IN Business & Leadership 2019
he recounted. “Unfortunately, I realized I had absolutely no
at Auburn, where he was a member of the professional
musical talent. Later, while still in middle school, I thought
organization known as IIE (Institute of Industrial Engineers),
briefly about becoming a lawyer, but then I realistically
he was nominated by his classmates for outstanding graduate.
concluded that I couldn’t afford to go to school that long.”
While giving his speech and modestly noting that he wasn’t
Lest anyone think that Tim Cook was born with a silver
worthy, it just so happened that a recruiter from IBM was in
spoon in his mouth, the evidence and the CEO himself tell a
this meeting, sitting in the back of the room. Fate was about to
different story. “I spent my high school summers working at the
intervene.
Scott Paper Company,” he said. “It smelled a little bit there, but
“He came up to me afterward and said, ‘You’re not on my
I was earning money. And, during college at Auburn, I began
schedule for tomorrow.’ To which I replied that I had certainly
a co-op program with Reynolds Aluminum, in which I went to
tried to have a meeting with him, but his calendar was booked.
Richmond every other quarter to work for them. That’s how I paid
He told me he’d make a place for me. So, I went and interviewed
my way through school.”
and ended up at IBM. Life is like that.”
It was in high school that his direction in life would
Life can be “like that” for the best and the brightest. He
become clear. A love of mathematics led him to “pull that string,”
took a break before going to grad school at Duke University
which in turn put him on an engineering path. “Math and my
and earning his MBA, which IBM paid for “as long as I kept my
love of people directed me toward industrial engineering, the
grades up.” He graduated as a Fuqua Scholar in 1988.
most people-friendly of the engineering fields,” he explained.
50
Cook survived Fortran, and during his last quarter
But the Gulf Coast was never far away in his mind, Cook
“So, in college I began programming. I didn’t have exposure to
noted to the Tulane class of 2019 when he told them that New
this in high school in the mid-1970s, and back then we used
Orleans may be in their veins—and perhaps their livers—but
Fortran, which nobody remembers anymore.” (Fortran, derived
some folks at Apple have New Orleans in their blood. “When I
from Formula Translation is a programming language developed
was a student at Auburn,” he said, “the Big Easy was our favorite
by IBM in the ’50s for scientific computing.)
getaway. It’s amazing how quickly those 363 miles fly by when
Inside Publications
photo courtesy: APPLE, INC.
“You know, Leslie, I wanted to be a musician for a while,”