伯克希尔旗下一家子公司的董事长大卫•索科尔在公司内不断晋升，并赢 得了巴菲特的青睐。
当巴菲特(Warren Buffett)上周六早晨发布他每年总是很受人期待的致股东一封信时，他告诉世人，自己旗下的伯克希尔哈撒韦公司(Berkshire Hathaway Inc.)将向工业财团大大靠拢，而十多年来一贯具有的金融巨头形像将会减弱。
When Warren Buffett releases his always anticipated annual shareholder letter Saturday morning, he will describe a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. that looks much more like an industrial conglomerate and less like a financial giant than it has in more than a decade.
这一回归伯克希尔公司本源的举动是伴随巴菲特平生最大一宗收购案发生的，他斥资260亿美元于上个月最终完成了对铁路公司Burlington Northern Santa Fe的收购。这种转变也将使大卫•索科尔(David Sokol)更加引人注目，此人有朝一日可能接掌伯克希尔哈撒韦。
The move back to Berkshire's roots came with Mr. Buffett's biggest dea, the $26 billion acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, finalized this month. The change also shines the spotlight more brightly on the man who one day could run this empire, David Sokol.
巴菲特广为人知的一句话是，他已将自己继任者的名字封入一个信封放在他位于奥马哈的办公室里。但巴菲特可能会有两位继任者，一位是管理伯克希尔 公司巨大投资组合的首席投资长，另一位是管理公司旗下约80家子公司的首席执行长。
Mr. Buffett has famously said that he sealed the name of his successor in an envelope in his office in Omaha, Neb. But Mr. Buffett will likely have two successors, a chief investment officer who will manage the firm's huge investment portfolio and a chief executive who will be in charge of the roughly 80 companies in the Berkshire stable.
那些密切关注伯克希尔公司的人士日益认为，现年53岁的索科尔将出任该公司首席执行长，他目前担任伯克希尔旗下子公司中美能源控股公司 (MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.)的董事长。中美能源在美国中西部的许多地方运营着公用事业企业。在巴菲特指派索科尔去接管业务低迷的飞机租赁公司NetJets Inc.后，这种猜测大幅升温。
Among close watchers of Berkshire, there is a growing expectation that the latter executive will be Mr. Sokol, the 53-year-old chairman of Berkshire unit MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which operates a sprawling utility operation in the Midwest. Such speculation shot higher after Mr. Buffett appointed Mr. Sokol to take over flagging jet-rental company NetJets Inc.
这位进取心很强的企业高管曾向一个熟人推荐描写匈奴王阿提拉的书，他会每月基于谁先会被炒掉给手下人排名。索科尔已经升至了伯克希尔公司权力金 字塔的顶端，并赢得了巴菲特的赞美。
A hard-charging corporate executive who once recommended books about Attila the Hun to an acquaintance, Mr. Sokol ranks his staff monthly based on whom he would fire first. He has vaulted atop Berkshire's corporate ladder and won Mr. Buffett's admiration.
巴菲特曾在接受采访时说，他不记得在公用事业领域谁曾接近过索科尔在中美能源创造的业绩纪录。中美能源在2008年为伯克希尔公司赚了17亿美 元，当时伯克希尔已拥有这家公司88%的股份。中美能源2000年时的利润仅为1.09亿美元，当时伯克希尔在该公司的持股比例略低于2008年时水平。
'I don't think there's a record that comes close to that of David at MidAmerican' in the utility industry, said Mr. Buffett in an interview. MidAmerican earned $1.7 billion for Berkshire in 2008, when it owned 88% of the company, up from $109 million in 2000, when Berkshire had a slightly smaller stake in the company.
经营有大约250,000名员工的伯克希尔公司可与管理中美能源不同，而巴菲特最近又让这项工作变得更加艰巨。收购Burlington Northern之举使伯克希尔公司增加了40,000名员工，并使它成为标准普尔500指数的成份股公司，这意味着公司新的首席执行长CEO将对一批全 然不同于巴菲特忠实追随者的股东负责，伯克希尔公司以往的股东只有后者。
Running Berkshire, with roughly 250,000 employees, is different from managing MidAmerican, and Mr. Buffett has made the task even more daunting recently. The acquisition of Burlington Northern added 40,000 employees and led to Berkshire's stock joining the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, meaning the new CEO will be beholden to a disparate group of shareholders, rather than the loyal Buffett followers who owned the shares before.
已经有人开始怀疑，索科尔可能将无力达成巴菲特能做成的交易。
对冲基金Ram Partners LP的经理马休斯(Jeff Matthews)说，你会把自己的公司卖给索科尔吗？没人能保证自己会做到这一点。这家基金在伯克希尔公司有投资。
Already, doubters have emerged who believe Mr. Sokol won't be able to pull off the deals Mr. Buffett has.
'Are you going to want to sell your company to David Sokol?' asked Jeff Matthews, manager of hedge fund Ram Partners LP, an investor in Berkshire. 'No one is going to brag about that.'
一些关注伯克希尔的人士猜测，巴菲特对提名索科尔为自己的继任人感到踌躇，因为他依然不能确定索科尔是担任伯克希尔公司掌门人的最佳人选。
Some Berkshire watchers speculate that Mr. Buffett has held back from naming Mr. Sokol his successor because he remains undecided about whether he is the best man for the job.
索科尔拒绝对此事发表评论，巴菲特也拒绝对他挑选继任人一事发表评论。
Mr. Sokol declined to comment, and Mr. Buffett declined to comment about his choice of successor.
巴菲特和索科尔存在一些共同点。他们都生活在奥马哈。 两人都当过报童，也都当过小杂货店的店员。
Messrs. Buffett and Sokol have some things in common. Both live in Omaha. Both worked as newspaper-delivery boys and as employees of small grocery stores.
这两人都在自己职业生涯开始不久便获得成功：巴菲特加入了一家著名的合伙制私人投资企业，而索科尔20多岁时就成为一家能源公司的负责人。
And both succeeded early in their careers: Mr. Buffett with a famed private investment partnership, Mr. Sokol as chief of an energy company while still in his 20s.
索科尔1978年毕业于内布拉斯加大学(University of Nebraska)，获得了土木工程学位，随后进入奥马哈的一家建筑工程公司，此后他又在新泽西州创办了一家名为Ogden Projects Inc.的公司，专门从事用废物生产能源。
After graduating from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1978 with a degree in civil engineering, Mr. Sokol joined an Omaha architectural-engineering firm and later founded a waste-to-energy company, Ogden Projects Inc., based in New Jersey.