A chief executive officer (CEO, American English), managing director (MD, British English),^[1] executive director (ED, American English) for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer (executive) or administrator in charge of total management of an organization. An individual appointed as a CEO of a corporation, company, organization, or agency typically reports to the board of directors.

Responsibilities[link]

The responsibilities of an organization's CEO (US) or MD (UK) are set by the organization's board of directors or other authority, depending on the organization's legal structure. They can be far-reaching or quite limited and are typically enshrined in a formal delegation of authority.

Typically, the CEO/MD has responsibilities as a communicator, decision maker, leader, and manager. The communicator role can involve the press and the rest of the outside world, as well as the organization's management and employees; the decision-making role involves high-level decisions about policy and strategy. As a leader, the CEO/MD advises the board of directors, motivates employees, and drives change within the organization. As a manager, the CEO/MD presides over the organization's day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year operations.^[2]

International use[link]

In some European Union countries, there are two separate boards, one executive board for the day-to-day business and one supervisory board for control purposes (selected by the shareholders). In these countries, the CEO presides over the executive board and the chairman presides over the supervisory board, and these two roles will always be held by different people. This ensures a distinction between management by the executive board and governance by the supervisory board. This allows for clear lines of authority. The aim is to prevent a conflict of interest and too much power being concentrated in the hands of one person. In the United States, the board of directors (elected by the shareholders) is often equivalent to the supervisory board, while the executive board may often be known as the executive committee (the division/subsidiary heads and C-level officers that report directly to the CEO).

In other parts of the world, such as Asia, it is possible to have two or three CEOs in charge of one corporation. In the UK, many charities and government agencies are headed by a chief executive who answers to a board of trustees or board of directors. In the UK, similar to a sizable percentage of public companies in the US, the chairman of the board in public companies is more senior than the chief executive (who is usually known as the managing director).

The following presents an alphabetical list of some international common terms for the CEO position:

