Tim Cook is the first CEO of any Fortune 500 company who is openly gay.
37 Facts About Tim Cook
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Tim Cook joined Apple in March 1998 as a senior vice president for worldwide operations, and then served as the executive vice president for worldwide sales and operations.
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Tim Cook was made the chief executive on August 24,2011, prior to Jobs' death in October of that year.
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Since 2011 when he took over Apple, to 2020, Tim Cook doubled the company's revenue and profit, and the company's market value increased from $348 billion to $1.9 trillion.
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In 2014, Tim Cook became the first chief executive of a Fortune 500 company to publicly come out as gay.
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Tim Cook serves on the boards of directors of Nike, Inc and the National Football Foundation; he is a trustee of Duke University, his alma mater.
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Outside of Apple, Tim Cook engages in philanthropy, and in March 2015, he said he planned to donate his fortune to charity.
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Tim Cook was baptized in a Baptist church and grew up in nearby Robertsdale.
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Tim Cook's father, Donald, was a shipyard worker, and his mother, Geraldine, worked at a pharmacy.
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Tim Cook graduated from Robertsdale High School in Alabama in 1978.
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Tim Cook received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1982 and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University in 1988.
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Tim Cook closed factories and warehouses, and replaced them with contract manufacturers; this resulted in a reduction of the company's inventory from months to days.
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Tim Cook's actions were recognized for keeping costs under control, and combined with the rest of the company, generated huge profits.
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In January 2007, Tim Cook was promoted to lead operations and served as chief executive in 2009, while Jobs was away on a leave of absence for health-related issues.
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On October 29,2012, Tim Cook made major changes to the company's executive team.
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Tim Cook made the executive changes after the third quarter of the fiscal year, when revenues and profits grew less than predicted.
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On February 28,2014, Tim Cook made headlines when he challenged shareholders to "get out of the stock" if they did not share the company's views on sustainability and climate change.
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In May 2016, Tim Cook traveled to China to meet with government officials there after the closure of Apple's online iTunes Store and Apple Books store by the Chinese government.
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In December 2017, Tim Cook was a speaker at the World Internet Conference in China.
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Tim Cook was appointed chairman of the advisory board for Tsinghua University's economics school in October 2019 for a three-year term.
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In 2016, Tim Cook signed a $275 billion deal with Chinese officials.
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Tim Cook responded in an open letter, wherein he denounced the government's demands as constituting a "breach of privacy" with "chilling" consequences.
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Since becoming CEO, Tim Cook has replaced Steve Jobs's micromanagement with a more hands-off style, and implemented a more collaborative culture at Apple.
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In October 2014, the Alabama Academy of Honor inducted Tim Cook, who spoke about his home state's record of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights.
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In 2015, Tim Cook said he donated to Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Patrick Leahy for their stances on eBook pricing and surveillance reform, respectively.
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In early March 2016, Tim Cook disclosed that he donated to the election campaign of Democratic Rep.
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In September 2017 at Bloomberg's Global Business Forum, Tim Cook defended the DACA immigration program.
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Tim Cook is a fitness enthusiast and enjoys hiking, cycling, and going to the gym.
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Tim Cook is known for being solitary, using an off-campus fitness center for privacy, and little is publicly shared about his personal life.
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Tim Cook explained in October 2014 that he has sought to achieve a "basic level of privacy".
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Tim Cook was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996, an incident he said made him "see the world in a different way".
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Tim Cook has since taken part in charity fundraising, such as cycle races to raise money for the disease.
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Tim Cook later told the Auburn alumni magazine that his symptoms came from "lugging a lot of incredibly heavy luggage around".
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Tim Cook has said that in 2009 he offered a portion of his liver to Jobs, as they shared a rare blood type.
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In June 2014, Tim Cook attended San Francisco's gay pride parade along with a delegation of Apple staff.
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Tim Cook hoped his openness could help LGBTQ youth dealing with homelessness and suicide hope that their situation could get better.
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In 2021, Cook appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.