After 17 years as a member on Apple’s board, Bill Campbell is calling it quits.
Apple Inc. said Bill Campbell, the company’s longest-serving board member, is stepping down and will be replaced by Susan Wagner, founding partner and director of BlackRock.
In a statement Campbell said “Over the past 17 years, it’s been exciting to watch history unfold as Apple emerged as the premier technology company in the world.”
“The company today is in the best shape that I have seen it, and Tim [Cook’s] leadership of his strong team will allow Apple to continue to be great going forward.”
Apple will report its quarterly earnings on July 22nd, but the company just announced a bit of a board shake-up ahead of that news. About the replacement CEO Tim Cook said in a press release “Sue is a pioneer in the financial industry and we are excited to welcome her to Apple’s board of directors”.
“We believe her strong experience, especially in M&A [mergers and acquisitions] and building a global business across
both developed and emerging market, will be extremely valuable as Apple continues to grow around the world.” With Wagner’s appointment, two of the eight members of Apple’s board are women.
Wagner cofounded BlackRock in 1988 and served as the asset manager’s vice chairman from 2006 to 2012. In addition to serving on the boards of BlackRock and Apple, she also is a director at DSP BlackRock (India), Swiss Re, Wellesley College and Hackley School.
“I have always admired Apple for its innovative products and dynamic leadership team, and I’m honored to be joining their board,” Wagner said in a statement.
Campbell’s Apple association dates back to 1983, when then-CEO John Sculley recruited him to be head of marketing. He reported to Floyd Kvamme, who went on to be an influential venture capitalist. Campbell eventually headed a software spinoff of Apple called Claris, which he intended to take public before Apple exercised a right to buy it back.
Though hired by Sculley, Campbell became far more closely associated with Jobs. Apple observers thought of him as “Steve’s guy” on the board and assumed that would make for an awkward situation with Tim Cook, who succeeded Jobs as CEO three years ago next month.
Each praised the other Thursday. “Bill’s contributions to Apple are immeasurable, and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude,” Cook said in a statement. “On behalf of the board and the entire company, I want to thank him for being a leader, a mentor and a friend.” Campbell was equally as effusive. “Apple is an institution now,” he said. “Tim’s done an amazing job of building bench strength within the organization. There’s a whole set of new and smart people who are taking over. You’re watching that company grows up.”
One of Campbell’s unique attributes during the Jobs years was his insight into Jobs’s thinking and character, due to their friendship. As he leaves Apple’s board—and given his vast network of senior leaders in the tech industry—Campbell now offers a unique insight into what makes Cook tick. “Tim is a calm, thoughtful guy,” he said. “He studies things and thinks about them, makes a decision, and moves on.”
Campbell says Cook called the morning of his resignation announcement and asked if he could make a contribution somewhere in Campbell’s honor. He already sensed that Campbell’s preference would be for something related to the town where he grew up, among the steel mills of Pennsylvania. “That’s the way he thinks,” Campbell says of Cook. “In his warm way of saying goodbye to me he’s going to do something warm for me, make a contribution to my home town.”
Apple's longest-serving director Campbell steps down
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