• Albanian: Administrator i Përgjithshëm
• Arabic: الرئيس التنفيذي‎ (eg)Al-Ra'ees Al-Tanfizi / (sa)Al-Ra'ees Al-Tanfithee (Chief Executive)
• Australia: general manager (GM) (or also managing director (MD), but only when the executive officeholder is also a member of the board of directors)
• Belarusian: Генеральны дырэктар
• Bengali: মহাপরিচালক/ব্যবস্থাপনা পরিচালক/প্রধান নির্বাহী কর্মকর্তা (Director General/GM/MD/CEO)
• Bosnian: Generalni direktor / Izvršni direktor
• Bulgarian: Генерален директор / Изпълнителен директор Generalen direktor/Izpalnitelen direktor
• Chinese: 首席执行官 / 行政總裁 Shǒuxí zhíxíng guān / xíngzhèng zǒngcái (Chief Executive Officer)
• Croatian: Izvršni direktor
• Czech: Generální ředitel/Výkonný ředitel
• Danish: Administrerende Direktør (administrating director) (Adm.Dir.)
• Dutch: Algemeen Directeur (general manager)
• Estonian: Tegevdirektor (executive director)
• Finnish: Toimitusjohtaja (executive director) (TJ)
• French: Président-directeur général (chairman & chief executive) (PDG)
• Galician: Director Executivo / Director xeral
• German: Geschäftsführer (GmbH) or German: Vorstand (AG)
• Georgian: გენერალური დირექტორი (General director)
• Greek: Διευθύνων Σύμβουλος Diefthinon Symvoulos (Managing Director)
• Hebrew: מנכ"ל/מנהל כללי‎ Mankal/Menahel Klali (DG/Director General)
• Hungarian: ügyvezető igazgató
• Icelandic: Forstjóri / Framkvæmdastjóri
• Hindi: मुख्य कार्यकारी अधिकारी
• India: CEO or managing director (MD)
• Indonesian: Presiden Direktur (Presdir) or, increasingly less common, Direktur Utama (Dirut) Direktur-Direksi (term based on Law nr. 40 / 2007)
• Irish: Príomhoifigeach Feidhmiúcháin (POF)
• Italian: Amministratore Delegato (delegated administrator) (AD)
• Japanese: 最高経営責任者 Saikō-keiei-sekinin-sha (Chief Executive Officer)
• Korean: 최고경영책임자 choe-go-gyeong-young-chek-ime-ja (Chief Executive Officer)
• Kurdish: Serokê/a Pêkanîna Civatê
• Latvian: Valdes priekšsēdētājs (chairman of the board)
• Lithuanian: Generalinis direktorius (general director)
• Macedonian: Извршен директор (izvrshen direktor - executive director) or also Macedonian: Генерален директор (generalen direktor - general director)
• Maltese: Kap eżekuttiv (Chief Executive)
• Mongolian: Ерөнхий захирал, Ерөнхийлөгч, Гүйцэтгэх захирал
• Norwegian: Administrerende Direktør (administrating director) (adm. dir.)
• Persian: مدیر عامل‎ Modir Aamel (Chief Executive)
• Pakistan|چیف ایگزیکٹو آفیسر}} Chif Igzikutu Afisr (Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director)
• Polish: Dyrektor Generalny (general director)
• Portuguese: Diretor executivo / Diretor-geral / Presidente / Administrador-delegado
• Romanian: Președintele consiliului de administrație (PCA)
• Russian: Генеральный директор, Главный исполнительный директор (generalnyi direktor – general director)
• Serbian: Генерални директор / Извршни директор (управник)
• Sinhala: ප්‍රධාන විධායක නිලධාරී / කළමනාකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂක (CEO / MD)
• Slovak: Generálny riaditeľ
• Slovene: Generalni direktor / Izvršni direktor
• Spanish: director ejecutivo, director general, gerente general o consejero delegado (executive director)
• Somali: Maamule Guud / Agaasime (CEO / MG)
• Swedish: verkställande direktör (VD)
• Tamil: தலைமை நிறைவேற்று அலுவலர் / முகாமைத்துவ இயக்குநர் (CEO / MD)
• Telugu: ముఖ్య కార్యనిర్వాహక అధికారి / నిర్వాహకుడు (CEO / MD)
• Thai: ประธานบริหาร / กรรมการผู้จัดการ (CEO / MD)
• Tagalog: Punong Tagapagpaganap (CEO / PT)
• Turkish: Genel Müdür, Yönetim Kurulu Başkanı
• Ukrainian: Головний виконавчий директор (Holovnyi vykonavchyi dyrektor - Head executive director), also Генеральний директор (Heneral'nyi dyrektor – General director)
• Urdu: چیف ایگزیکٹو آفیسر Chif Igzikutu Afisr (Chief Executive Officer)
• Vietnamese: Giám đốc điều hành
• Malay: Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif, Pengarah Urusan, Pengarah Eksekutif
• Swahili: Meneja Mkuu

In the United States, and in business, the executive officers are usually the top officers of a corporation, the chief executive officer (CEO) being the best-known type. The definition varies; for instance, the California Corporate Disclosure Act defines "Executive Officers" as the five most highly compensated officers not also sitting on the board of directors. In the case of a sole proprietorship, an executive officer is the sole proprietor. In the case of a partnership, an executive officer is a managing partner, senior partner, or administrative partner. In the case of a limited liability company, an executive officer is any member, manager, or officer.

Related positions[link]

Typically, a CEO has several subordinate executives, each of whom has specific functional responsibilities.

Common associates include a chief business development officer (CBDO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), chief marketing officer (CMO), chief information officer (CIO), chief communications officer (CCO), chief legal officer (CLO), chief technology officer (CTO), chief risk officer (CRO), chief creative officer (CCO), chief compliance officer (CCO), chief audit executive (CAE), chief diversity officer (CDO), or chief human resources officer (CHRO).

Hospitals and healthcare organizations also often include a chief medical officer (CMO), a chief nursing officer (CNO), and a chief medical informatics officer (CMIO).

In the United Kingdom the term 'director' is used instead of 'chief officer'. Associates include the audit executive, business development director, chief executive, compliance director, creative director, director of communications, diversity director, financial director, human resources director, information technology director, legal affairs director, managing director (MD), marketing director, operations director and technical director.

See also[link]

• CEO succession
• Executive officer
• List of CEO books
• List of chief executive officers
• O*NET

• United States Department of Labor

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chief executive officers

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Top Executives: Description and Outlook
• 2008–2010 Study: CEOs Who Fired Most Workers Earned Highest Pay – video report by Democracy Now!

