in 2011 amid accusations of violating insider-trading rules. Prior to his fall from grace, Sokol held the positions of Chairman, President and CEO at NetJets and Chairman at MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company. These being just two of the several main Berkshire Hathaway units in which the company holds a 100% and 89.8% stake accordingly. A young man that was dedicated to getting his salary above his age at the time of his graduation in 1978, he started his career as a structural engineer at HDR, Inc. It was in the early 1990's that he started to work for Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. earning more and more recognitions with each achievement that he made. Most notably, David Sokol was the one who turned around Johns Manville, an insulated sinking company, as well as he did due diligence for Berkshire on BYD, a Chinese battery company in which Berkshire invested. Especially appreciated for his work at NetJets and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, Sokol is now receiving $1 million annually from the company in retirement payments. Even though he was regarded to be a leading candidate to take over from Mr. Buffett, Sokol had no other choice but to resign from Berkshire Hathaway on March 28, 2011 following charges for breaching insider-trading rules. Sokol went on to become the chairman of Seaspan.
