6 Things You Didn’t Know About Apple’s Secretive CEO Tim Cook

Tim Cook Apple CEO Credit: Reuters
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Tim Cook is CEO of the most valuable company on Earth. Yet many people know very little or nothing about him as he maintains a level of privacy that’s in stark contrast to his predecessor. While Steve Jobs was known publicly throughout the world as the father of Apple, Tim Cook prefers to keep to himself. Here are six things you probably didn’t know about Apple’s commander-in-chief.

6 Tim Cook Is an Early Bird (and Ripped)

Cook wakes up early. He’s up and at ’em by 3:45 AM, he begins sending emails at 4:30, and by 5:00 he’s working out in the gym. Speaking of exercise, Mr. Cook is a fitness buff. Earlier this year, Jacob Brogan of Slate posed the question “Is Tim Cook Swole?” In his article, Brogan offers various bits of information that just might prove his point including photos of Tim looking jacked, his exercise habits, and more.

5 Steve Jobs Convinced Him to Join Apple

Cook wasn’t always an Apple boy. In fact, Cook was a fulfillment director at IBM for 12 years. After IBM, Cook was COO at Intelligent Electronics. Jobs approached Cook in 1998. A few months prior, Cook had started a new job as a vice president for Compaq. Jobs wanted Cook on the bandwagon.

Apple was in a slump, and although everyone he knew told him it was a bad idea, Cook followed his own intuition and joined Apple as Senior Vice President for worldwide operations. Later he would become COO and ultimately CEO of the most valuable company on Earth.

4 He’s Worth a Ton of Money

It pays to be CEO of the most valuable company in the world… literally. Although Cook may not be Jeff Bezos-rich, he definitely doesn’t work because he has to. Cook has a reported annual salary of over $10 million. Including Apple stock and options, Cook has a staggering net worth of over $785 million.

Despite all that dough, Cook — like Jobs (maybe even more so) — appears to have very little interest in personal wealth. In the spring of 2015, he said he has plans to donate all of the money from his stocks to charity.

3 He Offered Part of His Liver to Steve Jobs

Cook isn’t just generous with money; he says that in 2009 he offered a portion of his liver to Steve Jobs. Both Jobs and Cook share a rare blood type. The liver is a regenerative organ and the success rate of a transplant is high. But, Jobs stubbornly refused: “I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that,” he yelled. “Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him,” Cook said, “and this was one of them.”

2 He’s a Very Private Person

Okay, so you probably already know that very little is known or confirmed about Mr. Cook. Like Apple’s privacy policies and strict secrecy, Cook seems to fly below the radar. According to Walter Smith of Mobility Digest:

“Tim Cook is notoriously reclusive and almost nothing is known of his personal life. He even chooses to work out at an off campus fitness center away from staff and colleagues. Tim does not fraternize with Apple employees.”

1 He’s the First CEO from a Fortune 500 Company to Publicly Come out as Gay

Despite the high level of privacy, Cook decided to use his position at Apple to help empower members of the LGBTQ+ community when he publicly announced he was gay in October of 2014. While he had been open about is sexuality for years, he had never announced it publicly before then. Cook is quoted as saying: “We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick.”

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