Alan R. Mulally
Alan Mulally in Brazil
Born	Alan Roger Mulally (1945-08-04) August 4, 1945 (age 66) Oakland, California, USA
Residence	Dearborn, Michigan, USA[1]
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	University of Kansas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupation	President and CEO of Ford Motor Company
Salary	US$1.4 million salary + US$16.5 million other compensation (2009)[2]
Spouse	Jane "Nikki" Connell
Children	5
Parents	Charles R. "Dick" Mulally Lauraine Lizette Clark Mulally[1]

Alan Roger Mulally (born August 4, 1945) is an American engineer and business executive who is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company. Ford, which had been struggling during the late-2000s recession, returned to profitability under Mulally and was the only American major car manufacturer to avoid government-sponsored bankruptcy.^[3][4]

Mulally was previously executive vice president of Boeing and the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). He began his career with Boeing as an engineer in 1969 and was largely credited with BCA's resurgence against Airbus in the mid-2000s.^[5]

Early life[link]

Mulally was born in Oakland, California to Charles R. "Dick" Mulally and Lauraine Lizette Clark, who met at a USO dance.^[1][6] Mulally grew up in his mother's hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, where he was a member of Plymouth Congregational Church. He considered Rev. Dale Turner "a mentor and an inspiration."^[1][7] He used to sit at the front of the church to study the minister's influence on the congregation. Mulally said that he found himself motivated at the age of 17 by president John F. Kennedy's challenge to send a man to the moon.^[8]

Education[link]

Mulally graduated from the University of Kansas, also his mother's alma mater,^[1] in 1969 with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. He is an alumnus of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and is its 2007 Man of the Year.^[9] He received a Master's degree in Management (S.M.) as a Sloan Fellow from the MIT Sloan School of Management^[10] in 1982.^[11]

Career[link]

Boeing[link]

Mulally was hired by Boeing immediately out of college in 1969 as an engineer. He held a number of engineering and program management positions, making contributions to the Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777 projects. He led the cockpit design team on the 757/767 project. Its revolutionary design featured the first all-digital flight deck in a commercial aircraft, the first two man crew for long range aircraft, and a common type rating for pilots on two different aircraft. He worked on the 777 program first as director of engineering and, from September 1992, as vice-president and general manager.^[11]

He was later named as Vice President of Engineering for the commercial airplane group. He is known and recognized for elevating Phil Condit's "Working Together"-philosophy through and beyond the 777-program. In 1994, Mulally was promoted to senior vice president of Airplane Development and was in charge of all airplane development activities, flight test operations, certification, and government technical liaison. In 1997, Mulally became the president of the Information, Space & Defense Systems and senior vice president.^[12] He held this position until 1998 when he was made president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Chief Executive Officer duties were added in 2001.^[11]

Following the forced resignations of Phil Condit in 2003 and Harry Stonecipher in 2005, Mulally was considered one of the leading internal candidates for the CEO position.^[13] When Mulally was passed over in both instances, questions were raised about whether he would remain with the company.

For Mulally's performance at Boeing, Aviation Week & Space Technology named him as person of the year for 2006.^[5]

Ford Motor Company[link]

Mulally (wearing the red tie) with President George W. Bush at the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri on March 20, 2007, touting Ford's new hybrid cars.

Mulally was named the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company on September 5, 2006, succeeding William Clay Ford, Jr., who remained as Executive Chairman of the company's Board of Directors.^[15] Mulally was criticized for calling his Lexus LS430 the 'finest car in the world', just as Ford was about to announce his selection as CEO.^[16][17] William Clay Ford Jr. had been searching for his successor as Ford CEO for some time, with Daimler AG's Dieter Zetsche and Carlos Ghosn of Renault/Nissan Motors both turning down the offer.

One of Mulally's first decisions at Ford was to bring back the Taurus nameplate. He said that he could not understand why the company previously scrapped the Taurus, which had been one of the company's best sellers until losing ground in the late 1990s.^[18]

Mulally took over "The Way Forward" restructuring plan at Ford to turn-around its massive losses and declining market share.^[19] Mulally's cost cutting initiatives led to the company's first profitable quarter in two years.^[20] Dividends to shareholders were also suspended.^[21]

In 2006, Mulally led the effort for Ford to borrow US$23.6 billion by mortgaging all of Ford's assets. Mulally said that he intended to use the money to finance a major overhaul and provide “a cushion to protect for a recession or other unexpected event." ^[22] At the time the loan was interpreted as a sign of desperation, but is now widely credited with stabilizing Ford's financial position, compared to crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler, both of whom had gone bankrupt during the Automotive industry crisis of 2008–2009. Ford was the only one of the Detroit Three that did not ask for a government loan.^[23]. In May 2009, Ford chairman William Clay Ford, who hired Mulally, said that "Alan was the right choice [to be CEO], and it gets more right every day".^[14]

Mulally in Brazil with President Lula da Silva (top) and Senate leader José Sarney (bottom) in April 2010.

