Tim Cook, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Apple, turns 55 on 1 November 2015.
Cook joined Apple in 1998 as senior vice-president of worldwide operations and was named the CEO in 2011 when Steve Jobs resigned from the post.
Here are a few interesting facts about Cook.
Background: Tim Cook comes from a humble background. His father Donald worked in a shipyard and his mother Geraldine worked at a pharmacy. Cook himself has worked at an Alabama paper mill and a Virginia aluminum plant.
However, his first job was delivering newspapers as a teenager.
Frugal: According to a Mashable report, Cook is frugal in personal life. Apparently, he lived in a rental without air-conditioning for years, and buys his underwear at Nordstrom's half-yearly sale.
Not afraid to take risks: "If you start fearing things, you don't try anything new or different," he once said in an interview with his alumni magazine, reported Mashable. "If it doesn't work out, it's not the end of my world. I'll go ride my bike."
Sports fan: Cook is an ardent fan of the Auburn Tigers football team and serves on the boards of Nike as well as the National Football Foundation. He is also a cycling enthusiast and is said to be a big fan of Lance Armstrong, according to People.
Sexual orientation: Cook is homosexual and he came out last year.
"For years, I've been open with many people about my sexual orientation. Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I'm gay, and it doesn't seem to make a difference in the way they treat me. Of course, I've had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people's differences. Not everyone is so lucky," Cook wrote in a 2014 Bloomberg article.
"While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven't publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me," he had written back then.
