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NASA dominated space and social media in 2016
"We all have a thirst for wonder," American astronomer Carl Sagan wrote in his sci-fi novel Contact. "It's a deeply human quality." And it's partly thanks to this "thirst" that NASA had the space game on lock this year, even though it doesn't have access to as much money as it used to. The agency stepped into 2016 armed with $19.3 billion in government funding. Yes, that's almost a $1 billion more than what the administration originally asked for, but it's also significantly lower than NASA's budget in previous years, when adjusted for inflation.
NASA's most experienced astronaut lands back on Earth
NASA astronaut Jeff Williams has landed back on the planet after a record-breaking stint aboard the International Space Station. He just spent 172 days on the orbiting lab, bringing his total time spent in space to 534 days, 2 hours and 48 minutes. That makes Williams the most experienced NASA astronaut, snatching the title of "American who has spent the most time off the planet" from his colleague Scott Kelly. If you'll recall, Kelly came home from a one-year ISS mission in March, which brought his total to 520 days, 10 hours and 33 minutes.
Apple names Jeff Williams as its first COO since Tim Cook
Apple has just named its first Chief Operating Officer since Tim Cook took over as CEO in 2011. Longtime Apple veteran Jeff Williams (who joined the company in 1998) is now COO, reporting directly to Cook. Additionally, senior VP of marketing Phil Schiller has seen his duties expand, as well -- he's now the leader of the App Store, a responsibility that was previously under the purview of Eddy Cue.
Apple's execs are not the best-paid
A report earlier this week from Businessweek claimed Apple has four of the five highest-paid employees among Standard & Poor's 500 companies. The figures cited in this report included both base salary and vested stock packages, which has some people, like Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Apple 2.0, crying foul. DeWitt open his acrid retort to the Businessweek article by asking whether "Bloomberg's brainiacs know the difference between an RSU and a pay check?" DeWitt points out that the compensation packages for Apple's top brass may have increased, but their pay has remained steady. These compensation packages include restricted stock units (RSU) that are not immediately available for the Apple executives and should not be counted as part of their pay. These RSUs are part of a retention package that becomes available after an employee works a set number of years. If the employee leaves before the RSUs have vested, then he or she loses that money. It's a common method used by companies to entice their employees to stay put for a while.
Apple employs four of America's top five paid executives
During a 1998 profile in Fortune, Steve Jobs stressed how true innovation requires hiring the right people. Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led and how much you get it. Of course, attracting, hiring and keeping the right people in the ultra-competitive world of Silicon Valley is no easy task. To that end, having a bank account that lingers in the US$137 billion range certainly helps. That said, it may not be all that surprising that four of the top five highest paid executives in the US are Apple employees. BloombergBusinessweek reports that Apple executives Bob Mansfield, Bruce Sewell, Jeffrey Williams, and Peter Oppenheimer received more compensation than nearly every other executive in America. Note, though, that the bulk of this compensation isn't in the form of cash, but rather in stock. Leading the salary charge at Apple is Mansfield, who currently serves as the company's senior VP of Technologies. Mansfield in 2012 received $85.5 million worth of stock options on top of a base salary of $805,400. Sewell, Apple's VP of Legal and Government Affairs, received a compensation package of $69 million in 2012, slightly ahead of Williams who received a compensation package of $68.7 million. Williams is currently Apple's senior VP of Operations, having taken on many of the responsibilities that Tim Cook previously took care of as Apple's former COO. And picking up the rear is Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer who received a compensation package of $68.6 million last year. The only executive in the US that made more than the aforementioned Apple executives was Oracle's Larry Ellison who earned $96.2 million last year.
A look at Jeff Williams, Tim Cook's right-hand man
Fortune has posted a brief profile of Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president of operations. Describing him as "Tim Cook's Tim Cook," Fortune's piece notes that Williams joined Apple in 1998 as head of worldwide procurement and was responsible for a US$1.25 billion deal with flash memory manufacturers that helped make the iPod nano a (very successful and very lucrative) reality. Williams is primarily responsible for Apple's supply and production process, so he has close ties to Apple's overseas partners, including Foxconn. Now that Tim Cook has been promoted to CEO, Williams has taken over some of the duties Cook managed as Apple's Chief Operations Officer. Apple's supply and procurement logistics are the unsung heroes of the company's success, and some analysts have noted that while other companies may scramble to copy the look and feel of Apple's devices (with varying degrees of success), Apple's supply chain is going to be much more difficult for competitors to emulate -- assuming they even can. Fortune's profile of Williams makes him sound like a smart and capable guy that Apple's fortunate to have on its payroll. And it underscores the fact that Apple's success over the past decade hasn't been all down to one man, but rather a huge team of intelligent, dedicated, hard-working men and women.
A look at Apple's "all-star" executives
Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, and Steve Jobs are big names at Apple. These top executives are known around the technology industry and around the world for their operational excellence, marketing know-how, design genius and powerful reality distortion fields. While these four men often get credit for much of Apple's success, the company boasts an enviable collection of talented "chiefs" and senior vice presidents who help carve its skyward path. A new gallery from CNN Money takes a brief look at eleven of Apple's all-stars. For avid fans of Apple, some of the names mentioned in CNN Money's gallery may be familiar. But if you don't recognize names like Craig Federighi, Scott Forstall, Bob Mansfield, Ron Johnson, Peter Oppenheimer, Bruce Sewell, Jeff Williams, Eddy Cue, Katie Cotton, Dr. Guy "Bud" Tribble, or Greg Joswiak, this may be a good opportunity to brush up on the men and women who help shape one of the world's most successful companies.
New Apple VP to address product quality
If you thought Apple wasn't serious about quality you haven't been paying much attention for the past decade. In addition to making better hardware every year (with the exception of iBook keyboards), Apple has now promoted Jeff Williams to Senior VP of Operations; he'll be working alongside Tim Cook (Apple's COO, possibly the successor-designate to Steve Jobs) to ensure the company's products are of the highest quality. Williams will also keep an eye on the supply chain management side, a critical element in keeping costs low while pushing quality into the stratosphere. As AppleInsider reports, Williams cut his teeth at IBM before moving to Apple, and his expertise in supply chain management shone as he helped get the pieces for the iPod back when it was largely "off the shelf" components -- the shelves being mostly located in China. Williams was instrumental in global rollouts of the iPod and, more recently, the launch of the iPhone. We hope his new position will improve Apple's track record for quality gear.
