Mayo Shattuck meets ‘Warren Buffett’s Mr. Fix-It’

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My new Fortune magazine arrived in the mail over the weekend, with a cover story on a certain search engine firm with a supposedly uncertain future thanks to slowing growth in its core business. The provocative cover tag reads, “Is Google over?”

It’s a good read. For my money, an even better read is a story inside the issue, on David Sokol, billed as “Warren Buffett’s Mr. Fix-It.”

Sokol is profiled by Brian Dumaine as billionaire investor Buffett’s “go-to guy,” the executive most often mentioned as heir to the Berkshire Hathaway throne. He’s “always revving in high gear,” has self-published a management tome called “Pleased But Not Satisfied” and is currently hip deep in trying to turn around NetJets, the company that lets high rollers split the cost of owning a personal jet.

Classic corporate executive profile fodder. But for anyone who follows business in this region, the article’s opening anecdote is killer.

It’s set the week in September 2008 when Lehman Bros. has collapsed and is threatening to take the U.S. economy down with it. Sokol, a former energy company executive, calls Buffett to tip him to a possible investment opportunity: Constellation Energy, whose stock is in the midst of a breathtaking freefall.

Sokol puts in a call to Constellation CEO Mayo Shattuck III. He’s told Shattuck is in an emergency board meeting. He says he’d like to speak to Shattuck. He’s told by an executive assistant that she could lose her job if she interrupts the meeting.

“If you don’t interrupt the meeting, you might lose your job,” Sokol responds.

We all know the rest. Buffett-owned MidAmerican Energy Holdings reaches a deal to buy Constellation Energy for $4.7 billion. Before the deal can be completed, French utility EDF swoops in with a better offer, which Shattuck and the Constellation board opt to take.

Sokol reportedly does not mind: He walks away with a $1.2 billion breakup fee for Berkshire Hathaway.