Charles Martin
Apple's board of directors is set for some significant changes over the course of the next year, with two members reaching or exceeding the recommended retirement age of 75.
Apple's Board of Directors chair, Art Levinson, is turning 75 in March of 2025, and this would normally signal a move towards retirement sometime this year. His eventual departure from Apple's board could be announced as early as February, when Apple usually holds its annual shareholder meeting.
Levinson may opt to retire later this year or in early 2026, and would be the second board member set for retirement in the near future, reports Bloomberg. He is the former CEO and chairman of Genentech, and currently is also the CEO of Alphabet's Calico Life Sciences.
This opens up the possibility that Levinson could be replaced as chair by none other than Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook, 64, could take on the chairman role in 2026 to presage his own retirement.
Cook could also name another current or replacement board member to become the chair. Levinson has been on the board of Apple since 2010, and continues to serve on the boards of Uber and Chevron.
Apple may not enforce its own rule
Apple does currently have a board member over the age of 75. Longtime member and former Northrop Grumman head Ronald Sugar, 76, was granted a special exception in March of 2024 due to what CEO Tim Cook has called his "deep insights into the company."
It would seem likely that the delay in Sugar's retirement from Apple's board will expire in the near future. Should Cook opt to remain as CEO only, this would set up a worldwide search for two new board members.
However, were Cook to also take on the chairman role, he would hardly be alone among tech CEOs. The CEOs of Meta and Microsoft — Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella, respectively — currently serve as board chair of their respective companies.
Similarly, Jeff Bezos opted to become the chair of Amazon's board after retiring from the CEO role. It's possible that Tim Cook could follow in those footsteps, given his long tenure at the company.
Cook joined Apple in 1998, and was appointed to the CEO role by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in August 2011, following Jobs' cancer diagnosis. Jobs, who had returned as CEO to save the company in 1997, died just over two months after appointing Cook as his successor.
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Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Mike Peterson
Christine McKee
8 Comments
Cook becoming chairman and then picking his successor as CEO makes a lot of sense. Apple has a lot of good internal candidates. It would be good to transition while Cook is young enough to be an engaged chairman.
Apple Senior Execs and the Board of Directors have become like the US government - too old and too out of touch
75 for a Board seat in the world of Tech? Good grief. Lower that to 65 or 70 immediately. What possibly could this Board be contributing? How could they possibly assess if Apple’s AI plans are off track?
Cook has jumped the shark. Every time they put one of "his" posts on Musk's hellmouth, he's dragged like crazy.
Go into the sunset, Tim.
Apple -- like many other Fortune 500 companies -- has moved away from having an executive chairman of the board. There is considerable value in having a non-executive (outside) chairman as well as non-executive directors for oversight.
Remember that Apple did have a CEO as executive chairman: Steve Jobs. And after Steve Jobs passed away, no Apple executive was appointed to the chairman position. I don't really see that changing.