Tim Cook

Timothy Donald "Tim" Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive, and is the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Cook joined Apple in March 1998 as senior vice president of worldwide operations—he also served as executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations and was chief operating officer until he was named the CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs. He had previously served as acting CEO of Apple after Jobs began medical leave in January 2011. In early 2012, he was awarded compensation of one million shares, vesting in 2016 and 2021, by Apple's board of directors. Cook also serves on the boards of directors of Nike, Inc. and the National Football Foundation. In 2014, Cook became the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to publicly identify as gay.