In 2007, he presided over the sale of Jaguar Cars and Land Rover to Tata Motors, an Indian car and truck manufacturer. Mulally said he had "no regrets" over the sale, preferring to concentrate on the Ford brand, as then-CEO Jacques Nasser was criticized in 2001 for paying too much attention to new overseas acquisitions while letting the main Ford operations in the US decline. Ford received $2.3 billion USD on the sale, considerably below what they paid for it under Nasser and Donald Petersen. However, analysts said that Ford would have gotten much less or may not have found a buyer if they tried to sell it later in 2008, as Jaguar Land Rover sales subsequently plummeted due to high oil prices in the summer, causing Tata to request a bailout from the British government.^[24] Mulally also sold off Aston Martin and Volvo Cars, and reduced Ford's stake in Mazda.^[23]

In 2008, amid mounting losses during an economic downturn, Ford announced a proposal on December 2, 2008 to cut Mulally's salary to $1 per year if government loans were received and used by Ford.^[25][26] During hearings for government loans to Ford, he and other industry leaders were criticized for flying to Washington, D.C. in corporate jets. During a subsequent meeting, he traveled from Detroit to Washington by a Ford-built hybrid electric vehicle, while selling all but one of the company's corporate jets.^[27]

In 2008, Mulally earned a total compensation of $13,565,378, which included a base salary of $2,000,000, stock awards of $1,849,241, and option awards of $8,669,747. His total compensation decreased by 37.4% compared to 2007.^[28]

Due to his achievements at Ford, he was included in the 2009 Time 100 list. The entry, written by Steve Ballmer, says, "[Mulally] understands the fundamentals of business success as well as any business leader I know."^[29]

In 2011, Mulally was named Person of the Year by the The Financial Times ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards.^[30] He was also named the 2011 CEO of the Year by Chief Executive magazine.^[31]

Management style[link]

Mulally negotiated four new agreements with United Auto Workers, which has brought down labor costs from $76/hour to $55/hour.^[14]

He lives within three miles of his office at Ford's global headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, arrives at 5:15 AM every morning, and works for twelve hours. He has a meeting with Ford's executives, called a "Business Plan Review" every Thursday at 7:00 AM in the "Thunderbird Room" at Ford Headquarters.^[14] At a "town meeting" of 100 information technology staffers in February 2007, Mulally said, "We have been going out of business for 40 years", and has repeated this message to other employee groups.^[32]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alan Mulally

• Biography: Alan Mulally at Ford Motor Company
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Alan Mulally on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Alan Mulally in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Profile at Bloomberg Businessweek
• Alan Mulally's federal campaign contributions from Newsmeat
• Bring Back Alan

v t e Ford Motor Company Marques Current Ford Lincoln Discontinued Continental Edsel Mercury Merkur Meteor Monarch Former Aston Martin Daimler Jaguar Lagonda Land Rover Th!nk Volvo Divisions and subsidiaries Current Automotive Components Holdings Ford of Argentina Ford of Australia Ford of Brazil Ford of Canada Ford of Europe (Ford of Britain, Ford Germany) Ford India Ford Motor Company of New Zealand Ford Motor Company Philippines Ford Motor Credit Company Ford Racing (Ford Team RS) Motorcraft Special Vehicle Team Troller Discontinued Ford of Russia Ford SAF Mercury Premier Automotive Group Special Vehicle Operations Former Aston Martin Lagonda Cosworth Ford Aerospace Hertz Corporation Jaguar Cars Kwik-Fit Land Rover New Holland Agriculture Visteon Volvo Car Corporation Joint ventures and shareholdings Current Aston Martin Lagonda AutoAlliance International (50%) AutoAlliance Thailand Changan Ford Mazda (35%) Ford Lio Ho Ford Performance Vehicles (49%) Ford Sollers (50%) Getrag Ford Transmissions (50%) Jiangling Motors Mazda Otosan (41%) Defunct Autolatina Matford Samcor Facilities and products Engines Factories Platforms Proving grounds Transmissions Vehicles Bestselling models People Designers Ford Family Henry Ford (Founder) William Clay Ford, Jr. (Executive Chairman) Alan R. Mulally (President and CEO) List of CEOs Other Big Three Dodge v. Ford Motor Company Fordlândia History Kinetic Design New Edge Pay on production United States Council for Automotive Research Website: Ford.com Ticker: NYSE: F Founded: June 16, 1903 Headquarters: Dearborn, Michigan Category Commons

