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Everything you need to know about Apple's CEO

Tim Cook was appointed CEO in 2011 when Steve Jobs stepped away from the company as his health worsened. Cook was handpicked by Jobs to be his replacement, having served as a close friend of Jobs during their entire career together.

A graduate of Auburn University with a degree in industrial engineering, Cook earned his Masters from Duke University’s School of business. Prior to joining Apple, Cook spent 12 years at IBM, then served as the Chief Operating Officer of Intelligent Electronics. He then had a short stint at Compaq.

Cook first joined Apple in 1998 after being recruited by Jobs. Cook remarked in a commencement address at Auburn University that, five minutes into his interview with Jobs, he knew he wanted to join Apple. “My intuition already knew that joining Apple was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for the creative genius,” he remarked.

At Apple, Cook started out as senior vice president of worldwide operating. He served as interim CEO in 2009 while Steve Jobs was on medical leave. In 2011, Cook again stepped in to lead day-to-day operations while Jobs was ill, before ultimately being named CEO permanently just before the death of Jobs.

Cook has been very outspoken on a variety of social issues, including the need to protect user data and privacy, as evident by his vocal refusal to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen. Cook has also voiced his displeasure with controversial legislation that enables LGBT discrimination in a handful of states in the United States. Likewise, Cook has frequently called on the United States Congress to pass LGBT protection legislation. He became the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 2014, as well. Cook has led Apple in the San Francisco Pride Parade in recent years.

View all Tim Cook-related articles below:

AAPL gained 2,736% under Cook, but Ternus doesn’t have to emulate him

AAPL gained 2,736% under Cook, but Ternus doesn't have to emulate him | Photo shows Ternus opening a MacBook

Bloomberg carries a piece noting the astonishing gains made by Apple stockholders during the time when Tim Cook was CEO. The cumulative gain was 2,275% – or a total return of 2,736% when accounting for dividend payments also.

The site suggests this will make him a tough act to follow, but my own view is that new CEO John Ternus doesn’t have to emulate Cook’s management of the company …

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Today is Tim Cook’s last day as Apple CEO, John Ternus takes over tomorrow

After 15 years at the helm, today is officially Tim Cook’s last day as Apple CEO. In April, Apple announced that Cook would step down as CEO on September 1, with John Ternus set to take the reins.

Cook, of course, isn’t going away completely. Instead, he’s set to become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors.

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The best (and worst) Apple products under Tim Cook [Video]

People love to compare Tim Cook’s tenure to that of Steve Jobs’. They say that Apple hasn’t been able to innovate under Tim Cook and that he never had his iPhone-level moment. In Cook’s defense, no other company or CEO has had an iPhone-level moment since that 2007 announcement. But just because he never had his iPhone moment doesn’t mean nothing happened. Under Tim Cook, Apple didn’t just coast. It built on what Steve Jobs created, and instead of chasing one massive breakthrough, Apple built multiple billion-dollar businesses, expanded into new categories, and turned its ecosystem into one of the most powerful in tech. Think about it, AirPods, Apple Watch, the transition from Intel to Apple silicon, all market disruptors that happened under Tim Cook. So let’s take a look back and see everything from the Tim Cook era.

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Reflecting on when Steve Jobs passed the Apple CEO torch to Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook is giving up the title and passing the torch to John Ternus on September 1.

Unsurprisingly, Cook is taking on the role of board executive chairman, a position in which Cook is expected to remain very active as Apple’s chief global diplomat. Retiring as CEO? Yes. But retiring into the sunset? Hardly. You can take Tim at his word when he says he can’t imagine life without Apple.

As Apple’s CEO transition shifts into the public-facing phase, I couldn’t help but revisit some of the official press material from the previous changing of the guard.

That happened under very different circumstances, of course, with Steve Jobs at the end of his life. It’s incredibly touching to revisit now. There are also echoes of Steve’s endorsement of Tim Cook in Tim’s endorsement of the next Apple CEO, John Ternus.

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Tim Cook retirement ‘leak’ worked perfectly in predicting reactions

Tim Cook retirement 'leak' worked perfectly in predicting reactions | John Turner is walking with Tim Cook with a checkmark on the right

A supposed Tim Cook retirement leak late last year indicated that hardware head John Ternus was Apple’s planned successor and that the announcement would be made ahead of WWDC 2026 in June.

I wrote at the time that this was very clearly a trial balloon by the company in order to test reaction to the plan, and we can now see that this indeed paved the way for yesterday’s announcement

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