Berkshire Hathaway Inc expanded its succession plan for Warren Buffett on Monday, saying Virginia fund manager Ted Weschler will join the company to help oversee its investments from early next year.

Berkshire said Weschler and Todd Combs, who joined the company last year, would manage its entire equity and debt portfolio after Buffett retires, possibly aided by a third manager. For now they will run smaller portions of Berkshire's stock holdings.

Fortune's Carol Loomis, a long time friend of and ghost-writer for Buffett, profiled Weschler in an article Monday that was published as Berkshire made its announcement.

Weschler is, as it turns out, the secret bidder who won the last two of Buffett's annual charity lunch auctions. Buffett told Fortune he had asked Weschler at this year's lunch whether he would join Berkshire.

I very much wanted him to do it, but I didn't expect to get very far with the idea, Buffett said. Ted will no doubt make a lot of money at Berkshire. But he was already making a lot of money with his fund -- you can get an idea of that from the size of his (charity) bids -- so money wasn't a reason for him to come.

Fortune said Buffett was especially impressed by the gains at Weschler's hedge fund, Peninsula Capitol Advisors -- total gains over 11 years of 1,236 percent, against a gain over the same period of 146 percent for Berkshire Class B shares.

The 81-year-old Oracle of Omaha is both the chief executive officer of the ice-cream-to-insurance conglomerate and its money manager. Those roles will be split after he retires; the names on the CEO succession list are secret, though. (Reporting by Ben Berkowitz, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Lisa Von Ahn)

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