Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Al Gore on Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and Apple’s Board (Video)

At the AsiaD conference in Hong Kong, Apple board member Al Gore had praise for Steve Jobs. But he also took time to talk about the executives who worked for the Apple co-founder, and the way Jobs wanted them to behave after his death.

Jobs, Gore reminded the audience, had become a Disney board member after selling his Pixar animation shop. “He used to talk initially about how after Walt Disney died, the company always got in trouble about asking ‘what would Walt do in this situation?’” Gore said. “And he made it very clear — ‘I don’t want that at Apple.’ He made it clear to Tim Cook and everyone else, ‘Don’t ask what Steve would have done. Follow your own voice.’”

Gore also defended the Apple board, which has come under some criticism for not forcing Jobs to publicly disclose a detailed corporate succession plan: “If you were running a corporation, and you had a star-studded executive team, would you really think it would be a smart thing to lay out in public your thinking about who’s going to move to what position over the next couple years? Of course not!”