Timothy Donald “Tim” Cook was born on 1 November 1960, in Mobile, Alabama USA, and is well known around the business world as the CEO of Apple Inc. the largest company in the world. He assumed this position in 2011 when former CEO and founder Steve Jobs resigned as a consequence of suffering terminal illness. Since then the company has continued to expand and is now the highest profit-making company in the world – over $39 billion in 2014-15.
So just how rich is Tim Cook? Based on his share holdings in Apple alone, sources estimate that Tim’s net worth is now over $765 million; with other likely investments, there is a strong possibility that his wealth is somewhat higher, but in any case is growing as Apple’s business shows no sign of slowing down.
Tim Cook Net Worth $765 million
Tim was born into an average family, with no business experience for him to learn from. He was educated at Robertsdale High School, before enrolling at Auburn University and graduating in 1982 with a BSc in industrial engineering, following which he earned an MBA through the private Duke University in North Carolina in 1988.
Cook had already entered the computer business world, working for IBM after leaving Auburn, for what turned out to be almost 12 years, culminating in him being appointed director of North American operations. Clearly this was a great start to building his net worth.
After his stint at IBM, Cook then served as COO as Intelligent Electronics, followed by an appointment as corporate materials vice-president at Compaq, in both positions performing with distinction and adding to his growing net worth.
Tim Cook’s move to Apple was effectively as a result of being ‘head-hunted’ by Steve Jobs, who so impressed Tim with his vision of the future for Apple that Tim was quickly persuaded to join the company for whom he has worked since. Initially he was senior vice-president for operations around the world, which over a period of nine years saw him complete a major physical re-organisation of Apple, closing inefficient plants and warehouses and moving to contractors as necessary, resulting in considerable cost-cutting. He was also instrumental in bringing on-board flash memory, essential to the future production of iPad and iPhone, innovative designs which ensured Apple’s increased profitability.
Cook was promoted to COO in 2007, but because of Jobs’ serious illness, was effectively CEO for much of the time, although Jobs was still the main decision-maker. The business partnership between the two has been credited by authoritative sources as laying the foundation for the Apple company’s dominant position in the the IT world today, in particular improving the finances of the company to the point where revenue had risen from $6 to 100 billion per year (over $200 billion in 2015). Tim was formally appointed CEO in 2011, and within a year had made significant changes to executive positions, concentrating on building an harmonious team, as he said ‘…concentrating on people, strategy and execution…’. His approach certainly seems to have worked, as he is consistently named in the lists of 10 most influential business people, and Apple’s fortunes continue to rise. His net worth also continues to rise as, with many other high-flying CEOs, his salary package includes company shares, so it is obviously in his best interests that Apple continues to profit, which is definitely the case as quarterly profits announced late October 2015 show a 28% increase, year-on-year.
In his personal life, Tim Cook recently confirmed that he is ‘…gay and proud of it…’. He is known as a fitness fanatic and a workaholic, all of which seems to have done him no harm at all in his career.
