analysis of Amazon's future cash flows perfectly aligns with classic value principles.
🔗 Connections
- Source: 2011 Letter, 2011 Meeting
- People: Warren Buffett, Todd Combs, Charlie Munger
- Concepts: Succession Planning, Circle of Competence, Value Investing
[!TIP] Weschler and Combs are often referred to as the "Two T's" of Berkshire’s investment future. Their hiring shifted the weight of portfolio management away from a single "Oracle" toward a sophisticated, multi-manager team.
📚 Historical Mentions & Citations (11)
Click a reference document below to expand and read the exact paragraph(s) containing this concept in the archive.
📜2011 LetterExcerpt Available▼
2011 LetterExcerpt Available
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. When our quarterly filings report relatively small holdings, these are not likely to be buys I made (though the media often overlook that point) but rather holdings denoting purchases by Todd or Ted.
📜2012 LetterExcerpt Available▼
2012 LetterExcerpt Available
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.
One point about the composition of this list deserves mention. In Berkshire’s past annual reports, every stock itemized in this space has been bought by me, in the sense that I made the decision to buy it for Berkshire. But starting with this list, any investment made by Todd Combs or Ted Weschler — or a combined purchase by them — that meets the dollar threshold for the list ($1 billion this year) will be included. Above is the first such stock, DIRECTV, which both Todd and Ted hold in their portfolios and whose combined holdings at the end of 2012 were valued at the $1.15 billion shown.
🎙️2012 MeetingExcerpt Available▼
2012 MeetingExcerpt Available
I don’t think that — I think it’s unlikely that whoever follows me — well, they’ll be in — there will be several investment guys that follow me, at least two, and they’re on board now, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. We hit a home run with both of them. We got better than we deserved, but Charlie and I like that. And they — it’s unlikely they do anything — very unlikely they do anything — in derivatives, although I wouldn’t restrict them from doing it because they’re smart people and sometimes derivatives get mispriced. But it’s not going to be a huge factor at Berkshire. I think we’re going to do really, probably, quite well with the derivative positions that we have. We’ve done fine with the ones that have expired so far, and I like the positions. But the rules have changed in relation to collateralizing, and I don’t like ever exposing us to anything that would cause me to worry about Berkshire’s financial condition if the Federal Reserve were hit by a nuclear bomb tomorrow, or anything of the sort, or Europe, you know, something terrible happened.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: OK, here’s the question: “Please tell us more about your experience this past year with Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. What did they do well, and did they make any mistakes? And please discuss how you compensate them a bit more. In an interview, you said that Todd Combs was well compensated for the performance of his stock picks last year. Should we be worried about a short-term horizon for compensation? How do you ensure that Todd and Ted don’t chase high-flying stocks for the sake of compensation?
📜2013 LetterExcerpt Available▼
2013 LetterExcerpt Available
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.
🎙️2013 MeetingExcerpt Available▼
2013 MeetingExcerpt Available
BECKY QUICK: This question comes from Andishi Tuzush (PH) who asks, “If Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, if they purchase stock in a company that you have reviewed before and did not believe to be a good investment, would you share your thoughts with them?”
📜2015 LetterExcerpt Available▼
2015 LetterExcerpt Available
A personal thank-you: The PCC acquisition would not have happened without the input and assistance of our own Todd Combs, who brought the company to my attention a few years ago and went on to educate me about both the business and Mark. 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.
📜2016 LetterExcerpt Available▼
2016 LetterExcerpt Available
Some of the stocks in the table are the responsibility of either Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, who work with me in managing Berkshire’s investments. Each, independently, manages more than $10 billion; I usually learn about decisions they have made by looking at monthly trade sheets. Included in the $21 billion that the two manage is about $7.6 billion of pension trust assets of certain Berkshire subsidiaries. As noted, pension investments are not included in the preceding tabulation of Berkshire holdings.
🎙️2016 MeetingReference Only▼
2016 MeetingReference Only
Mentioned in this document.
🎙️2019 MeetingReference Only▼
2019 MeetingReference Only
Mentioned in this document.
📜2020 LetterReference Only▼
2020 LetterReference Only
Mentioned in this document.
🎙️2020 MeetingExcerpt Available▼
2020 MeetingExcerpt Available
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I don’t remember, to tell you the truth. But one thing you have to allow for — well, these are the figures for Berkshire Hathaway, and they include both Todd and — Todd Combs and Ted Weschler manage significant sums of money.