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos 2005
Born	Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen (1964-01-12) January 12, 1964 (age 48) Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.
Alma mater	Princeton University
Occupation	Chairman and CEO of Amazon.com
Net worth	US$ 18.4 billion (2012)[1]
Awards	Time Person of the Year 1999

Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos (/beɪzəs/, born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Inc., an online merchant of books and later of a wide variety of products. Under his guidance, Amazon.com became the largest retailer on the World Wide Web and the model for Internet sales.

Early life and career[link]

Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen and Ted Jorgensen.^[2] His maternal ancestors were settlers who lived in Texas, and over the generations acquired a 25,000 acre (101 km² or 39 miles²) ranch in Cotulla. Bezos' maternal grandfather was a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque. He retired early to the ranch, where Bezos spent many summers as a youth, working with him.^[3] At an early age, Bezos displayed a striking mechanical aptitude – as a toddler, he tried dismantling his crib with a screwdriver.^[4]

Bezos was born to a teenage mother in Albuquerque. Her marriage to his father lasted little more than a year. When Jeff was five, she remarried, this time to Miguel Bezos. Miguel was born in Cuba, immigrated to the United States alone when he was fifteen years old, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque, married, and legally adopted Jeff. After the marriage, the family moved to Houston, Texas, and Miguel became an engineer for Exxon. The young Bezos attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. As a child, he spent summers at his grandfather's ranch in southern Texas, "laying pipe, vaccinating cattle and fixing windmills."^[5]

Bezos often showed intense scientific interests. He rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. He converted his parents' garage into a laboratory for science projects.^{[citation needed]} The family moved to Miami, Florida, where Bezos attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School. While in high school, he attended the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida, receiving a Silver Knight Award in 1982.^[6] He was high school valedictorian.^[7] He attended Princeton University, planning to study physics, but soon returned to his love of computers and graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science.

According to Nick Hanauer (an early investor in Amazon) and "others who know [him]"^[5], Bezos is a libertarian; such beliefs are said to have help motivate Amazon.com's aggressive "efforts to avoid collecting sales taxes on purchases made on its website" and the company's unwillingness to engage in "sponsorships, matching grants or employee volunteer programs".^[5]

Business career[link]

After graduating from Princeton University in 1986, Bezos worked on Wall Street in the computer science field.^[8] Then he worked on building a network for international trade for a company known as Fitel. He next worked at Bankers Trust, where he became vice-president. Later on he also worked in computer science for D. E. Shaw & Co.

Amazon.com[link]

Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 after making a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle, writing up the Amazon business plan on the way. He initially set up the company in his garage.^[9] He had left his "well-paying job" at a New York City hedge fund when he "learned about the rapid growth in Internet use", which coincided with a "then-new U.S. Supreme Court ruling [that] online retailers don't have to collect sales taxes in states where they lack a physical presence"; he had headed to Washington because its relatively small population meant fewer of his future customers would have to pay sales tax.^[5]

Amazon eventually made him one of the most prominent dot-com entrepreneurs and a billionaire. Bezos' salary as CEO was $81,840 in 2010, in addition to the $1.6 million cost of his personal security detail.^[10] He owns 20% of Amazon's stock and forgoes stock options.

