In a wide-ranging profile of Apple CEO Tim Cook published by Fortune today, Adam Lashinsky reports, “Representing their companies publicly is obligatory for CEOs, but Cook takes public stands on issues including stopping the transmission of AIDS, human rights, and immigration reform. He sees them as opportunities for leadership. ‘You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change,’ he says.”
“To Cook, changing the world always has been higher on Apple’s agenda than making money,” Lashinsky reports. “He plans to give away all his wealth, after providing for the college education of his 10-year-old nephew. There should be plenty left over to fund philanthropic projects.”
“Cook’s net worth, based on his holdings of Apple stock, is currently about $120 million. He also holds restricted stock worth $665 million if it were to be fully vested,” Lashinsky reports. “Cook says that he has already begun donating money quietly, but that he plans to take time to develop a systematic approach to philanthropy rather than simply writing checks.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Tim Cook grows ever more admirable.
Related article:
Fortune’s 50 Greatest Leaders in the World 2015: Apple CEO Tim Cook No. 1 – March 26, 2015
He’s a great human.
Even though he has less to give I’m sure he’ll do a much better job of it than the Bill & Melinda Gates duo buffonery show.
Gates has talked about this for years, yet he’s still the richest man on earth. His ego is too big to go through with it
Gates is also notorious for being invested in companies that cause problems (mostly environmental) for the people that his foundation is trying to help with their programs.
Uhh, Gates has given away TONS of money, and they’re helping cure diseases in parts of the world.
I second that, he’s given away about 20 billion. A sum far exceeding the entire wealth of anyone in the 0.001%. He is only able to do so by keeping his wealth which continues to grow. If he gave it all away he wouldn’t be able to direct change or influence anything. Trust me, he’s better off using dividends to help the world indefinitely.
There was a time a couple of years ago when I questioned what Tim was doing. But I’m happy to admit I was wrong and it was an emotional reaction to being overinvested in AAPL options. What a phenomenal CEO and phenomenal human being.
To be fair, you will have to wait until next year to full judge Cook as CEO.
By that time, Apple Watch start will be thing of the past, and everyone will be able to see how successful the project is.
Even though Apple Watch was extensively discussed during the time when Steven Jobs was CEO, full-force commitment was signed already by Cook in Autumn of 2011. So this project is almost past-Jobs thing.
(Waiting for fully post-Jobs project to come to life will take probably much longer since even supposed car had significant background research started and patented as early as in 2009 — so it is also not going to be entirely post-Jobs project.)
Decent thing to do, but nothing should stop him from creating family (though unusual one) and fathering his own children, too. Though my guess is that family is not everyone’s thing. It is not social imperative any more, regardless of gender and orientation. Maybe Cook thinks that he can do more for the world spending time the way he does it now.
He can do better by bringing back the jobs to the US and he can keep his well earned wealth. Everybody wins, instead of only the stockholders winning.
Do you really think Wall Street would cheer Apple if Apple brought jobs back to the U.S. and profit margins dropped due to higher labor costs? I’d hardly think so. Apple would be downgraded so quickly it would make your head spin. Make all companies do it and then it would put all companies on an equal footing. Why should only Apple be put at a disadvantage?
How would you decide where home is for international companies, including Apple?
The equal footing would be destruction of the US economy.
Well, if you think equal footing would destroy the US economy, then you should explain how China’s import barriers are helping the US. Take down the barriers and unfair Chinese subsidies and we’ll see how competitive China really is.
Exactly. Germany is showing how it’s done. Wall Street’s ownership of WA-DC has paralyzed the USA. Unshackled of the short-term greedsters and economic treasonists, the USA would compete just as well as any modern economy.
Those corporatists and their puppets who parade around under the banner of “free trade” all the while supporting communist china and its unfair trade barriers are hypocrites.
The world needs fair trade, and bowing down to corporate greed is not the way to achieve it.
The wealthy for the wealthy. The wealthy are constantly mocking and ridiculing the poor as they receive the meager rations they use to survive. All the while while these same wealthy make their wealth on the backs of hard working people like Jobs, Gates and now Tim through investment.
If you want to be wealthy. work and actually do something. Not just hang on the coat tails of hard workers.
There are millions of stockholders. Bringing jobs home would destroy Apple’s ability to compete. So workers would still be out of a job and stockholders would also suffer.
re “and he can keep his well earned wealth”
Let me correct that for you – according to your own principles.
HE can do whatever the hell he likes with HIS well earned wealth – including giving it away.
Or does right-wing “freedom” actually mean he is only allowed to keep it? Nice “freedom” there.
jeez, he’s been working so hard and endure endless malicious social media just to give his wealth away, how admirable is that?. People are evil, but there are few good people left on this planet earth.
Class act, through and through. Would love to work for him.
I love him already!
I hope the Apple Watch doesn’t distract Apple _too_ much from their overall product line. I believe that is Tim’s greatest challenge.. maintaining a healthy, balanced set of well-maintained products and services.
Distract????
Its going to enhance in a major way.. Not distract !
Sounds like he is drinking the Bill Gates Foundation Kool-Aid.
Yet another one of Cook’s steps to be like Microsoft.
OH NO! He wants to do good in the world! Must be Kool-Aid!
I have no idea if Cook is religious or not… but if you are George, you may remember that is what people are SUPPOSED to do with their wealth. (I trust I don’t have to quote Jesus for you.)
I didn’t know that Gates invented philanthropy. Thanks for that enlightening me!
*Thanks for enlightening me!
I noticed an ad yesterday seeking home based tech support employees. Jobs that other farm out to India, Philippines and Ireland.