Who Is Ajit Jain, The Indian-American Warren Buffett Calls As His 'Good Luck Hiring' At Berkshire

92-year-old Warren Buffett re-confirmed last week that Greg Abel will be his successor at Berkshire Hathaway.

For decades, people were expecting Indian-origin Ajit Jain, who has been working at Berkshire since 1986, to be in the race to succeed Buffett. But Warren Buffett had himself revealed that contrary to what many might¡¯ve thought, there wasn¡¯t any competition between Greg Abel and Ajit Jain.

While the two had been viewed as top contenders since they were promoted to vice chairmen in 2018, Warren Buffett clarified that Ajit never wanted to run Berkshire.

ndtv

But he has been and is likely to continue to be a key man in Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett has heaped praise on Odisha-born Ajit Jain not once but multiple times, even calling him Berkshire¡¯s good luck hiring that happened in 1986.

Ajit Jain: Warren Buffett's 'Good Luck Hiring'

Last year, Buffett said much of Berkshire's huge value creation in insurance is attributable to Berkshire¡¯s "good luck in my 1986 hiring" of Ajit Jain. Ajit is the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway¡¯s insurance operations. Buffett¡¯s first meeting with Jain was on a Saturday morning.

Warren Buffett had asked Ajit what his insurance experience had been. He replied, ¡°None,¡± following which Buffett recalled replying ¡°Nobody¡¯s perfect,¡± and hired him. "That was my lucky day: Ajit actually was as perfect a choice as could have been made. Better yet, he continues to be ¨C 35 years later," Buffett had said.

And that¡¯s not all.

Also Read: How A Lost iPhone Led To Warren Buffett Investing Billions In Apple

What Warren Buffett Wrote To Ajit Jain's Father

Omaha World-Herald

Warren Buffett had also once mentioned that Ajit is one of the best minds in the world, and said "I wrote to Jain's father after he worked for us for a few years, and said that 'if you've got another son like this, send him over from India because we'll own the world'," Buffett had said while addressing the 55th annual general meeting (AGM) of Berkshire Hathaway.

Famously, in a letter to shareholders, Buffett, as per a CNBC report, said that should he, his partner Charlie Munger and Ajit Jain be on a sinking boat, 'and you can save only one of us -- swim to Ajit'.

¡°Ajit¡¯s mind is an idea factory that is always looking for more lines of business he can add to his current assortment,¡± Warren Buffett had said about Jain in 2013 annual report of Berkshire Hathaway, adding ¡°Ajit insures risks that no one else has the desire or the capital to take on,¡± said Buffet, adding, ¡°His operation combines capacity, speed, decisiveness and, most important, brains in a manner unique in the business.¡±

Also Read: Warren Buffett's 13-year-old Interview With Jay-Z Goes Viral

Ajit Jain¡¯s Early Life

cnbc

Odisha-born Ajit Jain did his schooling at Stewart School, Cuttack. Jain is an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur, and graduated in 1972 with a Btech degree in mechanical engineering. From 1973 to 1976, Jain worked for IBM as a salesman for their data-processing operations in India. In 1978, Jain moved to the United States, where he did his MBA from Harvard University and joined McKinsey & Co.

In 1986, he left McKinsey to work on insurance operations for Warren Buffett. Former Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, Anshu Jain, is Ajit Jain's cousin.

Also Read: Mohnish Pabrai: The 'Copycat Crorepati' Who Made Billions By Following Warren Buffett¡¯s Strategy

For more such interesting content and the latest financial news, keep reading Worth. Click here.