OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — The high-ranking Berkshire Hathaway executive who suddenly resigned this week says he wants to start his own investment firm patterned after Warren Buffett's company.

David Sokol appeared on CNBC Thursday, one day after Buffett announced that Sokol had resigned. Many investors believed that Sokol had been the leading candidate to eventually replace Buffett as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO.

Sokol says he has been thinking of resigning for more than two years, and the time was right now because the Berkshire subsidiaries he oversaw are all in good shape.

Sokol told CNBC he wants to set up "mini Berkshire Hathaway" similar to the investment partnership Buffett set up in the 1960s.

Sokol says he likes to build companies but never aspired to be Berkshire's CEO.