Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has become a billionaire after nine years at the helm of the world’s most valuable company. He finally reaches billionaire status as the tech company’s value nears $2trillion with the businessman’s net worth surpassing $1billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Cook joined Apple in 1998 and served in a variety of senior roles before assuming his current position, including chief operating officer and executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations. He was named CEO in August 2011, after co-founder Steve Jobs famously stepped down.
Under Cook’s leadership, Apple has become more valuable than ever, closing in on the milestone of being the first company to be valued at $2 trillion after the company’s share price rose almost five percent last week. Apple surpassed Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable company. To put that in perspective, Apple was valued at $350billion when Jobs died.
The most groundbreaking Apple product remains the iPhone, released under Jobs, but Cook has overseen the development of devices such as the iPhone X and Apple Watch, as well as new services like Apple Music. According to Bloomberg, the majority of Cook’s wealth has come from equity awards he’s received since joining Apple in 1998.
Despite being the top executive at Apple, Cook currently only directly owns “about 0.02% of Apple shares, worth around $375 million,” according to Bloomberg Billionaires, which based its projection of the CEO’s net worth on an analysis of the company’s regulatory filings. But over the years, Cook has also received sizable stock awards and other forms of compensation, which add to his estimated wealth.
Technology companies including Apple, Facebook and Amazon have also seen their profits grow during the coronavirus pandemic as more people spent time online, browsing, shopping and streaming from their homes.
Tim Cook, however, still has a long way to go to catch up with other CEOs on the Bloomberg Billionaires’ list, like Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ($187 billion), former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates ($121 billion) and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($102 billion).
Zuckerberg, Bezos and Gates are the only people in the world who currently have centibillionaire status (worth over $100bn), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Cook’s status as a billionaire CEO is a rarity because he did not found the company that he currently runs. He, however, was the second highest paid CEO in the US in 2019, just behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Prior to joining Apple, Cook worked at Compaq and IBM. He is also on the board of directors at Nike. According to a report by the wall street journal which gave insight to Cook’s leadership, he particularly follows one key advice given by Apple founder, which is;
“Don’t do what I would do, do what is right.”
Steve Jobs
Cook has indicated in the past that he won’t keep all of his wealth to himself, as in 2015 he announced plans to give most of his fortune away. He has already donated millions of dollars’ worth of Apple shares.
