Engineering Alumnus Named COO of Apple

Cook Tim Cook, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering alumnus, was named chief operating officer of Apple Inc. on October 14 following Jon Rubinstein's retirement.

The founding chair of Auburn's ISE Alumni Council, Cook graduated from Auburn with his bachelor's degree in industrial engineering in 1982 and earned his M.B.A. from Duke University where he was a Fuqua Scholar.

Cook joined Apple in 1998 as senior vice president of Operations and was promoted to executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Operations in 2002. In 2004, his responsibilities expanded to include leading Apple's Macintosh Division. Cook manages Apple's supply chain, sales activities and service and support in all markets and countries and plays a key role in the continued development of strategic reseller and supplier relationships.

"Tim has been doing this job for over two years now, and it's high time we officially recognized it with this promotion," says Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Tim and I have worked together for over seven years now, and I am looking forward to working even more closely with him to help Apple reach some exciting goals during the coming years."

Before joining Apple, Cook was vice president of Compaq's Corporate Materials Department and spent 12 years with IBM as director of North American Fulfillment where he led manufacturing and distribution functions for IBM's Personal Computer Company in North and Latin America.

In Nov, Nike, Inc. announced the appointment of Timothy D. Cook, Apple Computer, Inc.'s chief operating officer, to the company's board of directors. Mr. Cook is the board's 11th director, nine of which are independent, and is expected to serve on the compensation committee of the board.