Tim Cook

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Tim Cook succeeded Steve Jobs as Apple CEO in 2011.

© Arturo Holmes—WireImage/Getty Images

Tim Cook (born November 1, 1960, Mobile, Alabama) is an American business executive who was chief executive officer of Apple Inc. (AAPL) from 2011 to 2026. During his 15 years as CEO, Apple became one of the world’s most valuable companies and expanded beyond its core hardware business into services and other businesses.

Cook grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama. He graduated from Auburn University in Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering in 1982, and in 1988 he received an MBA from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He worked for the computer manufacturer International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) from 1982 to 1994, with his final position being director of North American fulfillment. He was subsequently chief operating officer of the reseller division at the computer retailer Intelligent Electronics, Inc. (1994–97), and vice president of corporate materials at the computer manufacturer Compaq Computer Corp. (1997).

Apple was on the verge of collapse when founder Steve Jobs rejoined the company in 1997. Cook joined Apple shortly thereafter in 1998 as senior vice president of worldwide operations. The visionary Jobs and new products such as the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone received much of the media attention during Apple’s turnaround, but Cook’s successful streamlining of the company’s supply chain and operations were equally critical.

Cook moved the manufacture of Apple products away from its own factories to outside contractors. He characterized inventory as “fundamentally evil” and compared Apple to a dairy, in that products should be sold while they were fresh. He reduced the time in which Apple’s inventory turned over from months to days. With its sought-after products and efficient supply chain, Apple was in the enviable position of setting prices high while keeping costs low.

In 2000, Cook became senior vice president of worldwide operations, sales, and support, and two years later he became executive vice president of worldwide operations and sales. He was interim CEO and chief of the Macintosh division in 2004 while Jobs took a leave of absence for surgery to treat pancreatic cancer. After Jobs returned to Apple, Cook became chief operating officer in 2005.

In January 2009, Jobs took a leave of absence through the end of June in order to recover his health and announced that Cook would be interim CEO. Two months before Jobs’s death in October 2011, he resigned as CEO and was succeeded by Cook. Within months, Apple’s stock price nearly doubled, and sales remained strong. But the company’s public image was affected by stories of poor working conditions at Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer that made many of Apple’s products. During the early months of his tenure, when Apple introduced no all-new products, opinion was divided in the business and technology communities about whether the skilled manager Cook would prove as successful as the charismatic leader Jobs in continuing Apple’s tradition of innovation.

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The Apple Watch was introduced in 2015.

Courtesy of Apple

Early in his tenure as CEO, Cook’s focus was on picking up where Jobs left off. Apple expanded its product line with new versions of the iPhone and iPad and later introduced major new categories, including the Apple Watch (2015) and AirPods wireless headphones (2016). The company’s 2014 acquisition of Beats and the launch of Apple Pay that same year signaled a push into music streaming and digital payments.

Cook also led Apple’s efforts to broaden its services, including Apple Music and iCloud, and to steer customers into subscription bundles. Drawing on his long experience in operations and hardware, Cook emphasized tighter control over Apple’s production pipeline, a strategy that culminated in the development of proprietary Apple silicon chips beginning in 2020.

Apple’s market value rose sharply under Cook. Propelled by the popularity of the iPhone and the growth of its services business, Apple in 2018 became the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion. During the 2020s, it became the first publicly traded company to surpass $3 trillion in market cap and topped $4 trillion in 2025.

By the mid-2020s, Cook had become the longest-serving chief executive in Apple’s history. During his 15-year tenure, Apple grew from a company valued at about $350 billion into one with a market cap of about $4.6 trillion when he stepped down as CEO. Annual revenue nearly quadrupled, and the number of active Apple devices worldwide grew to more than 2.5 billion.

In April 2026, Apple said Cook would step down September 1 as CEO and become executive chair of its board of directors. John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, succeeded him. Cook’s departure as CEO marked the end of an era in which Apple evolved from a company still closely identified with Steve Jobs and a handful of signature products into one of the world’s largest and most profitable businesses.