AppleAAPL+0.26% appointed Sue Wagner, a founding partner at BlackRock, to its board of directors, replacing Steve Jobs confidant and long-time director Bill Campbell.
Wagner, who helped found asset-management firm BlackRock in 1988, is the first new addition to Apple’s board since the company tapped Robert Iger, The Walt Disney Co. chief executive, in 2011.
“We believe her strong experience, especially in M&A and building a global business across both developed and emerging markets, will be extremely valuable as Apple continues to grow around the world,” said Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in a press release.
Campbell served on Apple’s board for 17 years, maintaining a close friendship with Jobs from his days serving as the company’s vice president of marketing starting in 1983. During this tenure, Apple has returned from the brink of bankruptcy to become the world’s most valuable company.
The Wall Street Journal had reported earlier that Cook had been actively searching for new directors in an effort to bring diversity to the close-knit, eight-member board – known for its loyalty to Jobs.
Wagner is the second woman on Apple’s board, joining Andrea Jung, the former chairman and CEO of Avon Products. She also becomes the director with the strongest finance background.
The appointment of Wagner and retirement of Campbell, who also serves as chairman of the board at Intuit Inc., signal the latest move by Cook to put his own stamp on the company. Three current directors have served on the board for more than a decade including J. Crew Group Inc. Chief Executive Millard S. “Mickey” Drexler, who became a director in 1999.
Campbell joined Apple’s board shortly after Jobs returned to the company in 1997. A former football coach at Columbia University, Campbell has become a coach of a different kind in Silicon Valley. He has served as a mentor to executives at Google, Twitter and other fast-growing companies, coaching them to become better managers.
A designer who worked on the original iPhone recalled that Jobs, after being given an early demonstration of what would become the iPhone, asked the team to do it again the next day for Mr. Campbell who was equally impressed and predicted that the device would be better than the original Mac.