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Berkshire CEO Greg Abel sworn in as U.S. citizen at baseball game
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel is now a citizen of the United States.
Abel, a longtime Iowa resident who was born in the Canadian city of Edmonton in 1962, was among the roughly two dozen people from 16 countries who participated in an annual naturalization ceremony hosted by the Iowa Cubs Thursday night in Des Moines, before the AAA minor league baseball team played the Buffalo Bisons.
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Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel holds a U.S. flag at a naturalization ceremony hosted by the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines on June 25, 2026. Photo: Iowa Cubs/Michael Hill
In an interview with CNBC's Becky Quick during the lunch break of last month's Berkshire annual meeting, Warren Buffett revealed Abel would be getting his American citizenship "very soon" and "as successful as he's been in everything else ... it means something to him to become an American citizen."
"You can't buy that anyplace — (laughs) — or package it, you know?"
Abel has an estimated net worth of around $1 billion and runs a company valued at more than $1 trillion, but he generally maintains a low profile in public and his role as Berkshire's CEO was not highlighted at the event, even as he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.
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Greg Abel celebrates after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the Iowa Cubs played the Buffalo Bisons on June 25, 2026. Photo: Iowa Cubs/Rocco Caruso
The report by NBC affiliate WHO-TV says only that "Greg Abel, a former Canadian citizen" threw the first pitch and "the ball went home with him, a nice souvenir from his first day as an American."
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WHO-TV Video: Iowa welcomes new U.S. citizens at Principal Park ceremony
It was the 18th annual naturalization ceremony organized by the team, with 533 new citizens sworn in.
The team says another 5,000 candidates have become citizens at other non-game day ceremonies at the ballpark over the past six years.
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Greg Abel, holding his U.S. Certificate of Naturalization, poses with Cubbie Bear, the Iowa Cubs mascot, and Stephen Locher, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Iowa, who conducted the ceremony. Photo: Iowa Cubs/Rocco Caruso
Iowa Cubs General Manager Randy Wehofer told WHO many of the new citizens have "worked really hard, they've sacrificed a lot [and taken] a big risk to leave their home, to chase the American dream that many of us were born into, but not all. And so I think we can identify with that even if it's not our story. It's the American story."
Why it may finally be the right time for Berkshire to join the Dow 30
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index, a relic of its creation in 1896 when it was calculated without the help of modern computers.
Unlike the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, which are capitalization-weighted indexes, stocks with higher stock prices have more influence in its calculation than lower-priced stocks.
For all these years, that kept Berkshire Hathaway out of the Dow. Warren Buffett's aversion to stock splits meant its stock price, especially for the A shares, which are currently worth more than $745,000 each, would have overwhelmed the other 29 stocks, making it, in effect, just a Berkshire index.
https://link.cnbc.com/public/46335043 