Tim Cook Welcomes Burberry CEO To Apple In Internal Email

By

AngelaAhrendts

Apple announced today that Burberry’s CEO, Angela Ahrendts will be filling the company’s vacancy as Senior VP of Retail and online stores, and while the move came as a surprise to many, Tim Cook says he had been eyeing the Burberry CEO for sometime now.

In an internal email sent to employees this morning, Cook says that he’s wanted to steal Ahrendts away from Burberry from the first time they met in January of this year. Cook describes Angela as “wicked smart” while also being an extraordinary leader with a proven track record. Ahrendts is set to join Apple in spring 2014 as she transitions over from Burberry.

Here’s Tim’s full email:

Team,
I am thrilled to announce that Angela Ahrendts will be joining Apple as a senior vice president and member of our executive team, reporting directly to me. Angela is currently the CEO of Burberry.

She will lead both our retail and online teams. I have wanted one person to lead both of these teams for some time because I believe it will better serve our customers, but I had never met anyone whom I felt confident could lead both until I met Angela. We met for the first time last January, and I knew in that meeting that I wanted her to join Apple. We’ve gotten to know each other over the past several months and I’ve left each conversation even more impressed.

She shares our values and our focus on innovation. She places the same strong emphasis as we do on the customer experience. She cares deeply about people and embraces our view that our most important resource and our soul is our people. She believes in enriching the lives of others and she is wicked smart. Angela has shown herself to be an extraordinary leader throughout her career and has a proven track record. She led Burberry through a period of phenomenal growth with a focus on brand, culture, core values and the power of positive energy.

Angela will need to focus over the coming months on transitioning her current role at Burberry and will then join Apple in the spring. I am sure as all of you meet her, you will see why I am so excited that she is joining our executive team. I’d like to add a special thanks to all of our retail leaders. Your strength, talent and leadership afforded me the luxury of taking the time to perform an exhaustive search to find the best person in the world for this role.

Tim

Source: 9to5Mac
Via: The Verge

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