Tony nicely biography

"He is a model for everything a manager should be"

After 60 years at GEICO, and decades of praise from Warren Buffett, Tony Nicely is retiring at the end of this year.

Nicely was the insurer's chairman and CEO for 25 years until 2018, when he became executive chairman.

In his letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders for that year, Buffett wrote that Nicely is "a model for everything a manager should be," crediting his management of GEICO for increasing Berkshire's intrinsic value by more than $50 billion.

(In his 2006 letter, Buffett even suggested shareholders should name a child Tony.)

In 1996, "after Tony had re-energized GEICO," Berkshire bought the 50% of the company it didn't already own.

Nicely oversaw a period of enormous growth for GEICO, powered in part by humorous advertising that highlights its competitive rates.

By the time he stepped down as CEO more than thr