Saturday, August 27, 2011

Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, could be the world’s most powerful gay executive


The sudden resignation on Wednesday of Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs paves the way for the ascension of Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who, upon being named Apple’s new CEO, was hailed by many in the LGBT community as possibly the world’s most powerful gay executive.

Cook, 50, who has remained private about his sexual orientation, was outed earlier this year by Gawker when it named him “the most powerful gay man in Silicon Valley.”

After Cook was profiled as a “lifelong bachelor” and “intensely private” elsewhere, we wondered if he might be gay. We’ve since heard from two well-placed sources that this is indeed the case, and it sounds like Cook’s sexual orientation has been the topic of at least some discussion within the company.

Cook would be, by far, the most powerful openly gay executive in tech, trailed by Microsoft’s openly lesbian HR chief Lisa Brummel and by Megan Smith, the former PlanetOut CEO now working as Google’s vice president of new business development.

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