James Bell, the former CFO of Boeing, has joined Apple’s Board of Directors, the company announced today. Bell fills an opening left by former Apple board member Millard Drexler, who retired from the board in January. Tim Cook, Apple Chairman Art Levinson, and Bell have all provided quotes for the announcement:
“James brings a wealth of global, financial and industrial experience from his successful career at Boeing as corporate president and CFO,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “I am thrilled to welcome him to Apple’s board of directors and I look forward to working with him.”
“We look for outstanding individuals to strengthen our board’s breadth of talent and depth of knowledge, and we are very happy to have identified a fantastic person in James Bell,” said Art Levinson, Apple’s chairman. “I’m confident that he will make many important contributions to Apple.”
“I am an avid user of Apple products and have a tremendous respect for the company’s ability to innovate,” said Bell. “I am delighted to join the Apple board and look forward to contributing to its continued success in any way I can.”
Apple says that Bell brings experience in “finance, strategic planning and leadership in complex organizations” to the Apple Board. Bell retired from Boeing in 2011, and he also served as interim CEO of the company in 2005. Bell is the second new Apple Board member in two years. Last year, Apple appointed Susan Wagner of BlackRock to its Board of Directors.
James Bell Joins Apple’s Board of Directors
CUPERTINO, California — October 1, 2015 — Apple® today announced that James A. Bell, former chief financial officer and corporate president of The Boeing Company, has been elected to Apple’s board of directors. Bell brings more than four decades of experience in finance, strategic planning and leadership in complex organizations. During his 38-year career at Boeing, he also oversaw Boeing Capital Corporation and Boeing Shared Services, and was interim CEO of The Boeing Company in 2005.
“James brings a wealth of global, financial and industrial experience from his successful career at Boeing as corporate president and CFO,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “I am thrilled to welcome him to Apple’s board of directors and I look forward to working with him.”
“We look for outstanding individuals to strengthen our board’s breadth of talent and depth of knowledge, and we are very happy to have identified a fantastic person in James Bell,” said Art Levinson, Apple’s chairman. “I’m confident that he will make many important contributions to Apple.”
“I am an avid user of Apple products and have a tremendous respect for the company’s ability to innovate,” said Bell. “I am delighted to join the Apple board and look forward to contributing to its continued success in any way I can.”
Bell is a member of the board of directors of JP Morgan Chase, Dow Chemical Company, CDW, and a Trustee of Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center. He has also worked with New Leaders for New Schools to help develop talented teachers and principals, and served on many community-based boards. Bell attended California State University, Los Angeles where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, the Mac and Apple Watch. Apple’s three software platforms — iOS, OS X and watchOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
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Rumors of a coming Apple Plane, start your engines!
With all due respect… No ‘Apple Plane’… It’s the ‘Apple Flying Car’ of Jetsons fame and desire!
The Apple Plane, coming in 2050!
first a woman, now an African american… in all seriousness, hopefully this guy know a thing or two to make Apple’s stock price truly reflects its value. The current CFO does even know how to properly speak English, let alone effectively communicating to the wall street. Also, when you look at Apple’s board, you have someone who is the chairman of the apple board while hired by google to run it’s calio…. a total screw-up on apple’s part.
Thanks, Kelvin.
I did not realized that aspect of gender or ancestry, but it shows me that Tim&Board are really confident that ‘diversity’ is a must that Apple will support!
I applaud Tim&Board for this!
Apple should hire the best people for the job, regardless of race, creed, gender, gender identity or … ? Forced diversity won’t benefit the corporation.
“first a woman, now an African american” And before that it was a white man, then another white man, then another white man, and just to mix things up a man who happens to be white. Amazing that previously the only truly and unequivocally qualified people to serve on Apple’s board, the best possible candidates from all backgrounds and experience, just happened to be white men, each and every last one of them. Truly remarkable!
You are right! For me, the ‘truly remarkable’ is that somebody noticed that and changed, say Tim&Board.
I usually don’t get involved with posts that reflect on skin color and Apple’s management choices (re skin tone, an exception to the make-up person if she overdoes it on set) but I can’t NOT respond to:
“First a woman, now an African american…” ??? If he weren’t dead, i’d swear that was a post from my very opinionated grandpa or a couple of guys from grad school.
“FIRST A WOMAN”???? Gramps prolly yelling agreement from the grave his rant “Women folk” are just gettin’ out of line. Amazon and Google have three females on their boards, and MS added their first months after Batty Ballmer turned his Hockey management skills to the Clippers. As if that’s not enough, WWE has four females on their board.
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Will there be similar concern if, by chance, an Hispanic face appears in a major position of responsibility? Or even possibly an Asian? Where will this all stop? Running up the flag of skin color and gender and power is endemic, at least with some ppl today.
“The current CFO does even know how to properly speak English…(btw this sentence structure is not correct, look up adverb placement if interested)…”Luca Maestri’s use of English seems inappropriate and has contributed to Wall Street’s playing with Apple”. and you assume his use of English results in WS consistently bashing Apple???
Some Apple blogger sites actually have women contributing, so I wonder how long this PC snark will continue where new candidates have to mega-prove themselves to the critics on blogs? Well my gramps made it to 90, so…may be a long and bumpy ride.
Que up the speculation machine that apple is building an airplane.
Boing is a great company, been buying their bouncy balls for years.
The few comments below show how much Tim Cook still has alot of work to do about diversity issues. How much is it important that the CEO is Gay, a board member is Black, or one of its key leader is a women (where’s the one with a disability?)? Answer: Zero! Still some people (alot of people) will inevitably say it. It’s almost 2016, people! Grow-up.
Guess the guy was hired because he’s black. Or at least ethnicity was a factor, like when they recently went on a hiring spree of women executives. Which is all good.