Is Tim Cook The Best Paid Apple Employee?

Timothy D. Cook succeeded the late Steve Jobs as the CEO of Apple Inc., from August 2011. He had earlier served as the chief operating officer of the company before assuming his current position. Born in Alabama in 1960, Tim Cook attended the Auburn University, where he graduated in 1982 with a degree in Industrial Engineering. He later proceeded to Duke University, where he pursued his M.B.A. This was followed by a great career at IBM, where he worked for 12 years before becoming the chief operating officer for intelligent Electronics. He also worked with Compaq holding the position of a vice president of corporate materials. He only worked for six months with Compaq before he joined Apple. Following his career progression, he was named Apple CEO in 2011 and to date has helped the company to make tremendous achievements.

Career at Apple

Before proceeding to talk about Tim Cook Apple CEO compensation details, it's also necessary to have a look at his performance at Apple. During his speech at the Auburn University's commencement ceremony in 2010, Tim Cook applauded his decision of joining Apple citing that this was the most significant discovery he has ever made in his life. However, his decision to become part of the company was not simple when he joined Apple in 1998. The company had not even developed gadgets like the iPod, iMac among others, and it was recording a decline in profits, contrary to what most people would expect of today's Apple.

Before taking the job, he received various comments that cited a bleak future for Apple since it was losing sales and experts thought it was on a road to extinction. A few months later, he joined the company and surprisingly, things began looking brighter with time. This time he was serving as the chief operating officer, taking the responsibility of managing sales and operations globally. Tim Cook Apple CEO compensation was then not as impressive as it is today considering the company was still battling hard times in the past. He also took part in managing the Macintosh division by coming up with supplier policies for a better relationship. His debut entry saw the corporation record profits in the 1998 fiscal year, a shift from the 1997 $1 billion loss.

Appointed to serve as Apple CEO

It is in 2011 that Tom Cook succeeded the late Steve Jobs as the CEO of Apple Inc. Cook is also part of the company's board of directors. As of 2014, the company has expanded and launched more products under his leadership as CEO. In May 2014, the corporation launched the biggest acquisition since inception, which included the buying of Beats Music and Electronics for $3 billion. This saw Beats co-founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy become part of Apple, taking up executive positions. Acquiring Beats Music and Electronics would serve well to complement many products that are offered by Apple. Tim Cook Apple CEO compensation should be one of the best packages among employees in the company, but he is more concerned about fulfilling his dream of making products that would make the life of many people better.

Tim Cook Apple CEO compensation and Impact to the world

According to the Forbes issue dated November 2011, Tim Cook was highlighted among the most powerful people in the world. This was followed by Tim Cook Apple CEO compensation details, which were posted in New York Times in 2012, Tim Cook Apple CEO compensation was the highest among CEOs from established publicly traded corporations. His salary at Apple stood at $900, 000, but it was also reported he earned several million dollars each year from other streams of compensation, which include stocks and bonus awards. In the year 2011, he took home a total of $378 million from compensation.

To bring about equality and the respect for human rights, Tim Cook has worked to ensure people's beliefs and choices are respected. He confirmed his sexuality in October 2014 through an article posted on Bloomberg, in which he confirmed his gay status.

Tim explained that being gay is among the best decisions he ever made and he celebrates and adores the freedom he has been able to achieve by choosing his sexuality without necessarily having to succumb to criticism from others. He stated that he has been trying to help people come to terms with the reason why he chose to be gay and why he is willing to keep his sexuality. This has inspired many to reflect on offering freedom to others to choose what makes them happy in life as long as it does not affect and harm others. Tim was the first CEO to come out as gay and to show pride in the status. He urged people to feel free to embrace life without fearing what others might think and was happy that the United States is making good progress on the issue.

Is Tim Cook the best paid Apple executive?

Tim Cook Apple CEO compensation for the 2015 fiscal year totalled $10, 281, 327. This is broken down into several parts, which include $2 million salary, a non-equity incentive remittance of $8 million, as well as other miscellaneous payments totalling $280, 000. This implies Cook made $1 more than what he made in 2014 fiscal year, during which he managed $9.2 million.

Does this Tim Cook Apple CEO compensation amount really make him the highest paid executive within Apple? In year 2015, other Apple chiefs earned more than Tim Cook. Angela Ahrendts made a total of $25.8 million in the 2015 fiscal year. She was among other executives who earned $20 million from stock awards and another $4 million from non-equity incentive compensation; this is not forgetting their salaries amounting to $1 million. In terms of salary, Tim Cook is the highest paid executive, but other additions like stock earnings rank him at a lower position when compared to his counterparts in the corporation.

Senior executives like Bruce Sewell and Eddy Cue made more than $25 million in 2015, an amount that does not include restricted stock. Over the same period, Tim Cook received Apple shares valued at $57 million. Under these records, Tim Cook had made progress for the company, generating $233.7 billion from sales, which represents a 28% increase compared to the amount he was able to achieve in 2014. Basically over all the years he has been working as the CEO of the corporation, there has been a progressive increase in earnings each year. Apple forecasts earnings streak into 2016, where they project to earn revenue amount between $75.5 and $77.5 billion in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2016.