[HN Gopher] Al Gore Leaves Board. Tim Cook's Pay Dropped 36% Aft...
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Al Gore Leaves Board. Tim Cook's Pay Dropped 36% After Shareholder
Pressure
Author : thunderbong
Score : 23 points
Date : 2024-01-13 17:41 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (deadline.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (deadline.com)
| jgalt212 wrote:
| > Three other members of the top exec team - CFO Luca Maestri,
| General Counsel Kate Adams and COO Jeff Williams - took home $27
| million in 2023.
|
| Why does the GC make this much? That's 27K billable hours at
| $1K/hr. Is it because she knows where the bodies are burried?
| bob1029 wrote:
| > Why does the GC make this much?
|
| Probably due to the vast scope of responsibilities and
| ramifications if something goes wrong?
|
| I can't imagine that being in charge of all of Apple's legal
| concerns is a walk in the park.
| zht wrote:
| they also need someone to resign and take responsibility if
| something goes to shit
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| I could do that for a lot less than $27 million.
| jasonjmcghee wrote:
| Doesn't seem crazy unreasonable to think compensation for
| executives with that kind of impact on the company to take home
| some very small percentage of the worth of the company as take
| home pay. If they were general counsel of a $1B company and
| made $270k, no one would comment on it. The company is 1000x
| more valuable and much more likely to be involved in
| litigation.
|
| Would $1M/yr at a $10B company make sense, $5M? What about a
| $100B company? How many of those are there?
|
| Apple is a $1T company. That's an insane size. Very difficult
| to easily reason about.
|
| How much per year do you think Elon Musk pays his personal
| counsel? Bill Gates? You might be surprised...
| summerlight wrote:
| https://www.apple.com/leadership/katherine-adams/
|
| "General" in the word "General Counsel" doesn't mean it's doing
| generic daily legal works. It means very similar to the one in
| "General Manager", which is a common title for SVP in that
| they're in charge for everything in their area. It's very close
| to C-suite for the legal department.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| > Apple noted that it has "a longstanding policy that directors
| generally may not stand for reelection after reaching age 75."
|
| Why isn't this considered illegal age discrimination?
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| Are board members employees?
| acdha wrote:
| The U.S. law in question applies to people under 70:
|
| https://uscode.house.gov/statviewer.htm?volume=92&page=189
|
| There's actually a fascinating bit of history behind this which
| I learned about on a recent podcast:
|
| https://www.si.edu/sidedoor/wrinkled-radicals
| summerlight wrote:
| Board members are not necessarily employees in this context.
| tharne wrote:
| > Why isn't this considered illegal age discrimination?
|
| Because it's based on real risks and limitations associated
| with advanced age. I remember during the 2008 election when
| John McCain's age was brought up. There were survey's the
| showed the voters most concerned about his age were older
| voters, since they understand the decline that comes with aging
| firsthand.
| latexr wrote:
| Relevant to note (emphasis mine):
|
| > Former Vice President Al Gore will be departing from Apple's
| board of directors after a 21-year run _due to the company's
| mandatory retirement age_ , the tech company said today.
|
| So there doesn't seem there's been a disagreement or anything of
| the sort.
| gurchik wrote:
| Why might Apple have a mandatory retirement age? Interesting
| that you can be too old to be in this position but not too old
| to be elected President.
| mandeepj wrote:
| > Why might Apple have a mandatory retirement age?
|
| Apple is a private entity; I understand they are publicly
| traded, but not a govt entity. They can make their own rules
| for their efficiency
| tharne wrote:
| > Why might Apple have a mandatory retirement age?
| Interesting that you can be too old to be in this position
| but not too old to be elected President.
|
| This is pretty common in business, at least in the U.S. Most
| decent-sized companies understand the risks of associated
| with a geriatric executive. The fact that our government
| doesn't understand this is a bit scary.
| freejazz wrote:
| We are free to pass a constitutional amendment that limits
| the age of the president or any other government position.
| Why act like there is some prohibiting this?
| mertbio wrote:
| > Apple CEO Tim Cook will take a more than 40% pay cut this year
| from a year earlier as the company adjusts how it calculates his
| compensation partly based on a recommendation from Cook himself.
|
| https://apnews.com/article/technology-apple-inc-tim-cook-bus...
| AlexanderTheGr8 wrote:
| Why was a politician (Al Gore was former vice president) on the
| board of a tech company? I have seen this before with Kissinger
| at Elizabeth Holmes's failed company. I think OpenAI was also
| looking at a famous politician joining their new board.
|
| Is there a reason TECH companies want old very-likely-tech-
| illiterate politicians to join their board? Is the only reason to
| be more cozy with washington?
| spzb wrote:
| Well Al Gore famously invented the internet
| https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2016/01/11/al-gore-inv...
|
| But more usually, companies want politicians on the board
| because they have political connections which they can tap to
| the company's advantage.
| matthewdgreen wrote:
| Reading that Newt Gingrich quote was amusing. Basically one
| of Gore's principal political opponents came out and said
| "yeah Gore was the guy who did the most in Congress to make
| the Internet happen." You don't see that kind of bipartisan
| praise very often these days, at least not in Congress.
| fuzzylightbulb wrote:
| I feel like a former VPOTUS probably knows a thing or two about
| operating a large organization. Probably has a hell of a
| roladex, too.
| summerlight wrote:
| At certain scale, government regulation will be a significant
| risk for business and you need some connection to the govt.
| Politicians tend to have the one. Plus, those people are
| actually good at resolving political conflicts inside the
| board, so it's also risk mitigation for something like the
| whole OpenAI drama.
| latexr wrote:
| I have no insider information on the matter. But considering Al
| Gore's1 and Apple's2 commitment to the environment, it makes
| sense to me.
|
| 1
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_activism_of_Al_G...
|
| 2 https://www.apple.com/environment/
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