Comcast COO Steve Burke yesterday got the professional equivalent of a double when he was elected to a coveted seat on the board of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and inked a new, five-year contract with the cable giant.
Burke, 51, joins the Berkshire board at a time when the directors are looking for a successor to Buffett, who’s 79.
He’s credited as a key behind-the-scenes architect of this month’s complex $37 billion deal to combine the nation’s biggest cable company with NBC Universal. Burke is expected to head the combined venture as its chairman.
The election strengthens years-long ties between Burke and Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha and Burke’s father, Daniel, have been pals and business associates for decades. It was Daniel Burke who turned a regional broadcast company, CapCities, into the ABC-Disney empire that became one of Buffett’s most successful investments of the 1980s.