Apple Appoints New Chairman of the Board

Posted by Ben Johnson

November 17, 2011

Apple has announced Arthur D. Levinson as its new chairman of the board. Levinson has been a co-lead director of the board since 2005.

Levinson is also a chairman of Genentech Inc. He joined Genentech as a research scientist in 1980 and remained its CEO from 1995 – 2009. Levinson has also served on all three boards committees – audit and finance, nominating and corporate governance and compensation.

Levinson has taken over the role of Steve Job, who died of pancreatic cancer last month. With this step, Apple has adopted to a corporate governance strategy by having separate people to serve the roles of Chairman and CEO.

Furthermore, Apple will appoint Robert Iger, the current president and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, as its Director. This will strengthen its ties with the entertainment house Disney and prove fruitful for its future endeavours.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said, “Art has made enormous contributions to Apple since he (Levinson) joined board in 2000. He has been our longest serving co-lead director, and his insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders.”

With respect to Robert Iger, Tim Cook said, “Bob and i have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board.”

Arthur Levinson said, “I am honoured to be named chairman of Apple’s board and welcome Bob to our team.”

Ben Johnson is Alliance Manager at Logoinn, a logo design company. He writes about the effect of design on marketing and brand identity and helps small businesses find design solutions for effective marketing.