Apple has announced a new board member in the form of James A. Bell, previously the chief financial officer and corporate president of The Boeing Company.
“James brings a wealth of global, financial and industrial experience from his successful career at Boeing as corporate president and CFO,” Tim Cook said in a statement. “I am thrilled to welcome him to Apple’s board of directors and I look forward to working with him.”
A self-described “avid user of Apple products,” Bell spent 38 years at Boeing where he oversaw Boeing Capital Corporation and Boeing Shared Services, as well as briefly serving as the company’s interim CEO in 2005.
“We look for outstanding individuals to strengthen our board’s breadth of talent and depth of knowledge, and we are very happy to have identified a fantastic person in James Bell,” said Apple chairman Art Levinson. “I’m confident that he will make many important contributions to Apple.”
Discounting the fact that airlines have been increasingly using Apple devices for both passengers and pilots during flights, there’s little to suggest a previous link between James Bell (and his history at Boeing) and Apple. Then again, it’s never a bad thing to have as many smart people as possible on Apple’s board!
The rest of the Apple board of directors is filled out by Tim Cook, Art Levinson, Al Gore, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger, Grameen CEO Andrea Jung, ex-Northrop Grumman chairman and CEO Ron Sugar, and BlackRock co-founder Sue Wagner.
Source: Apple
