Tim Cook may be one of the guys who holds most of his cards close to his chest, but a little more has come out about him (no pun intended) since he took the lead role at Apple. Just last week, he announced he is “proud to be gay.” Here are 12 other things about Tim Cook you probably didn’t already know.
- He was born in Robertsdale, Alabama, and graduated from Auburn University where he studied industrial engineering.
- He wasn’t always considered the perfect person for the CEO position at Apple.
- Before Apple, Tim Cook worked at IBM for 12 years.
- While he was at IBM, he took night classes and earned an MBA at Duke.
- Really the only thing Tim Cook and Steve Jobs had in common was their love for the rock and roll greats of the 1960s.
- Tim Cook leads Apple with “a quiet calmness.”
- He can be considered especially frugal; in 2010, despite having a net worth over $100 million, Cook bought a house in Palo Alto for $1.9 million.
- Cook’s favorite vacation is hiking in Yosemite National Park.
- His schedule is very busy but he manages to regularly watch ESPN and CNBC.
- Tim Cook was named CEO on the same day that Steve Jobs stepped down.
- He supports philanthropy; he set up a corporate matching program for employees’ charitable donations early on when he became CEO.
- When Steve Jobs left, he told Tim Cook not to ask “what would Jobs do?” but to just do what was right.