According to Forbes, Amazon's shares have "defied gravity" in 2011, jumping 55% and adding $6.5 billion to his net worth.^[11]

Bezos is known for his attention to business details. As described by Portfolio.com, he "is at once a happy-go-lucky mogul and a notorious micromanager. ... an executive who wants to know about everything from contract minutiae to how he is quoted in all Amazon press releases."^[9]

Blue Origin[link]

In 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin, a human spaceflight startup company,^[12] partially as a result of his fascination with space travel,^[13] including an early interest in developing "space hotels, amusement parks and colonies for 2 million or 3 million people orbiting the Earth."^[7] The company was kept under wraps for a half dozen years and initially became publicly known only in 2006 when purchasing a sizable aggregation of land in west Texas for a launch and test facility.^[14]

In a 2011 interview, Bezos indicated that he founded the space company to help enable "anybody to go into space" and stated that the company is committed to decreasing the cost and increasing the safety of spaceflight.^[15] Blue Origin is "one of several start-ups aiming to open up space travel to paying customers. Like Amazon, the company is secretive, but [in September 2011] revealed that it had lost an unmanned prototype vehicle during a short-hop test flight. Although this was a setback, the announcement of the loss revealed for the first time just how far Blue Origin’s team had advanced."^[13] Bezos said that the crash was 'not the outcome that any of us wanted, but we’re signed up for this to be hard.'" ^[13]

Recognition[link]

He was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 1999.^[16] In 2008, he was selected by U.S. News & World Report as one of America's best leaders.^[17] Bezos was awarded an honorary doctorate in Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. In 2011, The Economist gave Bezos and Gregg Zehr an Innovation Award for the Amazon Kindle. ^[18]

He is also a member of the Bilderberg Group and attended the Swiss 2011 Bilderberg conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland.^[19]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jeff Bezos at TED Conferences
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jeff Bezos on Charlie Rose
• Jeff Bezos at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Jeff Bezos in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Jeff Bezos collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Jeff Bezos at the Notable Names Database
• Condé Nast Portfolio Executive Profile - Portfolio.com (August 2007)
• Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos - Fastcompany.com (August 2004)

Tim Cook
Cook at the Macworld Expo in 2009
Born	Timothy D. Cook (1960-11-01) November 1, 1960 (age 51) Robertsdale, Alabama United States
Alma mater	Auburn University (B.S.) Duke University (M.B.A.)
Occupation	CEO, Apple
Board member of	Apple Nike (2005—present)

Timothy D. “Tim” Cook (born November 1, 1960) is the CEO of Apple.^[1] Cook joined Apple in March 1998^[2] as SVP of Worldwide Operations and also served as EVP of Worldwide Sales and Operations and was COO^[3] until he was named the CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011, succeeding Steve Jobs, who died on October 5, 2011, from pancreatic cancer. Cook had previously served as acting CEO of Apple after Jobs began a medical leave in January 2011.^[4]

In early 2012, he was awarded compensation of 1 million shares, vesting in 2021, by Apple's Board of Directors.^[5] As of April 2012, these shares are valued at US $600 million, making him the world's highest paid CEO.^[6]

Early years[link]

Cook grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama, near Mobile. His father was a shipyard worker, while his mother was a homemaker. Cook graduated from high school at Robertsdale High School, earned a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1982,^[7] and his M.B.A. from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in 1988.^[8]

Career[link]

Cook spent six months at Compaq as VP for Corporate Materials before he was hired by Steve Jobs to join Apple in 1998. He initially served as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations.^[2] Prior to that, Cook served as the chief operating officer (COO) of the computer reseller division of Intelligent Electronics and spent 12 years in IBM's personal computer business as the director of North American Fulfillment.^[2]

Cook is credited with pulling Apple out of manufacturing by closing factories and warehouses around the world. This helped the company reduce inventory levels and streamline its supply chain, dramatically increasing margins.^[9] In January 2007, Cook was promoted to COO.^[10]

Cook served as Apple CEO for two months in 2004, when Jobs was recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery. In 2009, Cook again served as Apple CEO for several months while Jobs took a leave of absence for a liver transplant.

In January 2011, Apple's Board of Directors approved a third medical leave of absence requested by Jobs. During that time, Cook was responsible for most of Apple’s day-to-day operations while Jobs made most major decisions.^[11] Following the resignation of Jobs, Cook was made CEO of Apple Inc. on August 24, 2011.^[12][13]

Cook also serves on the board of directors of Nike.^[3]

Personal life[link]

Cook is a fitness enthusiast and enjoys hiking, cycling, and going to the gym. He regularly begins sending emails at 4:30 am and used to hold Sunday night staff meetings by telephone to prepare for the next week.^[9]

While giving the 2010 commencement speech at Auburn University, Cook emphasized the importance of intuition in guiding his life's biggest choices, and followed by stating that preparation and hard work are also necessary to execute on that intuition.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tim Cook

• Tim Cook at Apple
• Tim Cook at The New York Times

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