Timothy Cook Biography and Net Worth

Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple, a position he assumed in 2011, two months prior to former CEO Steve Jobs’ death from cancer. 

During his tenure as CEO and a member of Apple’s board of directors, Cook has taken the already successful tech company and nearly doubled its profits and revenues—Apple’s market value has increased from $348 billion to $1.9 trillion since 2011. Cook served as interim CEO twice over before taking on the position permanently after Jobs’ passing, once in 2004 when Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer, and again in 2009 when Jobs took a leave of absence for health reasons. 

Before becoming CEO, Cook served as Apple’s chief operating officer, responsible for the company’s operations and sales worldwide, including management of the supply chain, service and support and sales activities in all markets. In that role, he was also in charge of the Macintosh division of the company and played an outsized role in the development of supplier and reseller relationships. 

Cook first joined Apple in 1998, and he worked as the senior vice president of worldwide operations until 200, helping turn around Apple’s supply chain and operations when the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. Cook worked to move the manufacturing of Apple products from its own factories to outside contractors, and he originated its current “dairy model” of operations, where Apple was compared to a dairy in the sense that products should be sold while they were fresh and not built up into a massive inventory. 

In 2000, Cook was named senior vice president of sales and support, in addition to worldwide operations, and he subsequently became executive vice president of worldwide operations and sales two years later. In 2005, he assumed the title of COO, the last he would hold before becoming CEO. 

Prior to his career with Apple, Cook served as the vice president of corporate materials for Compaq, where he was in charge of managing and procuring Compaq’s product inventory. 

He began his career with a 12-year stint at IBM from 1982 to 1994. His most recent position with the company was as the director of North American fulfillment. In that role, Cook led the manufacturing and distribution for IBM’s personal computer company in North America and Latin America. From 1994 to 1997, Cook worked for Intelligent Electronics Inc. as COO of its reseller division. 

Currently, Cook serves on a number of boards, including Nike and the National Football Foundation. He is also a trustee of his alma mater, Duke University. In 2014, Cook became the first chief executive of a Fortune 500 company to come out as gay. Known for his philanthropy, Cook plans to donate his fortune to charity. 

Cook holds a B.S. in industrial engineering from Auburn University and an M.B.A. from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar.