Last night, Warren Buffett announced the surprise resignation of David Sokol, Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) go-to turnaround wizard and a front-runner to succeed Buffett as CEO. 

In the wake of this bombshell, we asked Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder about the news and her thoughts on who will succeed Buffett as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. She responded:

Buffett came out about a week ago and said that the Board would support Ajit Jain if he wanted the job. That was unprecedented. Buffett has never thrown that much support behind any candidate before. Among other things, his son Howie is on the board and this means the Buffett family supports Ajit as the successor. In light of the timing, I think he knew the Sokol news was coming and was trying to get ahead of it. At this point, it's fair to say that Ajit is the front-runner. That's my take, anyway.

For more of Alice's thoughts on all things Buffett: