Apple CEO Tim Cook has entered his final week as CEO, before he hands the role over on Tuesday 1 September to his successor, John Ternus.
Cook became CEO suddenly on 24 August 2011, when Apple Newsroom announced that Steve Jobs had resigned as CEO, effective immediately.
The company also attached a letter from Jobs, where he personally recommended Tim Cook as his successor:
“As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO.”
Steve Jobs was suffering from a form of pancreatic cancer, and said that the day had come when he could no longer meet his duties as CEO.
This week also marks Tim Cook’s 15th anniversary as CEO, which falls exactly a week before his last day in the role.
Cook overtook Jobs as Apple’s longest-serving CEO last year, and is the seventh person to hold the role—contrary to the popular belief that he is Apple’s second CEO.
Before becoming Apple’s permanent CEO, Cook led the company as interim CEO on three separate occasions: for a couple of months in 2004, the first six months of 2009, and throughout 2011 before taking over permanently. These periods followed Steve Jobs’s medical leave after his cancer diagnosis in the early 2000s.
Tim Cook has been at the helm of Apple for a very long time and helped build the modern Apple we know today. It may take time to get used to a new face leading the company, but Apple’s next CEO has Cook’s support, with Cook remaining at the company as Executive Chairman.
Image Credit: Tessa Bury
