NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Warren Buffett, who says the most important job of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s board is settling on his successor, named the son of one of his past business associates as a company director.

Stephen Burke, chief operating officer of Comcast Corp., "is business-savvy, owner-oriented and keenly interested in Berkshire", Buffett, 79, said yesterday in a statement announcing the appointment. Burke's father, Daniel, helped build and run Capital Cities/ABC, one of Buffett's most successful investments in the 1990s. Berkshire's board includes Buffett's long-time partner Charles Munger, his friend Bill Gates and his son Howard Buffett, who has been designated the company's next chairman. Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., replaced Buffett's wife Susan as director in 2004. Also on the board is Thomas Murphy, who ran Capital Cities along with the senior Burke.

"This is Buffett keeping things all in the family," said Jeff Matthews, the author of "Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett's Omaha" and founder of the hedge fund Ram Partners LP.

Buffett, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, built Berkshire over four decades into a $150 billion company by buying out-of-favour stocks and dozens of firms. He owns about a quarter of the company's stock and has amassed a fortune that ranked him second, behind Gates, on Forbes magazine's list of billionaires. Buffett has pledged to donate most of his fortune to Gates's charity.

Stephen Burke, 51, joined Philadelphia-based Comcast in 1998 from Walt Disney Co., where he was president of ABC Broadcasting. Berkshire has a $199 million investment in non-voting Comcast stock.