Apple CEO Tim Cook To Donate His $785 Million Fortune To Charity
Apple CEO Tim Cook will donate $785 million dollars to charity while he is still living. The successful businessman will reportedly first handle his nephew’s college expenses and then give the remainder of the millions to various charities.
Tim Cook is following in the philanthropic footsteps of billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who in recent years have persuaded other billionaires to give away half of their fortune. Other billionaires who have given millions to charity are Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg L.P. Altogether, Gates and Buffet persuaded 40 billionaires to donate half of their wealth to charity.
CEO Tim Cook is the successor of the late Steve Jobs, a man whom many people view as a legend in business. Cook recently made a statement to the difficulty he experienced when trying to fill such large shoes.
“I have thick skin, but it got thicker. What I learned after Steve passed away, what I had known only at a theoretical level, an academic level maybe, was that he was an incredible heat shield for us, his executive team. None of us probably appreciated that enough because it’s not something we were fixated on. We were fixated on our products and running the business. But he really took any kind of spears that were thrown. He took the praise as well. But to be honest, the intensity was more than I would ever have expected.”
The “intensity” was unable to stop Tim Cook from being a more than adequate successor. Since Cook took over in 2011, Apple’s product sales have greatly risen. In fact, the most recent profit report from Apple showed a profit of $18 billion, the most profitable quarter in history, according to CNN Money. As a result, Tim Cook’s salary doubled last year to a whopping $9.2 million. His work also resulted in a $145 million worth of vested stock with $536 million more stock awards pending.
Profit is not the only way Tim Cook has made history in business. He is currently the only publically gayCEO in the largest 700 corporations. When recently asked by Fortune about his devotion to philanthropy and his decision to give so much money to charity, Cook expressed that it was more of a duty than a decision.
“To be honest, if I would not have come to the conclusion that it would likely help other people, I would have never done it. There’s no joy in me putting my life in view. ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ I’ve certainly been given a lot.”
Tim Cook has stated that he is also working on a “systematic approach” to charity that involves hands-on action instead of just giving money.
[Image via Forbes]
