Tim Cook ‘Outed’ By CNBC Co-Host… Possibly…
Tim Cook has worked for Apple for many years, so he’s been trained to keep his cards close to his chest. That doesn’t keep others from speculating about Cook, though.
This began on CNBC’s Squawk On The Street, hosted by Carl Quintanilla. The topic of this specific episode was corporate culture and gay executives, brought up by panelist James Stewart. Stewart had recently interviewed former BP CEO John Browne, who had written a book about his being a closeted gay executive entitled The Glass Ceiling: Why Coming Out Is Good For Business. Browne resigned in 2007 when a tabloid outed him, making Browne the first known executive of a major corporation to be outed.
Stewart then stated he was surprised that, despite civil advances, there is still a stigma about homosexuality in the corporate culture. “I just found it very, very fascinating,” Stewart said. “Of course, there are gay CEOs in major companies, and I reached out to many of them. I got an extremely cool reception — not one would allow to be named in the column.”
Simon Hobbs, a co-anchor for the CNBC show, then made a rather startling declaration. “I think Tim Cook is open about the fact he’s gay at the head of Apple, isn’t he?” That was followed by a palpable, awkward silence, and a shake of Stewart’s head, possibly not believing what he had just heard. Hobbs then tried to recover, “Oh, dear, was that an error? I thought not.” Co-host David Faber then interjected, “Wow, I think you just… yeah.” While the other co-anchors continued speaking, Hobbs could be heard saying, somewhat under his breath, “I think he’s very open about it.”
Stewart all but ended the matter when he answered Hobbs, “No, I don’t want to comment on anybody who might or might not be, I’m not going to out anybody.”
Though there has been speculation about Cook’s sexuality. Cook has never discussed his sexuality on any public forum, Forbes website reports. Still speculation reigns. Out Magazine named Cook the Most Powerful LGBT person on their 2013 Power List. Cook gave a speech at the U.N. after receiving an award from his alma mater of Auburn University. Cook spoke about growing up in Alabama and to what extent burning crosses had on his life.
Cook stated, “Since these early days, I have seen and have experienced many types of discrimination and all of them were rooted in the fear of people that were different than the majority.” Cook then spoke specifically of defending gay rights. “Today we have an opportunity to continue our progress with respect to race and also to embrace immigration reform and eliminate discrimination of the GLBT [sic] community,” he said. Recently, Cook voiced his approval of the federal government banning gay discrimination of federal contractors via Twitter.
Neither Cook nor Apple could be reached for comment.
