Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., smiles during a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, May 21, 2013. Cook will face off against U.S. senators leveling accusations the iPhone maker has created a web of offshore entities to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Nike announced on Thursday that Apple CEO Tim Cook had been named lead independent director. Cook has been a member of Nike’s board of directors since 2005, is chair of the Board’s Compensation Committee, and also serves as a member of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee.
Cook also serves on the board of directors for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, a position he was appointed to earlier this year.
The new position for Cook was included in a press release laying out changes to Nike’s board. In other changes, Nike chairman Phil Knight has retired from the board of directors, and is being replaced by Mark Parker, who had served as Nike’s president and CEO since 2006. That move was not a surprise, as the transition was announced a year ago.
Nike and Apple have long had a working relationship, as Apple has included a Nike Running app on some of its devices for years now. Up until the launch of the Apple Watch, Tim Cook was often seen wearing a Nike FuelBand activity tracker.
