Ajit Jain | |
---|---|
Born | |
Citizenship | United States |
Education |
IIT Kharagpur (
B.Tech) Harvard University ( MBA) |
Occupation | Businessman |
Title | Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations, Berkshire Hathaway |
Board member of | Berkshire Hathaway |
Spouse | Tinku Jain (m. 1981) |
Ajit Jain (born 1951) is an Indian-American executive who is the Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations for Berkshire Hathaway as of January 10, 2018. [1] [2] Ajit Jain is an older cousin of Anshu Jain, who was the former Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank. [3]
Jain attended Stewart School in Cuttack. In 1972, he graduated from the IIT Kharagpur in India with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering. [4] [5]
From 1973 to 1976, Jain worked for IBM as a salesman for their data-processing operations in India. He was named "Rookie of the Year" in his region in 1973. [6] He lost his job in 1976 when IBM discontinued their operation in India because they declined to allow any Indian ownership of the company, as was then required by law. [6]
In 1978, Jain moved to the United States, where he earned an MBA from Harvard University and joined McKinsey & Co. He returned to India in the early 1980s and married. The Jains then moved back to the United States, as Jain's wife preferred to live there. [7]
In 1986, he left McKinsey to work on insurance operations for Warren Buffett. Jain was invited by his former boss, Michael Goldberg, who had left McKinsey & Co. to join Berkshire Hathaway in 1982. [6] At the time, he said he knew little about the insurance business. [8]
In the annual letter to shareholders on 2014, it was suggested that both Jain and Greg Abel could be appropriate successors for Warren Buffett as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. [9] [10] In January 2018, Jain was named Berkshire Hathaway's vice chair of insurance operations and appointed to Hathaway's board of directors. [2]
Jain lives in the New York City area. [11]
In 2005, Jain established the Jain Foundation, a non-profit organization located in Seattle, Washington, the mission of which is to cure limb-girdle muscular dystrophies caused by dysferlin protein deficiency, a condition that Jain's son has. [12] [13]
his successors would not be 'of only moderate ability.' For instance, Ajit Jain and Greg Abel are proven performers