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Today in Apple history: Tim Cook becomes Apple’s chief operating officer

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Tim Cook
Tim Cook was on his way to the top spot at Apple.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

October 14: Today in Apple history October 14, 2005: Tim Cook takes the reins as Apple’s chief operating officer, continuing an upward climb through the company’s ranks that will make him CEO less than six years later.

“Tim and I have worked together for over seven years now, and I am looking forward to working even more closely with him to help Apple reach some exciting goals during the coming years,” Steve Jobs says in a statement.

Today in Apple history: John Sculley steps down as Apple CEO

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Former Apple CEO John Sculley talks at Web Summit 2015 in Dublin, Ireland.
John Sculley ran Apple for a decade.
Photo: Web Summit/Flickr CC

June 18 Today in Apple history June 18, 1993: John Sculley steps down as Apple CEO after a 10-year run.

Sculley is asked to leave by the Apple board after AAPL shares collapse from a high of $4.33 in 1992 to 73 cents the following year. He hands over the CEO role to Michael Spindler before briefly taking the role of Apple chairman, prior to departing altogether.

Today in Apple history: Future Apple CEO John Sculley is born

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Fremont, California, 1990.
John Sculley in Fremont, California, 1990.
Photo: Doug Menuez/Fearless Genius

April 6: Today in Apple history: Apple CEO John Sculley born April 6, 1939: John Sculley is born in New York City. He will grow up to be hailed as a business and marketing genius, eventually overseeing Apple’s transformation into the most profitable personal computer company in the world.

After a remarkable stint as president of Pepsi-Cola, Sculley will take over as Apple’s third CEO in 1983. He runs Apple for a 10-year period, guiding the creation of the revolutionary Newton MessagePad.

During Sculley’s decade at the helm, Apple sells more personal computers than any other company. But most people still remember him for his role in kicking Steve Jobs out of Cupertino.

Two key execs are leaving Apple

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Apple Store
The head of the online Apple Store is one of multiple executives leaving the company.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The head of the online Apple store and its Chief Information Officer are reportedly both exiting the company.

This follows on the heels of news that Apple’s head of design is also on the way out.

Former Lamborghini exec will help steer Apple car design team

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Apple's new hire worked on this model, a Lamborghini Huracan.
Apple's new hire worked on this model, a Lamborghini Huracan.
Photo: Lamborghini

A former Lamborghini executive recently joined Apple to lead design of the company’s long-rumored self-driving car, according to a new report Wednesday.

As Apple works toward releasing an electric vehicle before the end of this decade, the addition of Luigi Taraborrelli, who worked for the fabled Italian automaker for 20 years, could accelerate the project.

Tim Cook netted a cool $265 million from Apple in 2020

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Tim Cook earnings apple
Tim Cook is in 8th place on Bloomberg‘s list of highest paid CEOs and executives.
Illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook is one of the best paid U.S. executives according to a new report. He pulled in a whopping $265 million in 2020 from his salary, bonus, and stock awards.

But that’s chump change compared to what Elon Musk made.

Apple finally makes crucial hire: communications chief

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is now in charge of Apple corporate communications
Stella Low has been picked to lead Apple’s public relations efforts .
Photo: Cisco

Stella Low is stepping into a position at Apple that’s been empty for years. She’s been named vice president of worldwide corporate communications. That puts her in charge of Apple’s public relations efforts.

She left Cisco to take the job with Apple.

Apple VP of developer relations retires as the role gets more challenging

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Developer relations is getting more complex
The App Store is critical to Apple, and that makes developer relations an important role.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Ron Okamoto quietly retired after two decades as Apple’s vice president of Developer Relations. He helped oversee the tools provided to third-party iPhone and Mac application developers, and helped set policies for the App Store.

His retirement comes as governments around the world are investigating whether Apple treats fairly the third-party developers who depend on the iPhone and Mac App Stores.

Key employee exits Apple’s secret car project

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Benjamin Lyon‘s dream led him from Apple Car to outer space.
A long-time Apple engineer and manager left the Apple Car project to work on space tech.
Photo: Mihai Paraschiv/Pixabay CC

Benjamin Lyon left Apple after being with the company for 21 years. He worked on a variety of products, but most recently he’d been a senior director in the team working on the Apple Car.

But he’s going to go be a rocket engineer instead.

Apple developing mystery health hardware products

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Probably not the Apple health hardware products in development.
Probably not this.
Screenshot: NBCUniversal

A job posting leaves no room for doubt that Apple plans more health-related devices. The company seeks to hire a project manager to develop “Apple-branded Health Hardware products.”

The company doesn’t have anything like this now. It’s instead mostly concentrated on building wellness features into Apple Watch, iPhone and AirPods. And selling third-party health devices.