Apple has handed boss Tim Cook a £550million bonus as he marks a decade at the helm of the iPhone maker.
The 60-year-old was appointed chief executive in 2011, succeeding the company’s founder Steve Jobs, who died of cancer weeks later.
And this week Cook received the final tranche of a huge share award. He received just over 5m shares, which he immediately cashed for £548million.
Happy anniversary: Apple boss Tim Cook (pictured) received just over 5m shares, which he immediately cashed for £548m
He was awarded the maximum award possible after overseeing share price growth of more than 1000 per cent at Apple in the past ten years.
When he took the reins, the firm was making around £79billion in annual revenues and £19billion in profit.
But those figures have since leapt to £200billion and £42billion respectively thanks to a host of new products and services introduced under Cook.
These have included Airpod wireless headphones, the Apple Watch, iCloud data storage, the Apple Music streaming service and most recently video streaming platform Apple TV+.
And the sales bonanza has sent Apple’s shares surging higher too, taking the company’s market value from about £255billion to £1.8 trillion.
It is the world’s most valuable listed company. And Cook still owns almost 3.3m shares, worth another £353million.
He has already become a billionaire thanks to his huge payouts at the firm, with Forbes putting his overall fortune at just over £1billion today.
Born in Alabama, he is the son of a shipyard worker and a pharmacist.
He graduated with a degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University, Alabama, in 1982 and spent time in senior roles at computing firms IBM, Intelligent Electronics and Compaq before joining Apple in 1998.
Before he died, Jobs is said to have told a key ally that he ‘trusted Tim absolutely’ – a comment described as ‘about as high a compliment as you could get’ from the notorious control-freak.
But whereas Jobs – who was just 56 when he died – had been dubbed a ‘visionary’ by the American media, Cook has struggled to shake off his image as the ‘supply chain guy’ – a skilled administrator who lacks his predecessor’s imagination.
Some, however, believe Cook could still round off his time in charge with a major takeover or even the launch of Apple’s own electric car.
He is not expected to remain for another decade but is seen as likely to hang around for at least a few more years.
‘I feel great right now and the date’s not in sight,’ Cook told the New York Times this year.
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