Todd Combs, one of Warren Buffett’s investing lieutenants and the CEO of GEICO, is departing Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B, BRK-A) and joining JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in a new role as part of a major shake-up involving both firms.
Combs is leaving Berkshire Hathaway and his role leading GEICO to run the bank’s new investment group as part of its wider “security and resilience” initiative announced in October.
Combs will report directly to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and step down from the company’s board, where he has served since 2016. Combs will also serve as a special adviser to Dimon and the bank’s operating committee.
“Todd Combs is one of the greatest investors and leaders I’ve known,” Dimon said in a statement. “Having served nine years on our Board, he truly understands all aspects of our company.”
“JPMorgan, as usually is the case, has made a good decision,” Warren Buffett said in a press release issued by Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett and Dimon have for years held a friendly relationship, with Dimon frequently visiting Buffett in Omaha, Neb. Before Buffett stopped traveling some years ago, he was known to appear at JPMorgan events in New York, according to a person familiar with the matter.
JPMorgan’s “security and resiliency” initiative involves the bank committing $1.5 trillion to financing and lending efforts to strengthen America’s interests in supply chains, technology capacity, and industrial resilience. It also includes a $10 billion pool dedicated to strategic venture capital and equity investments for companies involved in AI, minerals, and defense manufacturing.
JPMorgan also unveiled an all-star external advisory council, chaired by Dimon, that will advise on the broader national security initiative. The group includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Dell founder Michael Dell, Ford (F) CEO Jim Farley, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) CEO Alex Grosky, General Dynamics (GD) CEO Phebe Novakovic, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and several former defense, intelligence, and industry executives.
“We are quite a patriotic company, and then we just started asking what more can we do?” Dimon said during a fireside chat over the weekend at a defense conference hosted at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
“We’ll have partners — a lot of people. We’ll partner with other banks if we have to,” he added.
The move also comes as Berkshire announces a wider executive shuffle ahead of its planned CEO transition later this month, with Greg Abel set to take over from Buffett on Jan. 1.
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