Ajit Jain

Ajit Jain (born, July 23, 1951 in Orissa, India) is a businessman who currently heads several reinsurance businesses for Berkshire Hathaway and has been touted as a possible successor to Warren Buffett.

Jain's potential rivals to head up Berkshire Hathaway when Buffett departs are David L. Sokol, CEO of NetJets and Chairman of MidAmerican; Li Lu hedge fund manager of LL Investment Partners, LP, and Tony Nicely, CEO of GEICO

Jain working in Stamford, remains in close contact with Buffett.

In letters Buffett has written accompanying Berkshire's reports to shareholders, he has consistently praised Jain

In 1994: "His value to us is simply enormous."

In 2002: "I have known the details of almost every policy that Ajit has written since he came with us in 1986. ... His extraordinary discipline, of course, does not eliminate losses; it does, however, prevent foolish losses. And that's the key: Just as is the case in investing, insurers produce outstanding long-term results primarily by avoiding dumb decisions, rather than by making brilliant ones."

In 2003: "It's impossible to overstate his value to Berkshire."

In 2004: "Ajit's value to Berkshire is enormous."

In 2005: Buffett called him "an extraordinary manager."

In 2008: "Ajit came to Berkshire in 1986. Very quickly, I realized that we had acquired an extraordinary talent. So I did the logical thing: I wrote his parents in New Delhi and asked if they had another one like him at home. Of course, I knew the answer before writing. There isn’t anyone like Ajit."

In 2009: Buffett wrote, "If Charlie, I and Ajit are ever in a sinking boat – and you can only save one of us – swim to Ajit."; also Buffett showers praise on Ajit Jain; calls him 'superstar'.

Early life
Ajit Jain was raised in India's coastal state of Orissa. He graduated in 1972 from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur with a bachelor's degree in engineering. He was a resident of the Azad Hall of Residence. He didn't take his studies very seriously, according to classmate Ronojoy Dutta. Instead, they spent hours talking about economics, sociology and the Vietnam War, often debating through the night. Vijay Trehan, another classmate, described Jain and Dutta as "class clowns in our mechanical engineering class." But considering their later careers, Trehan said, "The lesson has to be that 'not taking life too seriously' is definitely the way to go."

Career
Jain worked for IBM in India from 1973 to 1976, and then moved to the United States, where he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1978. He joined McKinsey & Co., but returned to India in the early 1980s. After a month long courtship, he married Tinku Jain, a girl chosen by his parents. Then he went back to the United States to work for McKinsey. According to Robert P. Miles' book The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers Jain said he would not have returned to America, but his wife wanted to move there. In 1986 he left McKinsey to work on insurance operations for Buffett. At the time, he said he knew little about the insurance business.

Ajit Jain is an extraordinaire manager: Buffett

Narayan Lakshman

Warren Buffett cannot seem to help himself. Yet again, in his famously folksy annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, the company’s billionaire CEO lavished praise upon one of his managers above all others – Ajit Jain.
Mr. Jain (58), who heads some of the reinsurance businesses in the Berkshire Hathaway stable, first joined what is arguably one of the most successful investment companies ever more than two decades ago.

“A hugely important event in Berkshire’s history occurred on a Saturday in 1985. Ajit Jain came into our office in Omaha – and I immediately knew we had found a superstar,” Mr. Buffett said.

He has good reason to be pleased. Mr. Jain’s efficient liability and cost management in Berkshire’s reinsurance business has helped sustain the company’s meteoric share price rise from around $3,000 in the mid-1980s to its current level of close to $120,000, and a breathtaking compound annual growth rate of 20.3 per cent in its book value.

While the company suffered a rare decline in net worth of $11.5 billion during the 2008 global financial crisis, prompting Mr. Buffett to admit he “did some dumb things in investments”, it bounced back strongly with a $21.8 billion gain in net worth during 2009.

Mr. Jain was initially placed in the troubled reinsurance operation of National Indemnity. However, showing talent for managing risks in the niche area of mega-catastrophe coverage, he succeeded in building up the business into “a one-of-a-kind giant in the insurance world”.

Although Mr. Jain’s operations are staffed by only 30 people, Mr. Buffett explained, it regularly deals in billion-dollar limits including a $7.1 billion premium received for a single contract with Lloyds, the British banking major. “Throughout the world, he is known as the man to call when something both very large and unusual needs to be insured,” Mr. Buffett said.

It would appear that consistence performance at this high level may have won Mr. Jain this annual approbation from his CEO. This year Mr. Buffett said of Mr. Jain: “If Charlie [Munger, Berkshire vice-chairman], I and Ajit are ever in a sinking boat – and you can only save one of us – swim to Ajit.”

With the “Sage of Omaha” nearing 80 years of age and pressure to resolve the succession question growing, it may only be a matter of time before Mr. Jain is given a mandate to take over the reins of Berkshire Hathaway.