While Steve Jobs’s passing came with a lot of powerful emotional effects, it did unfortunately arrive with at least one practical effect that has to be dealt with sooner or later: Apple needs a new Chairman of the Board. A few experts say in this Reuters piece that it will probably be a tough choice for Apple to make. On the one hand, Apple’s strength is in Jobs’ legacy — the company has to be committed to continuing to follow his vision, because that’s what got them where they are today. On the other hand this may be a chance for Apple to diversify its team a bit, and bring in some new personnel who don’t have a past history of politics inside the company.
There’s of course a third option, which is that Apple’s board doesn’t appoint a new chairman for a while, instead working on other priorities before taking on the enormous task of filling Jobs’s spot. That might be the best option — before Jobs took on the Chairman of the Board position as he retired, the company didn’t have one anyway.
Otherwise, Tim Cook’s name is apparently going around as a possible successor, but insiders are saying that as CEO, he’s already too busy to take on anything else. We’ll have to see — these next few months will be critical for Apple, as it tries to turn and face the future without the visionary that has pushed it along for so long.
Apple’s board in a state of transition originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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