“Bill told Ajit Jain, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and I in early November he was about to turn 70 and finishing up his 35th year with GEICO, and that he intended to retire at the end of 2020,” said Tony Nicely, GEICO’s executive chairman. “Bill has done an outstanding job leading and growing GEICO throughout his career. Our results throughout his career have been excellent and our culture is strong. He has put in place a strong plan for the coming year.”
Replacing Bill as CEO will be Todd Combs, one of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment managers. “Todd has a strong career in insurance,” said Ajit Jain. “He initially worked at Progressive Insurance Company before going to graduate school to begin an investing career.” Since 2010, Combs has been an investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway.
In addition to becoming GEICO’s CEO, Combs will continue to manage $14 billion of investments for Berkshire Hathaway.
“I am looking forward to taking on the responsibilities of CEO at GEICO,” said Combs. “They have a strong senior management team, a great organization of 40,000 employees, a great brand, and are a very successful insurance company.”
Combs will assume his position as GEICO’s CEO effective January 1, 2020.