Tim Cook is a better leader than U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the best of them all in a new poll ranking the leaders in business, government, philanthropy and the arts.
The third annual list of the world’s 50 greatest leaders list created by Fortune puts Tim Cook in the fifth spot overall, sandwiched between Pope Francis and singer/activist John Legend. Cook scores strong marks for his defense of iPhone users’ privacy and security during Apple’s showdown with the FBI to create a backdoor in iOS.
“While op tech execs have lined up behind Cook, it’s Apple that is facing the FBI in the showdown. Cook has put Apple’s popularity at stake in defense of principle: In a Pew Research Center survey, a majority (51% to 38%) said that Apple should comply with the FBI’s request. But court filings by the Justice Department suggest that it may blink before Cook does.
